Nathaniel’s inquiry can be equated to Kenya’s asking: “Is there anything good that can come out of President Kibaki’s Administration, the ninth parliament and Kenya in general?”
In order to check on the validity of this question, we ought to stop and look at our past track, where we are standing and in what direction we are moving.
The history of the last 16 years of the second liberation has been divided into two concepts: integration and human rights.
During the struggle for the freedom we are currently enjoying, our leaders clamoured for an open and democratic space. It was a period during which Kenyans yearned to have constitutionally enshrined rights that had been locked up with chains with the key thrown into a crocodile infested river. Many Kenyans lost their lives and dignity in the name of democracy. We saw doctors, academicians, financiers and businesspeople running away from their own country to seek asylum in other countries as exiles. The second liberation was indeed more painful and heart rending than the 1960s struggle for independence. Why? The independence liberation was strategically created with the aim of reclaiming back the rights forcefully taken from us by the colonizers. The colonizer was a foreigner claiming legitimacy over the running of the affairs of Kenya.
The second liberation on the other hand, was against laws borrowed from the colonizer by the African-run government. This was coupled with tribalism, ethnicity, regionalism, political affiliations etc.
Finally, rain did come, but has since started beating down on us. When President Kibaki took over the leadership of Kenya, as the third president, we sighed with relief – our prayers had been finally answered. Everybody was shouting with joy, ululating to the highest pitch ever because Kibaki is a person whose leadership qualities are incomparable. We joyously held our arms and quickly said yote yawezekana (all is possible). But was it really the right time to sing out in that manner? And since Kibaki has been accredited with being an economist of many years standing, what went wrong? Things started going haywire when we forgot our past, and focused on moving against the tides and principles of human rights. Our leaders, whom we voted for with many expectations, drugged us with seeds of lies, hatred, mistrust and pretence. Instead of seeing fruits of virtues, they misused our friendly Kenyan attitude in the name of fighting for our rights. We were drugged with a misconception of integration as a way forward. Instead of telling us to make our rights a reality, or leading us in the pursuit of excellence, they led us in the sterile chase of an integrated thinking as an end rather than a means of freeing us. When, for instance, the now obsolete controversial Memorandum of Understanding between Kibaki and Raila was signed, it was not open for the public to scrutinize. As the electorate, we should have been given a first hand in determining its validity instead of being held at ransom by being told, “we unanimously agree to…”
We are therefore made to frame and believe that President Kibaki is Judas yet the majority of Kenyans save for the few around then, can claim to be privy of the contents of the MoU. As a result of this, ours became an integration of intellectual mediocrity, economic inferiority and political subservience. Like young children, we feared eating the rough meat of human rights and instead, sucked the milk of our leaders’ lies and believed in the ideals in totality without questions. We believed that by electing intellectuals, economists, mathematicians, doctors and professors, we were doing ourselves some good. Instead of them making good use of their intellectualism, they betrayed us by increasing their allowances for little or no work done, failing to vote on crucial votes in parliament, corruption, infighting amongst themselves and not honouring God as the sole provider of leadership.
Still, we sat down waiting for God to come and rescue us. We just folded our arms and said “Kenyans are peace loving” and contemptuously wore a veil of ignorance. They quickly acknowledged that the democratic space has been opened for all to enjoy. Human rights, which they made us believe they were fighting for, are God-made; democracy is human-made. The kind of democratic space we are enjoying has been a grand deception practiced by those who have not placed God first. Demanding these rights is to seek God’s intervention into our political, psychological, cultural, social, biological and economic lifestyles.
After getting in power leaders became more arrogant, selfish and greedy. Those who spoke with agitation against the oppressor became silent – not willing to identify themselves with the oppressed. The oppressed turned to God for solace and tranquility.
Kenya was on the way to becoming an epitome of human rights in the region during the struggle for second liberation. When the voices of reason armed with dynamic creativity and excitement such as Kivutha Kibwana, James Orengo, Gitobu Imanyara, Njehu Gatabaki, Koigi wa Wamwere, Wangari Maathai, Edward Oyugi, Anyang’ Nyong’o and others defied all odds and kept the then government on its toes, what a splendid and glorious symbol were they! But where are those symbols of the Second Liberation now? Where is their glamour? Where are the defenders of the oppressed consciousness? Can anything good come out of them? Have they, like Nicodemus, been born again – with the image of human rights gone? Have their wombs aborted that they cannot hold a better future for the oppressed? Has the new social contract become obsolete? What about our part? Can we turn everything upside down and move on?
Blaming our leaders for moving away from the main course is a big joke. Instead we must ‘drop our buckets’ where we are and deal with the situations at hand. Why sit down with somebody at the bargaining table when there is nothing to bargain? Why allow politicians to represent us when they are demonstrating their own selfish interests? Can’t we mobilize ourselves and posses the noble allegiance that inspires men, women and children, move the nation ahead and decide on the trend to follow? We should not be compromised to be free or sit down and reason together whether we should have some rights today and full rights tomorrow. Let us walk in the new spirit of rights consciousness and not prejudice. So what can we say about the future? We prayed as a nation and reconciled. But still a lot need to be done. A lot of jabbering has been made on why the country is undergoing through these hard times. Talking too much, as the Holy Writ say, leads to poverty. And talking about one thing for a very long time is unhealthy. It therefore becomes necessary for the majority to come together and say ‘enough is enough; something good can come out of our unity.’ The masses have the power to make this country a proud nation of audacious leadership through the ballot.
In the next few months politicians will be trying to outdo each other – what positive thing one did for the nation; how a scandal was unearthed; who is behind the growing poverty levels. The list is endless.
Unfortunately, a few of us, especially the youth do not have the elector’s card; those who have them do not see any sense in voting. After all, many claim that the same people will be voted in whether or not they vote. If we put away the cosmetic masks and stop pointing fingers for not taking part in the elections, I believe that such an enormous approach into making Kenya return to the main course would be felt.
The general pattern in Kenya is determined by the politicians –what we are to do – and like sheep we believe that it is Gospel truth. However, the truth of the matter rests with the voters. The youth have adapted Pamoja tugutuke, which can loosely be translated as together we move ahead, but this is not itself enough. Taking fully responsibilities to promote the social balance of Kenya cannot be missed in totality. This is because the youth, who comprise of 60% of the entire population, do not take into account that they have a greater voice in the determining the future of this country. It is so unfortunate to learn that the empowerment of the youth has been exclusively referred to as being hot-blooded and naïve. One fails to understand when this future will be a reality. This stereotypical thinking should be done away with.
Since the 1980s we’ve been told that we are the leaders of tomorrow. Some twenty years later, we are still singing to the same ideological tune. This makes one believe that fate has pre- determined that we must elect old and tired leaders over and over instead of having a new and fresh blood to run the affairs of our country well. Celebrated politicians are known the whole world over to turn small crises into irreversible tantrums of hatred, mistrust, tribalism and wars.
With a determined effort, we are likely to make the country grow devoid of vices such as tribalism, grand corruption, mistrust and out-doing each other. Having such mobilized thinking we can erect skyscrapers of economic accomplishment, scale mountains of educational excellence and be free of political lies.
To cap it all, Lao Tsu commented that ‘the good leader is the one that people adore; the wicked; leader is the one that the people despise; the great leader is the one people say “we did it ourselves.” Then I believe there is surely something good which will come out of us – to answer the contemptuous question.
« return.