
One day we’ll wake up at the end of looting spree in Kenya to find its potential is all behind us and it is a land of lost opportunity
Having witnessed Kenya’s politics in the past one year, one is inclined to imagine that the ruling Political Clan is decidedly mannerless: it has neither the good nor the bad manners. It is mannerlessly gluttonous and its appetite grows by the day.
Former British High Commissioner to Kenya Sir Edward Clay famously and ruthlessly summed up the country’s Political Clan as one that happily vomits on the shoes (if they have any) of the poor and still taxes them with abandon.
Such antipathy is what Generation Z (Gen-Z) rose up against in the now famous June 24 Gen-Z Uprising. In the preceding article, I tackled how tax without representation gave rise to the American Revolution and the French Revolution. The Eating Chiefs in those two jurisdictions had taxed the serfs to the bone before they rose up in in arms. The serfs were fed up with the monarchies (in Kenya’s case political clan) that lives lavishly while the majority of ordinary people struggle to get by in very punitive economic realities.
In the wake of Sir Edward Clay remonstration with Kenyan ruling class, British newspaper, Independent, observed in its op-ed pages: “It is outrageous to think that corruption accounts for about 8 per cent of Kenya’s GDP gross domestic product). Kenya is not a rich country in terms of oil deposits, diamonds or some other buffer which might featherbed a thoroughgoing culture of corruption. What it chiefly has is its people – their intelligence, work ethic, education, entrepreneurial and other skills. Those assets will be lost if they are not managed, rewarded and properly led. One day we may wake up at the end of this looting spree to find Kenya’s potential is all behind us and it is a land of lost opportunity.”
There is no way of harnessing this potential if schools lack basic infrastructure and expertise, universities are churning out half-baked graduates without the requisite intellectual capacity for nation building. Even if the graduates had the intellectual wherewithal, they would still find it difficult to remain in good health because the health sector is in shambles and energy sector has to make do with frequent outages. Thus manufacturing sector would not generate quality jobs to make the youth productive.
When President William Ruto is not roaming the countryside in the name of “bring development,” he is globe-trotting under the guise of shopping for employment the jobless youth. It is a shameless admission that his bottom-up policies cannot power the economy to generate jobs for more than three million graduates who are desperate to deploy their skills to nation-building. How can a government train manpower, then give it away for other countries to use?
To Kenya’s Political Clan, history is nonsense. Their indifference to history surmises the principle that, ‘History taches us that we cannot learn from history – at least in Kenya.’
In 2007, hundreds of thousands of lives were lost in post-election violence. Our memories are still heavy with the heartless slaughter of women and children who had taken shelter inside Kiambaa Church in Rift Valley. Some of us witnessed these murders take place firsthand. Many families lost their properties and years of investment turned into a pile of ash. It was so sad that at that point in time to see neighbours who had previously helped us get by in life become enemies just because of cultural reasons. It’s said that sometimes horrible things happen in our childhood, things that later define who we are and what become whether we want it or not. Post-election violence did just that.
In 2007, tribalism appealed to our collective animal instinct as we want hammer and tongs at each other. The political clan never learnt a thing and they are still stoking tribal hostilities even as the economy hobbles and crime surges as result soaring cost of living.
Yet Kenyans are not supposed to complain. Instead, they are expected to sing hymns for and to a regime that is embedded with thieves.
Gen-Zs are a generation of Kenyans that was born around the time the 2007 post-election violence rocked Kenya and almost dismembered it. That is the reason they describe themselves as tribe-less and party-less and want to be united he common cause of making Kenya a better place for everyone – whether black, red or yellow. Our ideology and mantra are informed and shaped by past ethnic indiscretions that are the cause the current state hopelessness among the younger generation.
The theory of structuralism teaches us that the environment – social, economic, ecological or cultural – shapes our opinion academically and politically. Exposure to books and knowledge has, however, helped us understand the cause of the bloody violence of 2007 and subsequent elections. We shall not stand by and watch the Political Clan shove us into the abyss.
Playwright Berthold Brecht’s book The Caucasian Chalk Circle helps us understand the pathetic nature of our politics and democracy, where merit is sacrificed at the altar tribe in favour of the pork and barrel politicsthat is killing Kenya. The 1944 play highlights the rot a country sinks into when a government cannot uphold justice and the rule of law. In the play, a house-girl, Grusha, selflessly protects and cares for an abandoned child – Michael. When the biological mother returns to claim it, a judge – Azdak – uses a chalk circle to determine the rightful guardian.
The judge bestows Grusha the custody of the child and the biological mother adjudged inhuman.in Grusha, we come face to face with the principles of accountability and transparency at work. Azdak’s judgment and ruling are examples of justice informed by the principle merit and righteousness as opposed to legal or biological entitlement. Merit and righteousness are ingredients that missing on our political menu.
The Gen-Z uprising was advocacy for social justice and merit in a system that functions while challenging the traditional norms that they perceive unjust. Like Azdak’s unconventional ruling aligns with the quest by a generation that is seeking to exorcise he genie of justice. Their push for reform in governance mirrors the play’s message that true justice serves the greater good and uplifts the vulnerable and deserving.
In Betrayal in the City, Francis Imbuga sets out to address the follies and foibles of a corrupt and oppressive regime like President William Ruto’s. In the absence of justice, frustrated and agency chief protagonist Jasper Wendo quips: “When the madness of an entire nation disturbs a solitary mind, it is not enough to say man is mad.” Accordingly, Gen-Zs are asking for equity and meritocracy in sharing the national cake – that is, if it has not been stolen already.
Kenya is on the precipice, but the president and his lieutenants are brazenly propagating the false narrative of “bringing development.” Development can only be “caused to happen” and the triggers are matching talents with opportunities. Development is a process, and it cannot be served on a tray, lorry, pocket or bus.
Gen-Z is a tinderbox, and the day it will explode, State House may not have even a crevice for the Eating Chief to shelter in.
- A Tell / KNA report / By Victor Ngugi