THE ILL LUST FOR MONEY!

It is the craze for money that now runs deep in our veins! But even before I go further, we all agree that we dream big; living lavish lives where lack no longer defines our daily lives. It is acceptable to the human nature that we all strive to better our lives and make a better tomorrow. This strong will by Kenyans to get rich must be complimented because it moves our nation and the future looks bright. However, there are times when this craze for money goes a notch higher to a level where it stinks! It is getting rich by all means, no matter the destruction that you leave in your wake!

Money is all you need, no matter how you acquire it. This is a society that worships money and wealth, regardless of how you get there. At times, men and women like me in our higher institutions of learning and also our so-called hustlers, at times we feel guilty for lacking in chums. In this country, it is the size of your wallet that talks the loudest, despite the fact that we all pretend that it does not. With money, you can pull yourself out of any tight corner with the law enforcers, albeit illegally, and you can get any service that you wish to!

Along Koinange Street, Luthuli Avenues and now in some leafy suburbs of Nairobi, under the cover of darkness and at times under the tranquility of the day, under the guise of massage parlors the hustle for money goes a notch higher. Around the Simmerz Club along Kenyatta Avenue whenever lights beam the city, the trade gets clearer. Those who claim to be morally correct can get chocked to death at the site of females skimpily dressed, soliciting for sex from whoever gets tempted enough! Those in the trade justify it by giving us that cliché that jobs are hard to come by in this republic. Even honest and morally sound ways of earning money are now hard to get!

Sex is traded for money and all manner of Kenyans and even foreigners play the game; the married, college/university ladies and men, salaried and casual laborers and the big men and women of the society are deep in the web! To some it is a form of employment under the cliché that, jobs are now hard to come by and economic times are at an all-time hard.

Our pastors have coined the ‘panda mbegu’ initiative. Courtesy of this latest ‘innovation’ by members of the cloth, Kenyans can get all manner of spiritual needs attended to! Miracles to overnight richness, cures to chronic diseases, domestic fights, success in education, securing jobs and now a confirmation to whether one’s name is in the Book of Life, are all happening! Churches have been turned to money-minting endeavors whereby religious fanatism has replaced the sobriety that Jesus Christ instilled in the church! Pastors are apparently performing miracles to cure all sorts of afflictions that Kenyans are faced with! Churches and tents for worship are springing up in all corners of the city! Gospel of prosperity is the definition by most of these pastors, never mind that they are suffocating both willing and desperate Kenyans, by the panda mbegu scheme! But this church game is an endeavor of willing parties, and money is at the root of it all!

It is the greed and unquenchable thirst for money by our pastors and fellow Kenyans that has given birth to some unprecedented fanatism in the name of spreading the holy Gospel. Even in our mosques, radicalization has slowly seeped in, at the exchange of some little coins. Even some sheikhs have admitted it that it is indeed taking place and our youths are easily lured into, due to the moneyed-benefits that come with it. Now, when you see that our places of worship are under siege from the lust for money and sanity is slowly disappearing through their windows, then the nation is in deep trouble!

Our politicians are money-bags and the loudest shouts belong to the deepest pockets! They dish out money during the campaigns and in exchange we give them our votes! They get the opportunity to loot the public coffers and get ready for the next elections! Accusations of money laundering and even drug-related deals have not once but severally been linked up to part of our political class, yet we give them our votes, all in the name of democracy!

As a nation, we kill our loved ones, turn holy pulpits into money-minting enterprises, con and shed innocent blood and other ill means, all in a bid to get rich! Yes, money even from the Biblical perspective is laden with evil-ways to get it. Remember, Judas Iscariot sold our savior for 30 pieces of silver! But then, there all always honest ways of hitting it big; sports, well paying and morally and legally correct jobs, lotteries and all. But a part of our society has chosen to walk the short and wrong route to riches! This is sickening, yet we all pretend not to see it!

We must always remain ambitious to get rich and improve our lives, but should be within the confines of morality and law. Let us not get chocked in our churches, mosques, and socio-political spheres of our lives. If we lose our sobriety to this lust and greed, then our tomorrow slowly dies in the noose capitalism. Our society tomorrow disappears into doubt, even though the republic grows old. Remember, a country exists only in a society!

The Kenyan society must remain sober in her quest to get rich and live the good lives. We should always respect and look up to Kenyans who make an honest living, but we too must scathe and speak against those of us who make dishonest and immoral money and blossom in riches! You work hard, smart and efficient if you wish, then you get the sweet results.

Let us not worship ill gotten money and riches!!