An article in the Guardian by Peter Muiruri on August 10, 2021, reveals shocking statistics that “Kenya recorded 483 suicides in three months, i.e. up to June 2021 a figure that beats the numbers for the whole of 2020 and the annual average of 320”. Muiruri’s article notes that a WHO report attributes suicides to “…a breakdown in the ability to deal with life stresses, such as financial problems, relationship breakup or chronic pain and illness.” In the same article, KNCHR, Muiruri says, links the rise in suicides to “…the rise in cases to mental ill-health caused by a breakdown in socio-economic safeguards, affirming that individuals with unaddressed mental health needs, choose this as a “last resort and path of escape”
If you live in Kenya this surge in suicide numbers should not come as a surprise. As a frequent user of two unsafe Kenyan spaces i.e. Kenyan roads and the Twitter space, it is a palpable fact that Kenyans are ferocious bullies. The savagery of digital wars, cyberbullying, and trolling by Kenyans on Twitter ranks on a par with road rage on Kenyan roads. Smart-looking Kenyan drivers will hoot endlessly, flash violently or drive into someone’s car for no understandable reason. If you are not lucky a Kenyan driver will pull a gun at you on a road rage. Is road rage an expression of bottled anger?
“Road Rage is a waste of energy and a waste of emotion”, Sam a youthful driver tells me, in answer to my question, “just let the car that wants to pass proceed, you will also overtake anyway,” he says as our 7-seater WISH from Kisumu to Nairobi is short-circuited by an aggressive, enraged saloon car driver who refuses to yield and give way to Sam.
Kenyans are said to be very humble people, often known for their signature smile that should signal humility but that is as far as it goes; try using a zebra crossing as a pedestrian or changing lanes on a multiple lane road as a driver then you will realize how cruel we are on wheels. On the road it matters little which car is involved, the SUVs are even more aggressive, which means a majority of Kenyan drivers run to road rage to express their emotions, feelings, fears, and vulnerabilities.
I was about to suggest that the road rage we experience explains how guarded we are until I remembered that on Twitter Kenyans express themselves without holding back – blunt, vulgar, and ferocious. KOT is feared – for its jeering, tirades, and brickbats – at the slightest provocation but also revered both at home and abroad for its – cruel humor, jokes, and memes – on matters of grave national and international interest.
If there is anything we can learn from the foregoing reality, it is that we as Kenyans are very angry. The collective rage exhibited on the road and on Twitter is an expression of our deep-seated mental illness. The country must stop looking the other way, our collective shrug must be called out because if we do nothing as we have continued to do, the number of suicides will only surge further. The Country must confront this emerging “pandemic” sooner rather than later. Time for action is short indeed!
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Thank you Patrick. The car in Kenya is no longer for facilitating movement from A to B. It is a weapon for fighting both friend and foe. A show of might against fellow men and women. You switch on your car for a drive anywhere consider you are off to a war you know nothing about.