The Parable of the Good Samaritan Retold in Kenya: The Violence of Corruption and Tribalism

Abstract

The narrative of the Parable of the Good Samaritan is found in Luke 10: 25-37. It is Jesus’ response to a Jewish teacher of the Law who inquired from Jesus what he could do to receive eternal life. According to the Lawyer’s understanding, all that was required was to “love your neighbour as you love yourself”. But the Lawyer went on and asked Jesus yet another question about who his neighbour was. This prompted Jesus to use the Good Samaritan parable to make his point. In brief, the story is about this man who was travelling down Jerusalem-Jericho Road and was attacked by robbers, stripped naked, beaten, and left half dead on the roadside, wounded and bleeding. In the Parable of the Good Samaritan Jesus invites us to make, or turn, the other, into a neighbour, even when it involves taking risks, even if we do not know that person My neighbour is not only the one whom I know or is of my tribe or religion. Probably the priest and Levite did not stop because they might not have recognised one of theirs in the wounded person, might have feared to get attacked in the same place, or were prevented from stopping because of their commitments of rituals. True love, universal love, that does not discriminate would help us to fight violence and corruption. In this case, the Good Samaritan, not appreciated by the Jews, most likely came to the aid of a Jew since Jericho is geographically located in Judea, and not far from Jerusalem. This chapter has argued that the parable of the Good Samaritan retold in Kenya underlines the truth about the violence of corruption and tribalism which are some of the moral vices that are highly pronounced in contemporary Kenya to the extent that they have assumed dangerous and destructive proportions. Corruption and tribalism combine to produce a society characterized by gross inequalities in all aspects of life.