Is this a conspiracy of the estates?

Egerton University staff start their strike on January 19, 2017. University lectures have rejected a second salary increase offer from the government. FILE PHOTO | SULEIMAN MBATIAH | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • The graphic accounts of a society gone rogue and roiled in misery should concern every sober soul.
  • From hunger pangs to public sector strikes and escapades of big public money tossed around, you get an uncanny feeling of a shredded social shroud.
  • Ours is a dominion of raw greed and selfishness where we abscond the sacred cardinal duty of representing the will of the people.

Nowadays, media reports are startling, even nauseating. The graphic accounts of a society gone rogue and roiled in misery should concern every sober soul. Wanjiku (the ordinary Kenyan) is in trouble and seems to live at the whim and caprices of heartless capitalists, propagandists, racketeers and extortionists. No doubt, the systems and institutions heavily disenfranchise Wanjiku.

From hunger pangs to public sector strikes and escapades of big public money tossed around, you get an uncanny feeling of a shredded social shroud.

A society that was on an epic take-off to a golden age seems to stare at the abyss. Pray, why are we rapidly regressing to a Hobbesian society? How did we find ourselves in this imbroglio? Why is our society in romance with evil and diligent in self-destruction? These and many more are tricky questions.

But, to whom are we apportioning culpability for failure to safeguard propriety, uphold our collective will and hope for a dignified, just, and moral society?

The answers are varied. Still, it is critical that we interrogate four strategic institutions that ought to act, with supreme fidelity, for public interest- the Legislature, Judiciary, church and the media.

HURLING INSULTS

Let us start with the august House - ideally the embodiment of the Will of the people. Yet, the people’s representatives are busy hurling insults, hero-worshiping and turning a blind eye as Wanjiku is throttled. That’s why the rights of Wanjiku are on sale and being trampled upon by corporates, state technocrats and the nouveau riche.

The people’s rep has breached the trust of the masses as a trustworthy agent. We are in a realm of feeble political structures and barren ideological enterprises.

Ours is a dominion of raw greed and selfishness where we abscond the sacred cardinal duty of representing the will of the people.

The Judiciary is core to the civility of any society. Indeed, a vibrant society will innovate, create wealth and prosper, when it is sure of protection and justice.

But this key institution has been dogged by accusations of complicity with the highest bidders - criminals. It seems there are not so many nice things that happen in the corridors of justice, anymore. If money is swaying logic, then there is cause for worry.

A pence tinkling in the corridors of justice is akin to an imp dining with the high priest. That is why John Rawls in his 1971 Original Position called for a veil of ignorance such that no class, colour, cash or creed should sway the scales of justice.

ACCOUNTABLE JUSTICE

Instead we expect rigours of integrity, independence, and professionalism. Fair and accountable justice ensures that the citizenry live and transact their affairs with confidence. If a price is attached to justice, it’s poor Wanjiku who loses out. Obviously she cannot afford the big money.

The church, the refuge of last resort, is on the cross. The church ought to construct a moral society. But it also has a powerful role - to admonish evil. Sadly, in Kenya, such a prophetic voice is dead. Instead, the churchprenuers roll out red carpets to the very oppressors of the poor.

The church has turned a blind eye on social injustices and become a boutique for indulgences. Charlatans who twist the scriptures for material gain have infiltrated the pulpit. And what we get is perverted gospel.

In the meantime, the clergy keep gobbling what Pope Francis likes to describe as “bloody money”, and worshiping the legendary “golden calf.” Today’s clergy is a bunch of cowardly fraudsters whose power of prophetic voice is weakened with their dalliances with earthly material and pleasure.

We need to kick the hell out of these priests.

FREE PRESS

Lastly folks, it’s the Fourth Estate. Now, that which wowed Sir Edmund Burke as the veritable watchdog, and Thomas Jefferson, who appreciated that liberties are anchored on a free press - seems to lose its mojo.

The media are punching below their weight. Commercial interests, it seems, have finally defanged the Press. In their golden age, media didn’t require affidavits to report transgressions. They investigated and splashed the scoop.

Ironically, in today’s media, with a vibrant social media landscape, we have chosen a minimalist path and a lot goes unreported. Investigative journalism is long dead and buried. The Press is under siege. Yet, the public depends on press corps as their only defender.

That is why we need to be fretful when these estates vacillate in the pursuit of common good. But more so, we should be worried about the spiral of silence we have elected to live with as a nation.

Mr Wamanji is a public relations expert [email protected] @manjis