The Disgrace of Robbing Accident Victims!
- Category: Peering Eye
- Date 31-10-2004
- 307 views
The carnage on our roads is dangerously rising to embarrassing proportions, exposing us to national shame and how deep we are sinking with the so-called modernization. The recent accident in which eight European tourists perished along with their three African companions dug deep into the public moral fabric to expose the most unacceptable conduct of young men who took advantage of the mishap to pillage the goodies of the unfortunate casualties. Press reports show that the police are holding four individuals who had a field day by grabbing what was clearly not theirs from the victims! (see: “Dead tourists robbed” The Citizen Thursday 21st October 2004).
The youth, aged 23 to 30 ransacked through the crumpled bodies of the accident victims for valuables and cash, with heartless abandon. They then proudly walked away with such looted stuff as binoculars, canon cameras, mobile phones and money, all belonging to the casualties. The boys had made a fortune out human tragedy and probably considered that there was nothing wrong.
Many times, accident victims, in this part of the world, are not spared the monstrous, humiliating acts of looting. Luggage is stolen; jewelry plucked off the dead or injured individuals, and their pockets and handbags emptied. The thinking is largely that after all, the owners are already dead and do not need the property and that if one does not help oneself to such “wasted” property, someone else would take it. It is often forgotten that the bodies have to be taken to the relatives for burial and surely even the property would be delivered along, for them to donate out by free choice if it must be given away.
Robbery is a very common happening and in many cases, robbers kill to rob or vice versa. They plan and execute their act and it is understood that this is the work of few deviant individuals in society who are not willing to expose themselves and will certainly deny if accused. It is therefore unusual that a dying man, lying by the roadside, will be openly searched by a thieving rogue in the presence of bystanders. If the arrested youth were indeed among the passengers traveling on a Dolphin bus to Nairobi, they carried out their shameful act in full view of many people at a moment when the rest were under an eerie of shock at the sight of dying humans.
It would not be surprising that some sections of society could extol the robbers’ actions for being pertinent with classic shrewdness and present-day economic dynamism, considering that increasingly, human dignity is being literary crowded out of many by greed for money and property. To that end, the culprits in this gruesome robbery might project themselves as an epitome of what our African society accepts or condones. Such behaviour is not only abhorrent; it also tarnishes the image of the community and brings its entire value systems in doubt.
Humanity is sinking to a level where property value can be placed over and above respect for life. Our African concept of death is that “the dead are not dead; they are the living dead”. This is more so since the dead bodies in question were stripped of possessions shortly after they had been crashed, and probably their blood and flesh were still warm. The act was a blatant desecration of the dead bodies and a severe exhibition of lack of compassion, especially since the robbery occurred when the victims were still trapped in the wreckage. Respect for both the living and the dead need to be acquired as an attitude and nurtured as a virtue.
The behaviour of the young men could be attributed to lack of role models or the prevalence of wrong models. More and more, we hear reports of corrupt, materialistic leaders and the young (such as the said thieving youths) are tempted to believe that they can satisfy their needs by any foul, shameful means at their disposal. Unfortunately, such conduct can have damaging consequences on the national reputation.
It can be taken as obvious that the deceased tourists had left their home countries with good attitudes and intentions to enjoy the hospitality of us, their hosts. Thus robbing their property, dead though they were, was an act of betrayal; an embarrassment of adding salt to injury.
Hopefully the law will run its course. We should all feel sorry for this sad story for, as Kenyan writer Ngugi counsels, whenever anyone of us is degraded and humiliated, all of us are degraded and humiliated because it has something to do with human beings.
By Venansio Ahabwe
Source: Peering Eye, Sunday Citizen