I actually thought he was kinda cool , I guess his mother doesn’t agree.
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I’ve really thought hard about Austin’s mother’s remarks. Just to catch you up for those who may not be on Twitter, Austin was a young man, a university student, arrested by the police on suspicion of murder alongside others.
The court cleared them and released them because there was sufficient evidence they didn’t do it( think CCTV cameras etc).
Now, the court isn’t a moral place, so the magistrate/judge shouldn’t have gone to a tirade on morals. But that’s another matter.
What concerns us for now is Austin’s mother who stood up to tell the court that her son has defeated her. Amemshinda.
And this has raised two different strong opinions. One being that there are truly some children who defeat their parents. Those who have been taken to rehab as Austin has, and still nothing. And they are usually boys because the world does not give girls those many chances. It’s extremely rare to find a 25 year old woman being given as many chances as a 25 year old man by African parents.
So there was that opinion- that Austin’s mother’s remarks on how Austin has defeated her, is the cry of a frustrated but trying parent.
You then have the other side, of people saying that the mother has just hit the last coffin on Austin’s life. That you do not expose your child, a young man at that, to Kenyans as a person who has no future. That her remarks made her son less likely to integrate in society. Remember Kenyans remember things like this. You’ll kill someone, buy IEBC and win elections, but Kenyans will always remember you shooting someone. Always. You’ll be 90 and they’ll still remind you.
So imagine exposing your not guilty son as guilty in life generally. Worse, in a court room which is a symbol of the state’s use of violence ( prison sentence etc)..as a person not deserving of freedom. As one user said, Austin’s mother’s just made him disposable.
I have a lot to say about this, but to start with…Austin is a prime example of what Kenya does to it’s children.
The Kenyan society is designed to break a child’s soul. From the family set up, to the school system, to the government’s treatment of anything children related. Everyone takes part in ensuring that only children who are complaint to the system are rewarded.
As is expected, not everyone’s soul breaks the same way. Some break and toe the line. They enter the rat race , even with resistance, but with compliance as well.
While others are unable to cope. Their souls just can’t. Their systems become unable to hold the contradiction that is the Kenya we live in.
So they break, but they break in a way that the society does not like. They become deviants. Drunkards. Addicts. Children who never finish a degree etc.
And what does society do?
Instead of laying the blame on the system designed to break people..they now claim that the ones who broke differently are the problem.
Which is exactly what Austin’s mother said. He is the problem.
Not the system that had her son in court for murder no less, for a crime that had no evidence on him committing it. Like they just arrested those students because they could.
And that mother is the epitome of the problem I always say with parents in Kenya. Most have accepted the evil system of governance we are in. They are even willing to sacrifice their own children at the altar of that system.
All this to say, in coming months, you will hear a lot about problematic children. Problematic Gen Zs. Problematic high schoolers. Problematic University students.
When you do, remember it’s the system fighting back. Drawing your attention from the evil system that rules our lives. And trying to shift the blame on individuals like Austin.
Austin may be guilty of many things. He may even be a bad person. A bad egg. A bad child. Who knows?
But even if he is, it’s the entire system that produced him. That made him who he is. Because even you, were you a normal individual with an intact soul, you would go crazy living in a society like Kenya. It’s human to break when hit.
Wazazi hukapitia kweli