Sow the wind, and reap whirlwind

In Hosea, Chap 8, Verse 7, the Good Book ominously says that “For they sow the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind.” But the admonition doesn’t stop there.

It further warns that because “The standing grain has no heads; it shall yield no flour” and that “if it were to yield, strangers would devour it.”

We call that utter damnation without the possibility of redemption, or salvation. It’s the fate of a cursed people, bound to perish totally. I don’t often quote the Bible, but today I couldn’t find a more apt description for Kenya’s elite – especially its political iteration.

What in the world would make Kenya’s political elite lead the country to Armageddon? Not purgatory, but hell?

I stipulate that we didn’t create the political instrumentality called the Kenyan state. It’s an alien ogre imposed on us by European imperialists and propped up through the years by the West.

Kenya isn’t ours, and truly never was. It’s owned by a cruel international state, legal, and economic order. It’s never mattered much what the people we call Kenyans want.

The sad truth is that we are peons. That’s why external powers tell us when to pea, what language to speak, and what to eat. They even tell us who we are – an enslaved people.

These cruel facts aren’t unique to Kenya. They form the identity of virtually the entire post-colonial world. Can we change our reality?

The fact is most countries in the world are post-colonial, including the mighty United States. But many have overcome their post-colonial demons, or at least contained them. But in most of Africa, we are mired in a self-cannibalising political culture among the elite.

Our states don’t really understand wherefore they exist. Our elites haven’t ever found their purpose. And if they have, it’s to loot and pulverise their populations, and then troop to the West and now the East in demeaning beggarly postures.

Our elites have become monsters. Is there a Kenyan of conscience who doesn’t shudder, or cringe, at the outbursts of Kenya’s most senior officials, including the one snubbed by the United States Trade Representative?

I saw footage of President Samia Suluhu Hassan of Tanzania wherein she says that her country is experiencing an unprecedented influx of foreign investors because the “neighbour’s” house is burning.

I leave it to you to divine the neighbour the wise leader referred to in her remarks. But your guess is as good as mine.

If you look at economic indices, Kenya’s position as the anchor state in the region may soon evaporate. The reason is only one – our elite has failed the country. I look at Kenya’s cabinet and I weep. Several of those people couldn’t even run their own households. I look at our legislature and Judiciary, and I wail as loudly in despair and despondency.

Kenya needs a new political dispensation, one with a visionary elite where its able sons and daughters lead this country. But that will take courage devoid of the politics of hostage-taking and crony patronage.

Clearly, the Kenya Kwanza government today bears the greatest responsibility for the state of the nation because it’s in charge. But truth be told, previous regimes have mostly been devoid of morality, probity, and competence.

Many of those in Azimio are themselves cut from the same myopic political elite. They’ve served in previous governments with little to show for it. So, I don’t want to simply point fingers at one side – the political elite across the political spectrum has failed us. There are virtually no saints.

This brings me to the current political impasse between the two halves of the political elite. Any sober analyst knows Kenya has a broken political landscape. We don’t like each other very much and lack leaders who can bring all of us in our diversities together.

We all saw what happened after the 2007 elections. We almost lost the country – completely. I fear that today we face the most perilous period since the genocidal spasms of 2008. Let’s be clear. Neither Kenya Kwanza, nor Azimio La Umoja, can govern willy-nilly. It can’t – and won’t – happen.

Forget about those thumping their chests on either side. Neither Azimio’s Raila Odinga, nor Kenya Kwanza’s William Ruto, will go anywhere alone. Kenya needs both of them.

Today, Kenya needs a democratic and inclusive political settlement between the two political formations – not a “handshake” but a just people-centred platform of irreducible interests that defines Kenya.

The two key principals have worked together before. What divides them politically need not detain them from agreeing on what unites Kenya. They must lead our elite in defining Kenya’s core national interests.

Let’s answer the question – what’s Kenya, and who’s a Kenyan. The current crisis gives Mr Odinga and Mr Ruto a unique opportunity to totally redefine Kenya. They must bring their respective allies to rise up above egotistical and chauvinistic politics. Can – will – they?

- Makau Mutua is SUNY Distinguished Professor and Margaret W. Wong Professor at Buffalo Law School, The State University of New York. @makaumutua.