A nation’s character is not forged in the Legislative Assemblies and the Houses of Parliaments; it is shaped in the quiet, often unnoticed decisions made in daily life. It is not just in the speeches of leaders or the clauses of new laws, but in the way ordinary people treat the law when there is no applause to be won and no cameras watching. It is there, in the spaces between official acts of governance, that the true spirit of a nation is formed.
When a driver stops at a red light on an empty street in the middle of the night, they affirm that rules are worth following not because of who is watching, but because of what is right. When someone waits their turn in a queue instead of pushing ahead, they signal that fairness matters more than personal gain. These small moments are the moral scaffolding upon which a society is built. They may seem insignificant, yet together they create the invisible culture that either strengthens or erodes a nation’s foundation.
Mahatma Gandhi’s words, “Be the change you wish to see in the world,” have been quoted so often they risk becoming a decorative slogan. But in practice, they are a daily challenge, demanding that we model the behaviours we want to see flourish. The uncomfortable truth is that many of us are demonstrating the exact opposite. Our unspoken mantra has become, “Break the rule if it inconveniences you.” This belief shows itself in traffic violations, bribing to bypass queues, ignoring environmental regulations, or flouting safety rules because they are “too much trouble.” We justify these choices with urgency, necessity or frustration, rarely pausing to see what they reveal about our values.
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The danger is not just in the individual act, but in the ripple effect it creates. Every time we justify breaking a rule for our own convenience, we weaken the shared trust that makes a community work. If one driver feels entitled to speed through a one-way street because they are late, another feels entitled to do the same and soon chaos replaces order. Rules only hold power when enough people voluntarily agree to follow them. Once the culture shifts to seeing laws as obstacles rather than agreements, enforcement becomes an endless, losing battle.
Children are watching all of this. They may not yet understand legislative systems or constitutional law, but they can see clearly how adults behave. They learn that the rules are flexible, that urgency or status can place you above the law and that getting your way is more important than playing fair. By the time they are old enough to take on roles as citizens, leaders, or parents themselves, they have internalised these lessons. And so the cycle repeats, not because Parliament failed to pass the right bill, but because everyday people failed to live by the principles they claim to value.
A society that respects the law does so not because every law is perfect, but because respect for the law is the glue that holds the social fabric together. This does not mean blind obedience; it means understanding that the right way to change a bad law is through collective action, not personal exemption. The moment we decide that our personal comfort or urgency is more important than the common rules, we move towards a culture of selective obedience, where everyone becomes their own lawmaker and the weakest bear the cost.
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If we wish to change our nation, the starting point is not the election cycle or legislative reform, but the mirror. It is asking ourselves, “Do my daily actions reflect the society I want to live in?” It is resisting the small temptations to bend the rules when it suits us. It is accepting the inconvenience of doing things the right way because that is the seed from which integrity grows.
In the end, a country’s laws can be rewritten in a day, but a country’s character is written over generations – etched into the small, everyday choices of its people. The question we face is simple but urgent: are we writing a story of integrity and shared responsibility or one of shortcuts and self-interest? Because in the quiet acts of stopping at the red light, keeping to the lane or waiting your turn, we are not just following rules – we are shaping the destiny of the nation.
By Ashford Kimani
Ashford teaches English and Literature in Gatundu North Sub County and serves as Dean of Studies.
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