The 2025 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) is out, and to the surprise of absolutely no one with a pulse in this city, Kenya is still circling the drain. We are officially mired in a cycle of “reforms” that have the same impact as a “Keep Left” sign on a matatu driver - none. While the bureaucrats in suits shuffle papers and talk about “tangible results,” the rest of us are just trying to survive a system where institutions like Parliament and the Judiciary have become nothing more than high-end dens for the elite to trade favors.

If you think the National Police Service is there to “Serve and Protect,” you clearly haven’t tried to report a crime lately. More than half of Kenyans who paid a bribe to the police did so because they knew that without dropping a “something small,” the wheels of justice wouldn’t even creak, let alone turn. It’s a pay-to-play society, and if your pockets are empty, you’re not just a citizen; you’re an inconvenience.

Meanwhile, President Ruto is out here selling us a dream of becoming a “First World nation” in the next 30 years. It’s a bold plan, I’ll give him that, but it’s hard to see the skyscrapers of the future when you’re staring at the palm of a government official waiting for his cut. We are being told to look at the horizon while our pockets are being picked in real-time. It’s the ultimate gaslighting exercise, funded by the very taxes they say they don’t have enough of.

Speaking of taxes, let’s not forget how the state is actually spending that money. As we previously EXPOSED, the government is literally using your hard-earned cash to pay “keyboard warriors” to tell you that everything is fine. While the EACC cries about the “misapplication of the law,” the administration is busy perfecting the art of silencing dissent with bots and trolls. They aren’t fixing the corruption; they’re just hiring a better PR team to hide the stench.

At the end of the day, these international reports are just footnotes in our daily struggle. Whether it’s the “Second-Hand” scams on Luthuli Avenue or the grand-scale theft in the corridors of power, the song remains the same. Corruption isn’t a bug in the Kenyan system; it’s the operating system itself. Thirty years from now, we might have the shiny buildings, but if the foundation is built on kickbacks and “facilitation fees,” it’s all just a house of cards waiting for the next bribe to fall through.