DUTY OF CARE

There was drama a few days ago when Anti-corruption officials went to the home of Trans-Nzoia county governor, George Natembeya, to arrest him for corruption related charges. What drawed my attention was not how the locals came out in drones to defend their county chief, but how vehicles allegedly belonging to the anti-corruption crew were vandalized. Actually, one vehicle was clearly beaten to a write-off damage. I asked myself the question why a simple expression of dissatisfaction or a protest by us Kenyans must always end in destruction of property. I wondered exactly what was in the mind of every person that raised his hand to destroy the vehicles and whether they would react differently if they knew the owner to be their friend or relative. Or was it because they never knew the owner? Or was it because it belonged to the government and they had a claim to ownership?  And if so, did they consider that more money from taxation would be used to replace or fix the vehicles instead of being put to better use?

As a people, we have developed very bad habits of destruction of property especially when we are angry or are protesting about something. High school and University strikes for instance have historically been accompanied by destruction of school and public property including arson that has sometimes resulted in death of fellow students. The destroyed property is later evaluated and charged back to the students and parents are forced to cater for resultant damage charges.

What do we think of wives or husbands that express their anger by picking TVs, plates, cups, glasses and throwing them to the floor to protest against their partners? Some have been seen using stones or hammers to destroy windows of their partner’s vehicles in protest. What about the child who gets angry, throws their food to the floor and breaks the plate at the same time. What should a parent do to that child? Maybe that is where the destructive behavior begins.

As we grew up, there was a famous Swahili saying, children of our days were using, ‘Cha kuokota si cha kuiba’, which simply meant that you had not stolen, that which you picked somewhere, unattended. Was that right to do? You get a pen somewhere, pick it and own it. What if the owner was on the way coming, looking for it? You would have completely ruined his prospects of finding it by picking it before they got to it. Maybe the right thing would have been to leave that which does not belong to you or?

I think that as a country, we generally use a lot of resources to fix the damages caused especially during demonstrations and considering that many demonstrations are against the government, we use a good part of our taxes to fix what was destroyed as people were expressing anger in a demonstration. This is a backward behavior that should be condemned in both public and private conversations. We should also teach our children not only to be good stewards of that which they own, but also to respect and take care of other people’s properties. They should not be quick to destroy just because it does not belong to them, whether they are found out or not.

Kenyan law obliges every citizen to follow the "duty of care" laws. This is a legal obligation to take reasonable steps to avoid harming others or damaging their property in any situation.  It is therefore important that people learn to take care of other people’s properties just as well as they would take care of their own. The golden rule could be of help to us here, ‘So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.’ Mathew 7:14.

May we all learn to exercise the duty of care and respect other people’s properties, shall we?

 

@ Stephen Mungai