Priorities the next president must get right to lead Kenyans into Canaan

Raila Odinga

Deputy President William Ruto (left) and ODM leader Raila Odinga.

Photo credit: File | Nation Media Group

When Jomo Kenyatta died, I asked President Daniel arap Moi whether he was ready to be the Joshua who would lead Kenya into Canaan since Kenyatta, the Moses of Kenya, had died while Kenyans were still in the desert. Twice Moi offered me no answer, as he lacked the moral capacity and political desire to lead us to Canaan.

Kenyans are once again at a crossroads. They must decide whether Ruto, or Raila, can take Kenyans out of the desert of poverty into the Canaan of the First World?

Uhuru and Ruto performed dismally in their first term as they were battling cases at the ICC in The Hague. In his second term, Uhuru also performed dismally, as the DP connived to share government and power.

A people’s struggle

Tragically, Kenyans have gone full circle.  Whoever will be elected president will have to take us to Canaan or we shall start a people’s struggle against him or her.

He or she will need the right priorities for Kenya, not like Kenyatta and other African leaders who failed us with their plans to eradicate poverty, ignorance and disease.

Our priorities should start with poverty, followed by climate change and Covid-19.

To fix these global problems, we need to solve local ones that block our path to Canaan.

The first problem is bad leadership. Second, we must eliminate the bad system. While social democracy can breed a happy and developed Kenya, our capitalism – whether we call it a down-up or trickle-down system – can only breed poverty.  The third problem is corruption, which our leaders condemn by day but cohabit with at night. The fourth problem is the poverty that the above problems generate, while the fifth is negative ethnicity, which is the greatest enemy of our nationalism and unity.

The six problems are impunity and disregard for the law.

Seven is reviving our Canaan dream, over and above dreams like Vision 2030. The eighth problem is: can Kenyatta and Moi’s political progeny solve the problems Presidents Kenyatta, Moi, Kibaki, and Uhuru have created?

The writer is a former Nakuru North (Subukia) MP