The Normalization of Stealing

Ladies and gentlemen, I submit that our society has normalized stealing, we no longer have any qualms taking what does not belong to us. And its not only in high places as we love to complain loudly, it is a devolved habit to the very heart of our society.

In the early 1990s, as a fresh village girl newly arrived in Nairobi, I was shocked beyond words to find toilet paper secured with a padlock in a leading private hospital. How desperate must a person become to steal toilet paper? Over time I watched in dismay as measures to deter sticky fingers escalated, eventually even toilet cistern covers were padlocked. How do you hide a cistern cover and what do you do with it?

The region I hail from once prided itself on honesty; people generally did not touch what was not theirs. So last weekend, when I came across a bottle of diluted hand wash soap tied with a piece of nylon twine in my town, my heart sank. Not only was it an eyesore in an establishment that serves visitors from across the country and abroad, but it testified to how far we have drifted from the values we loudly profess.

We love to describe ourselves as a “God-fearing and peace-loving” nation, yet our actions say otherwise. Thou shalt not steal is no longer a commandment we uphold; the vice has reached mashinani, the grassroots.

Sadly, we do not stop at stealing, other virtues are equally wanting, our comfort with all manner of filth telling it all!

Growing up, we were often reminded that “cleanliness is next to godliness.” If that is true, how far from godliness are we when rubbish heaps greet guests at the entrance of freshly refurbished establishments? Do the eyes of managers not see the filth around them? Is it not possible to organize with local leadership weekly cleanup drives. A walk into the town that I shall not name presently proved a discovery session of mounds upon mounds of rotting gabbage.

We can, and must, do better. It is time we stopped merely admiring Rwanda’s orderliness and cleanliness. We need to embed similar discipline into our own way of life. Creativity, civic pride, and simple respect for other people’s property can go a long way. Schools once trained us in virtues like cleanliness and integrity; perhaps it is time to revive such lessons.

Simple practices like:

• Teaching respect for property at home, in schools, and faith communities.
• Celebrating honesty by pointing out and making role models of those who return lost items or keep public spaces clean.
• Enforcing standards in workplaces and public institutions so theft and littering are not quietly tolerated.
• Routine garbage collection in all our towns
• Modelling integrity as leaders, parents, and neighbours.

We are not helpless. Rediscovering reverence for what is not ours and for the spaces we share is the first step towards reclaiming our dignity.

We just need to start, our society is going nowhere with this level of depravity!