WHAT EXACTLY IS WRONG WITH KENYA?

By Fwamba Nc Fwamba
Muriuki Mukurima
BIDII AFRICA FORUM
April 26, 2009

What is wrong with Kenya, we postulate. Or put bluntly, what is the problem with Kenyans? The country attained her full independence in 1964 but as the cliché goes, her contemporaries at independence time are way ahead in terms of development.

In as much as we continue to mourn the death of democracy in the country, we may as well reckon that democracy, which which rules by the majority is not the problem in Kenya. As we seek answers as to why a human being can muster the ability and strength to slaughter his fellow human being, we may as well understand that it is such instances of insecurity which make up the problems in Kenya. As we still try to find out who really won the presidential elections in 2007, we may come to the sad fact this does not constitute the problem Kenya faces. As we grapple with hunger and cases of maize being stolen from national reserves, we must know this is not part of Kenya problem. When we try top ponder why high level corruption can never be prosecuted in the country, we may come to realize there is a very big problem other than these in the country. Our problem is our lack of reason.

When the government feels tired and yawns every time it has to reason, our country gets on its knees. When the government does not want to put effort to reason, it makes it hard for wheels that drive the country to move any inch. When Kenyans do not reason, Kenya fails to reason. When all we care about is positions of influence yet we fail to inject reason into those positions, we fail miserably.

We must accept the fact that we lack the ingredients that constitute reason. That is why our biggest endowment is pleasure when politicians offer contradictions. In short, what would be absurd to the American or Briton is humour to us. What Tom Daschle finds as reason enough to make him opt out of an Obama government cannot be reason for a Kenyan minister to quit. What Bill Clinton finds as reason to confess he has sinned is no reason enough for a Kenyan leader to know he is not infallible that as a human being, he can also make mistakes. We are totally in a strange country!

When a draft constitution is put forth for us to deliberate whether it is good or not, not just for our ego but also for future generations, we hide reason at the rooftops of our houses and allow politicians to decide the best way, when we know too well, just like us, they do not use reason. I sometimes agree with the president when he uses the ‘pumbavu’ slur, for it is what can best explain the cause and effects of what we do.

When that time comes where reason shall replace considerations of expediency, politics, popularity and vanity, then we can as well match the strides made by our age mates in independence terms.