Kenya on 6th Floor needs reset

You will not reach that state of placidity and contentment, however, if your life is filled with regret and doubt.

And that is Kenya, a story of Great Expectations gone wrong. No doubt, we have come a long way since Independence from British colonial years six decades ago. We reclaimed our sovereignty, demolished structures of the colour bar and won the right to elect leaders of our choice and to own property and live wherever we wish.

Massive gains

All statistics show massive gains across almost all socioeconomic indicators. By any measure, we are a mini superpower in the region and have greatly punched above our weight to become one the pillars of the continent, standing tall in the East and Central African region in the same way Nigeria dominates West Africa, ditto Egypt up North Africa and South Africa down below us.

And this is despite not being blessed with gold, diamonds, oil, uranium and the other natural resources that make Africa the richest continent, albeit with the poorest people. 

We complain a lot about our state of being but a Kenyan visiting almost any other African country comes back home with a new appreciation of what a great country we have. Our road networks, health and education services, power supply, piped water, agricultural and industrial production, communications networks, financial services and so on should be the envy of the rest of Africa.

Our free-wheeling democracy, human rights, independent Judiciary, free media and simply the robustness with which we can call power to account and hold the government to scrutiny is unmatched.

Come of age

But are we there yet? Can we sit back and contemplate a future free of worries because we have come of age?

Far from it. That we have come a long way is not in doubt but we could have done much better. We have advanced greatly in many spheres but have fallen vastly short in others. In some areas, we have regressed or walked backwards.

At 60, Kenya should be a proud, prosperous united nation but remains a patchwork of competing ethnic fiefdoms. Many parts of the country are still in the Stone Age insofar as they are under the reign of armed bandits, cattle rustlers and ethnic militia and terrorists.

Urban decay remains a big blight in a nation that boasts entry into the Digital Age but with towns and cities run by Neanderthals in designer suits who cannot sweep the streets, collect and dispose of garbage and maintain working water and sewerage systems.

We willfully elect known thieves to high office and then start whining when they empty our coffers. The wealth divide, what JM Kariuki in the 1960s described as a country of “10 millionaires and 10 million beggars”, indicates a criminal socioeconomic environment under a succession of leaders who only work for themselves and their cronies rather than the people.

We have now become a country of 50 billionaires and 50 million beggars. Poverty and deprivation punctuated by tiny pockets of wealth cannot be good for any nation. It breeds resentment and anger, fuels crime and becomes a catalyst for instability.

It was way back in the 1960s that Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai predicted that Kenya was ripe for revolution. In the 1970s, then-Vice-President Daniel arap Moi—who would become President in 1978—followed that up with the warning that unemployment and poverty were a ticking time bomb.

Nothing has changed. Unless we do something now in terms of equitable development and reduction of the rich-poor divide, we remain in danger of a coming implosion.

We must hit the reset button. We will do that by going beyond inane sloganeering or deal-cutting between the political elite, and purposely putting in place policies to ensure one united, secure, prosperous Kenya.

Then we can tear down those ugly high walls topped with razor wire and electric fencing.

Happy Jamhuri Day!

[email protected]. @MachariaGaitho