Mwanzo is an estate in Eldoret, a residence harboring diverse classes of people. Within the neighbourhood, you can see storey apartments, iron-sheet cribs, bedsitters, and single rooms all coexisting in a shared vicinity. Within it, there seems to be barely any discrimination. Without meddling in the locals’ private affairs, you would be sure to believe it is a harmonious haven.
If you happen to walk around, you’ll see people shopping, chattering away, selling stuff, driving, and hanging out. The motorists and matatus ride and drive past you as they carry out their businesses as usual, unless maybe there’s a small incident here and there. Everything is normal. The woman chopping kale – normal. The passersby – normal. Bribery for government services – normal! Being overcharged for the same? Normal.
Yes! Apparently, beneath the appearance of holding it all together, most residents don’t really adhere to their rights and responsibilities. They barely understand every protocol for getting anything. And it seems there are public employees capitalizing on this ignorance. Yet, in a nation where social and other government services are as numerous as the number of good or bad ideas lawmakers can come up with, it seems unfair and impractical to expect the average citizen to know each and every one.
Veronica Koech, an activist from Pamoja Trust organization, is one of the few people working in Mwanzo constituency who is conversant with documentation processes. For example, one Ann Oburu, a mother of five from Mwanzo, claims that her last attempt to get a birth certificate for her youngest child has proven challenging. After listening to Veronica’s account of the right processes to follow, she notes that her grievances have been answered to satisfaction.
It makes it probable that citizens may have a crucial part to play if their civil perils must come to an end. A little education on their rights, responsibilities, and expectations whenever they visit a public office could go a long way. If this doesn’t happen, there is a fear that they will never cease to fall prey to those who take advantage of their ignorance.
So what is to observe from this? Maybe alot, maybe just one thing. That at times, citizens’ complaints seem to be based on actual poor service delivery. At other times, they are based on the error of ignorance. So let whoever wills judge and act accordingly. And perhaps, at its core, the civil suffering of Mwanzo Estate begins with ignorance.
