Lately I have been reading everywhere about a certain matatu tout who found 30k and gave it back to the rightful owner. Now he (tout) is being showered with all sorts of goodies including money from well-wishers and even school fees to go back to school. My question is, why are we rewarding this guy for doing what he was supposed to do? Is our society that tainted to the point where we are rewarding people for being honest?

I keep seeing people getting shocked when they hear stories of people refunding Mpesa money sent to them by mistake. I once received 70k that was inadvertently sent to me. As soon as I got the Mpesa text, I called the person back to let him know know that he had sent money to the wrong person then sent it right back without even thinking twice. I even incurred transaction fees of a couple hundred shillings or so sending back the money. I did that because that was not my money and had I kept it then that would have been stealing. The guy who had sent the money called me thanking me profusely and even wanted us to meet and buy me lunch but I politely declined the offer because I really didn't think it was necessary.

To this day, I don't think what I did was a big deal. It was the right thing to do and it was someone else's money. Maybe the money was to pay for his children's school fees or a hospital bill, I don't know, but it was his sweat and we should never ever be rewarded for doing what we are supposed to do. I am still in awe over how people are falling over themselves wanting to reward this "honest" tout for returning something that was not his in the first place. There are so many other things that deserve rewards, but this is not one of them. This just shows how corrupted our society is if we are rewarding people for being honest. It speaks volumes about us as a people.

Or maybe am the one who is missing something here? I just don't get it. Maybe we shouldn't be so butt-hurt when Trump calls us shit hole nations. Just maybe.

Listen - a society is a product of what it values and celebrates! if you celebrate and value honesty and only honest people get ahead - you end up having an honest society. it's a feedback loop! It plays out everywhere - if you are a rich person in Central - everyone sucks up to you and thus the society aspires to be rich. if you have book knowledge and no money - people kinda don't treat you as they would a rich person.
in Luo nyanza it was education - if you had PhDs - you get listened to and thus society there does the same. watu wa mashamba?
not that these things are bad however if we would just do the same to 'honest' riches and 'honest' mashamba and 'honest' education (not sleeping your way to the top) and we treated dishonesty in the same way we treat pick pockets - we would go somewhere. if only we would stop using terms such as 'kujipanga' or 'kuchanuka' to rationalize dishonesty - however, this is easier said than done.

Different scenario. The reason why this guy was rewarded is because he was unemployed and living in a motel 6. They were not so much rewarding him for his honesty per say, they raised the money mostly to help him get into an apartment somewhere. Am sure if this were some regular guy doing well in life and living somewhere in the suburbs, this deed would not had made headlines as it did for this guy. Because it would have been expected of him to return the money order and that would have been the end of the story.

The Americans were helping a guy that was down on his luck, not neccessarily because he had been honest. That's how i see it. They were being empathetic about the guy's situation, the Kenyan makanga on the other hand was rewarded primarily because he did something that is out of the norm for majority of Kenyans. Being honest. That's why it's all over the news because it's not expected in this country. Americans are very empathetic towards situations like homelessness and they will help a family like this one whenever they have a chance to.

Is there an instance where it would have been better for the tout to keep the money?

What would happen if the tout had known that the money was the earnings of a pickpocket?

It's not always good to return money to people who've dropped them accidentally.

So, the tout must have made a calculation.

'No. It can't be! Hii ni majaribu'.

Lakini si hata Githeri man alipewa zawadi?

Maybe Kenyans love giving zawadis but watunukiwa ndio wachache.

Here is something you should all know - while it's GOOD for him to send the money back - yeye sio Karari yako! sio lazima atume! sio kazi yake. Ulituma kimakosa kwa nini? it's not theft! it's your carelessness! you drop your money in my pocket and start complaining when I don't return it to you? You are supposed to be thankful but not feel entitled to me returning it.

nani alikuzaa wewe?

So unasema tukituma pesa by mistake, we steal/hack recepients phone to return our money?

My thoughts exactly! If I become somebody big in a public entity and don't steal or hire people from my area(or relatives) people will be saying things like "Hata hakuwahi jisaidia hiyo miaka yote. Angalia wenzake vile wameendelea"

"Alitusaidiaje vile alikuwa mkubwa huko? Nilitaka anipatie kazi akakataa akaniambia niapply"

Was she jailed for 'not returning' or for 'spending it'? I am not required to raise a finger towards your goodwill!

I can confidently say you can blame the hogwash for writing she was jailed for "using" , wana shida ya lugha na kuelewa mambo saa zingine kama sisi tu.

This is where we africans go wrong and still wonder why we are behind... we are just lazy! we don't care about documenting these so called values and codifying them into LAWS! Laws don't have to be just - they just need to be laws! once "it is written" - it's final until it's unwritten. In Nairobi there is still a by-law that prohibits "rainwater harvesting" - change it... don't be lazy and skirt around it. Law making is work - give that work to people who can make laws not charlatans. anyway - I digress... back to values - values mean nothing and are not binding! if you want consistent application of something - get a law in place. I don't have to return MPESA money to you much in the same way I have to return a ball that has been kicked into my compound. Wewe - kuja uchukuwe. I don't have to pick your call after you call me... my phone is for my convenience not yours. She confessed to it all... she did not deny anything. ukinitumia pesa halafu ujaribu kunipigia nikatae kuchukuwa? I don't pick calls from strange numbers during my meditation time.