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Sometimes we make peace look so cheap. Think about the ‘goonism’ culture characterising the ongoing political campaigns. Those hiring goons and those hired are doing this peaceful country a great disservice. They are neither patriotic nor sensitive to what chaos does to the lives of people.
We are hardly off to the deep seas of campaigns, yet we have lost lives. We move on like it’s no big deal. We love the political spectacle so much that when someone loses their life, we see it as part of the big entertainment story. Some people get lifelong injuries. Their families have to live with the pain and memory.
Deep down, we are losing something very human: Conscience. But not everyone. Let me explain using three archetypes in our society, particularly in Kenya.
First, the Shark archetype is the engine of political goonism. This category includes both the hired goon, who inflicts violence for a small payment, and their political master, who callously deploys them to secure power. Both operate from a place of profound self-interest, viewing human life as a cheap, expendable tool in their quest for dominance or survival. The goon on the street, driven by immediate need, and the politician in the high office, driven by ambition, are two sides of the same predatory coin. They are the architects of chaos, directly responsible for the lost lives and lifelong injuries to fellow human beings.
Their actions are possible because their conscience is dead. For them, the suffering of a victim’s family is an irrelevant externality, a distant abstraction that does not register against the tangible rewards of money or power. They feel no patriotic duty or sensitivity to national well-being because their moral world is crushingly small, limited only to their own desires. This is the ultimate expression of a dead conscience, the lack of which is the capacity to inflict pain without remorse. In other words, sharks have lost their humanity.
Second, the Bee archetype represents the vast majority of law-abiding Kenyans who are disturbed by the goonism but feel powerless to stop it. They are the responsible citizens who attend to their work, raise their families, and keep the country running. They watch the political spectacle with a mix of fascination and fear, consuming the news of violence as a tragic, yet distant, part of the “big entertainment story.” While they would never participate in violence, their primary focus is on maintaining order in their own lives and avoiding trouble.
The Bee’s conscience is active but conventional; it guides them to follow the law and not cause harm. However, it often stops short of active, courageous opposition to the system that enables the Sharks. They may express their disapproval in private conversations or on social media, but a deep-seated fear of instability or a feeling of helplessness prevents them from taking collective action. Their silence, born not of malice but of a desire for personal security, inadvertently creates the space for goonism to fester and be normalised.
Third, the Dolphin archetype embodies the Kenyans who actively resist the decay of our national soul. These are the human rights defenders, the brave journalists, the principled public leaders, and the everyday citizens who refuse to be silent. They are the ones who see the loss of every single life as an unbearable tragedy, not a statistic. Driven by a deep sense of shared humanity, they fight for the rights of victims, document abuses, and courageously speak out against the politicians who sponsor violence.
The Dolphin’s conscience is a powerful, internal compass guided by universal principles of justice and compassion. It compels them to act, even at great personal risk. They are not naive; they understand the dangers, but their conviction that we are all brothers and sisters in one national family makes inaction impossible. They are the living proof that “not everyone” has lost their way. They are the conscience of the nation.
The Bees need to start stinging the sharks in support of the Dolphins. Goonism might grow into uncontrollable gangster movements. Peace is life. The sharks are playing with our lives.
Dr. Mokua is the Executive Director of the Loyola Centre for Media and Communication
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Sometimes we make peace look so cheap. Think about the ‘goonism’ culture characterising the ongoing political campaigns. Those hiring goons and those hired are doing this peaceful country a great disservice. They are neither patriotic nor sensitive to what chaos does to the lives of people.
We are hardly off to the deep seas of campaigns, yet we have lost lives. We move on like it’s no big deal. We love the political spectacle so much that when someone loses their life, we see it as part of the big entertainment story. Some people get lifelong injuries. Their families have to live with the pain and memory.
Deep down, we are losing something very human: Conscience. But not everyone. Let me explain using three archetypes in our society, particularly in Kenya.
First, the Shark archetype is the engine of political goonism. This category includes both the hired goon, who inflicts violence for a small payment, and their political master, who callously deploys them to secure power. Both operate from a place of profound self-interest, viewing human life as a cheap, expendable tool in their quest for dominance or survival. The goon on the street, driven by immediate need, and the politician in the high office, driven by ambition, are two sides of the same predatory coin. They are the architects of chaos, directly responsible for the lost lives and lifelong injuries to fellow human beings.
Their actions are possible because their conscience is dead. For them, the suffering of a victim’s family is an irrelevant externality, a distant abstraction that does not register against the tangible rewards of money or power. They feel no patriotic duty or sensitivity to national well-being because their moral world is crushingly small, limited only to their own desires. This is the ultimate expression of a dead conscience, the lack of which is the capacity to inflict pain without remorse. In other words, sharks have lost their humanity.
Second, the Bee archetype represents the vast majority of law-abiding Kenyans who are disturbed by the goonism but feel powerless to stop it. They are the responsible citizens who attend to their work, raise their families, and keep the country running. They watch the political spectacle with a mix of fascination and fear, consuming the news of violence as a tragic, yet distant, part of the “big entertainment story.” While they would never participate in violence, their primary focus is on maintaining order in their own lives and avoiding trouble.
The Bee’s conscience is active but conventional; it guides them to follow the law and not cause harm. However, it often stops short of active, courageous opposition to the system that enables the Sharks. They may express their disapproval in private conversations or on social media, but a deep-seated fear of instability or a feeling of helplessness prevents them from taking collective action. Their silence, born not of malice but of a desire for personal security, inadvertently creates the space for goonism to fester and be normalised.
Third, the Dolphin archetype embodies the Kenyans who actively resist the decay of our national soul. These are the human rights defenders, the brave journalists, the principled public leaders, and the everyday citizens who refuse to be silent. They are the ones who see the loss of every single life as an unbearable tragedy, not a statistic. Driven by a deep sense of shared humanity, they fight for the rights of victims, document abuses, and courageously speak out against the politicians who sponsor violence.
The Dolphin’s conscience is a powerful, internal compass guided by universal principles of justice and compassion. It compels them to act, even at great personal risk. They are not naive; they understand the dangers, but their conviction that we are all brothers and sisters in one national family makes inaction impossible. They are the living proof that “not everyone” has lost their way. They are the conscience of the nation.
The Bees need to start stinging the sharks in support of the Dolphins. Goonism might grow into uncontrollable gangster movements. Peace is life. The sharks are playing with our lives.
Dr. Mokua is the Executive Director of the Loyola Centre for Media and Communication
Follow The Standard
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By Elias Mokua