Not peculiar at all

We have hit so many nadirs that one more doesn't seem to make a difference. What do you know about the Eurobond? The answer, it seems, depends on whom you like: Raila or Uhuru. The answer, it further seems, doesn't rely on whether documents proffered by either side of the matter are genuine or not. This is a new low: no one believe anyone anymore. Not the presidency. Not the opposition. Not the Director of Public Prosecuions, the Central Bank, the Ethics and Anti-corruption Commission (though the EACC was never believable to begin with) and most certainly not the politicians shouting themselves hoarse that (a) the Eurobond is above-board or (b) the Eurobond is not above-board.

This isn't as peculiar as one might think. It has been a long time coming, but Jomo Kenyatta ensured that today's distrust and scepticism of the government and its institutions would be the default position of most adult Kenyans. The viciousness with which colonial policies were enforced after Independence, the brutality with which dissenting voices were suppressed, and the greed with which public property was stolen from the people guaranteed that when Kenyans demanded proof that the Eurobond was above-board and the proof was tabled, it would be disbelieved and rejected out of hand.

Kenyans became truly cynical about public institutions when men (and women) of the cloth started robbing congregations blind, investing in the preachers' personal, material lives at the expense of the faithful. When pastors started swanning around town in Mercedes-Benzes and Ranger Rovers, Kenyans suddenly found out that the refuge they had taken under the Blood of Jesus was a fiction, a cruel lie meant to keep them docile and to separate them from their hard-earned money. What Jomo Kenyatta had initiated was cemented when the "liberalised" airwaves were inundated by the televangelists with the gift of the gab, the morals of alley cats and the consciences of hammerhead sharks.

Therefore it is not inconsistent that Raila Odinga will demand bank records related to the Eurobond, Henry Rotich will supply those records, and Kenyans will yawn, shrug their shoulders, accuse both of lying, and move on to the next entertaining political controversy. Mwai Kibaki, despite his DNA-deep love for the Independence Party, had a brief window of opportunity to begin to turn Kenyans away from the insidious grip of Mammon. His debilitating stroke and his incomplete , imperfect recovery set the country on the path to bigger and grander scams. Uhuru Kenyatta is not our corruption Messiah. Neither is Raila Odinga.

Neither John Githongo, Transparency International, Kenya Human Rights Commission, the Third Way, Uzalendo Watch, Dennis Galava or the scores of messiahs waiting in the wings can save us from ourselves if we have given up on the dream of nationhood, honour and patriotism. When children see nothing wrong in venerating "mummy" and "daddy" Kiuna or the next carpetbagger with a silver tongue and a fistful of dollars, we have subconsciously admitted to ourselves that we no longer care.