Politicians’ failure to play the role they have been elected for is leading to stagnation and decline from the grassroots to the top of the country.
I don’t want to rain on the parade of Kenyan athletes whose stellar performance at this year’s Paris Olympic was exceptional. Other than that, there is very little going well in the country. The athletes were the lucky ones as the rugged tracks they train on still gave them enough practice to win medals.
Give a thought to our footballers who had to travel to another country to play a home match during the recent AFCON qualifiers with Namibia. This happened despite billions of shillings spent on building and renovating stadiums and still, there was none meeting international standard to ensure the country could host such football tournaments.
As per the norm, corruption is at the heart of the decline in Kenya, followed closely by never-ending politicking. The campaigns are back in full swing with years to go before the next election. Politicians’ failure to play the role they have been elected for, that of representing their constituents, is leading to stagnation and decline from the grassroots to the top of the country. The centre is not holding any more. The politicians, as I don’t think they qualify to be called leaders, have become so inward looking that they are blind to even the fires that are currently ravaging schools.
The school fires are nothing new. It is something that has been going on for several years. There has never been a blueprint to end the fires in schools and ensure that they never happen again. No solution could be found for school fires in a country that does not consider such incidences critical and prioritises politics instead.
Decline in the education sector
Mt Kenya area had the worst school fire only this month leading to the death of over 20 children with others missing. However, the priority for the area politicians is to find a kingpin for the people of Mt Kenya. There is nothing more insensitive than fighting for a kingship amidst the death of school children. However, that is the Kenya we have now. One devoid of compassion and empathy.
Most of the schools that burnt down had poor infrastructure. Others have no infrastructure at all and to this day, 60 years of Independence later, there are swathes of the country that still educates children in the open and at risk of the elements. Despite such depravity, the government still thinks the priority is to give a tender to a foreign company with a fraudulent past to build a national airport that isn’t even broken. I take it there was water leakage but that is down to shoddy repairs in the first place that should be easy to fix and save money for school projects instead.
The importance of investing in schools cannot be over-emphasised. The school corridors are meant to nurture future adults with necessary skills to help the country develop. The decline in the education sector and national moral decline seems to affect the school children’s psyche. Some of the school fires tend to happen just before the year’s final exams. This is something that was unheard of previously when there was optimism in the country and education led to something.
Dubious government tactics
Learners can now sense the despondence in the country where hard work and meritocracy doesn’t pay off, but bribery does. A country that has leadership with poor and fake education qualifications does not inspire school children. It leaves them frustrated and fearful for their future. The children of the poor are now slated as cleaners of sewers and murky rivers and slaves abroad, while the well-connected ones share the plush jobs — even as school failures.
The constant power cuts are an indicator of how badly our sectors are run. Kenya is unable to generate electricity despite the abundant resources it has. The sector is also faced by the usual corruption that plagues the industry. Every sector seems to suffer the same fate. Public hospitals have been on their knees and getting worse as medics are auctioned off to the highest bidding foreign country. NHIF is yet again mired in billion-shilling scam that should have gone to the health sector.
The police are facing the public’s wrath as they continue to harass them for bribes. Had the police been managed well and supported to maintain law and order and not used to brutalise Kenyans, we won’t have incidences where they get beaten up. One sector failing is understandable and easily remedied, but for every public sector to be failing, it means the decline is at the core of government that fails to be pro-active to problems facing Kenyans and spearhead fiscal prudence to ensure public sectors function optimally for the benefit of the country.
The Gupta style State capture of South Africa about to be heralded by the Adani group in Kenya under murky circumstances, will only make the decline of Kenya even more certain. Private Public Partnership may have the word private in it, but it does not mean it should be exempt from public scrutiny and participation. It is dubious government tactics that pushes Kenya into further decline.
Ms Guyo is a legal researcher, [email protected], @kdiguyo
