Recently, a friend lamented that her 20-year-old son had become obsessed with money, and that no matter how much she lectured him about why wealth does not necessarily bring happiness, she felt that her words were falling on deaf ears.

“You see,” she explained, “all his friends are from rich families. Their fathers made money the way most rich people make money in this country — through corruption. But he cannot see that. He just wants to be rich, and he wants to be rich now, and it doesn’t matter how he gets the money.”

Now, if this young man had come from a poor family where putting food on the table was a real problem and where rent and school fees took up a significant proportion of monthly income, I would understand his desire for riches. But he lives a comfortable life in a neighbourhood where having a nice house and more than one car are the norm rather than the exception.

Apparently, he is not alone. A recent survey conducted by the East African Institute shows that more than half of Kenyan youth believe that it doesn’t matter how you make your money as long as you don’t get caught.

Forty-seven per cent of the youth said they admired those who had made money “by hook or by crook” and 35 per cent said they had no problem parting with a bribe.

VALUED FAITH

Interestingly, the same survey showed that 85 per cent of the same youth valued faith more than family, work and wealth. (I wonder if they know that Jesus lived a simple life and that Buddha gave up royalty to live like a pauper so he could achieve enlightenment.)

Perhaps in a day and age where “prosperity churches” led by fabulously wealthy and ostentatious preachers have taken root, the youth believe that being religious is synonymous with being rich, and that those preachers who are able to hoodwink or fleece their flock to fund their lavish lifestyles probably deserve that lifestyle.

The phenomenon of celebrating those who have made their money through fraud, corruption or other illegal activities came to the fore most starkly when the alleged mastermind of the Goldenberg scandal, Kamlesh Pattni (who claims to be a born-again Christian), developed a fan base when he was sitting in the dock during the Bosire Commission of Inquiry; his responses to Bosire’s questions generated roaring applause from those attending the inquiry sessions.

OUTRAGEOUS CONMEN

Journalist Kwamchetsi Makokha told British author Michela Wrong that Kenyans would rush towards Pattni “like groupies”, asking for his autograph.

“Far from earning society’s opprobrium, one of Kenya’s most outrageous conmen had acquired the glamourous aura of a rock star,” commented Wrong.

Was that the turning point in Kenyan society, when a man who nearly destroyed the Kenyan economy (a disaster we are yet to recover from) was lauded and treated like a hero? I think it was. If Pattni had been villainised, youth would not be aspiring to be like him. And if he had endured a long prison sentence, they might not take fraud and corruption so lightly.

Contrast this with the fate of Pattni’s compatriot Ketan Somaia, another wheeler-dealer who conned the government and several businessmen of millions of shillings in the 1990s.

Somaia, who is currently serving an eight-year prison term in the UK, was recently ordered to pay £18.4 million (Sh2.7 billion) to two victims of his fraud, the businessmen Murli Mirchandani and Dilip Shah.

He was further ordered to pay £20 million (Sh2.9 billion) to the public purse as a penalty for tax evasion. I doubt if young people in the UK aspire to be like Ketan Somaia when they grow up.

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While we mourn the untimely death of Raila Odinga’s son Fidel, I think it is wrong for Mombasa Governor Hassan Joho to name a road after him.

His achievements do not nearly match those of other Kenyans, some of whom paid the ultimate price for their sacrifices, but who have yet to have a road named after them.

I am thinking of environmentalist and Nobel Laureate Wangari Maathai, politicians J.M. Kariuki and Robert Ouko, trade unionist Makhan Singh and the freedom fighter Mekatilili wa Menza, among many others, whose work shaped Kenya’s history.

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