So, the DCI wants a standing ovation because they managed to stop a 29-year-old Ugandan from dragging a toddler across the Hororo border. Great job, boys. You caught one. But let’s not pretend this is a “dramatic operation” out of a Hollywood script. It’s just another Tuesday in a country where the social fabric is tearing faster than a second-hand mitumba shirt. A mother goes to work in Malindi, and by the time she’s done, her neighbor - the guy running the nail salon - has decided her son is his ticket to a payday in Tanzania.

This isn’t just about one bad actor; it’s about the environment we’ve built. When we talk about Rent-A-Sovereignty: How the IMF is Turning Kenya into a Private Subsidiary, we see the macro-level rot, but this is the micro-level fallout. When the state is sold to the highest bidder, human life becomes just another line item on a balance sheet. Desperation doesn’t just drive people to the streets; it drives them to steal three-year-olds from the shop next door.

The DCI is busy chest-thumping about “forensic leads” and “rapid searches,” but they conveniently gloss over the “spate of kidnappings” in 2025 that they failed to prevent. We are living in a cycle of reactive policing. They wait for a child to be halfway to another country before they decide to act, then they package the rescue as a miracle to distract us from the fact that our borders are about as secure as a screen door in a hurricane.

The kid is “traumatized but safe,” according to the statement. Safe? In what version of Kenya? He’s back in Malindi, the same place where his neighbor tried to sell him like a sack of maize. The suspect is at the police station “undergoing interrogation,” which is usually code for sitting in a damp cell until someone figures out which pocket needs lining. We saw this in Ruiru, we saw it in Kiambu, and we’re seeing it now.

Don’t get it twisted - I’m glad the boy is home. But let’s stop acting like this is a win for the system. This is a symptom of a nation that has lost its way, where “the hustle” has mutated into something predatory. While the elites in Nairobi are busy signing away our future to international lenders, the rest of us are left watching our backs and our children, wondering if the person doing our nails is actually scouting for their next export.