Politics of euphoria

Good people, I must laud you for keeping the peace and tranquility despite a closely contested presidential election. The dust is slowly settling on the hoopla that clouded these 4 March elections. Uhuru Kenyatta won aboard the Jubilee coalition, but CORD has since moved to the Supreme Court to challenge the validity of the victory. The country is waiting with baited breath for the ruling by the highest court on the land. The petition can either succeed or be quashed away by the court. But this is story for another day.  

Pre-election coalitions were formed to consolidate votes and some incumbents who were sure to face the axe on March 4 rode on the euphoria of these coalitions and their presidential candidates. But truth be told these honorable men and women are just rode these Jubilee, CORD and Amani trains to their destinations and once they got there, alighted without sparing a minute to know what happened to these political bandwagons. This is the typical opportunistic Kenyan politician!

Kenyans, who trek to and from Industrial are since used seeing to political rivals, share one thing; choppers.  These group of politicians come from the leafy Nairobi suburbs, are current or former holders of key positions in the Moi and Kibaki governments. They never instituted any change, yet they made all noise that they are reform friendly. These guys have deep and rich connections that maintain their wealth that no Kenyan ever asks how they acquired. They own huge chunks of land, while Kenyans lack a place to build their houses and are busy slitting each other’s throat as they fight over pieces of land to graze their livestock and put up houses. The few who get land around the capital, such as in Syokimau have been traumatized watching their hard-earned investments come down under the hail of bulldozers. These houses have been labeled illegal by some authorities hence the use of these mighty tractors to crush them.

Whenever they get health complications, our classy politicians travel to the US and other western countries for treatment. Their children never see the doors of public schools but go to private schools, both in Kenya and abroad. Public health facilities are in deplorable conditions, babies are stolen minutes after birth; nurses and doctors must go on strike to demand better pay, modern facilities and enough medication for their patients. Funds meant for the free primary education mysteriously disappear yet nobody claims responsibility.

Corruption reigns supreme in the government institutions and nobody is willing to fight it. Our police force is ill-equipped, poorly remunerated and when they are butchered on the trail of cattle-rustlers, nobody hears their cry or that of their crest-fallen families. At the backdrop of all these stark disparities between the rich political class and poor ordinary Kenyans, are promises to improve our public schools and public health facilities. Sadly, poor Kenyans rise up against their next-door Kenyans due to these coalitions. The society throws soberness to the wind and gets carried away by this political whirlwind.

Legislators extended the house sitting hours in order to immorally increase their salaries and allowances. Days later at public rallies, they vehemently denied being part of this evil-axis hell-bent on plundering the public coffers. The key concerns of Kenyans such as jobs, high cost of living, insecurity and provision of better healthcare feature prominently on the manifestos of our parties, but nobody ever talks about them once in power. This explains why these issues will forever hold us back, whether we have the ambitious Vision 2030 or not!

Politicians count their votes on the basis of their ethnic colossus that we have made so morally correct that vilifying them as negative ethnicity is politically unpalatable. Politics being the cruel game of numbers that it is, Kenyan politics know this all too well and all promises will be made, just to woo the numbers. Never mind that most of these pledges and manifestos started gathering dust in the shelves after March 4!  These will be rewritten in 2017 and subsequent elections.

This is the sad and vicious cycle of politics without principle that as Mahatma Gandhi said, are one of the seven deadly sins. In Kenya, we have and still pay dearly for this.

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The Kenyan betrayal

The country has successfully managed to dodge the post-election bullet of 07-08. We went into the polls as a nation with a point to prove that indeed democracy is possible without raising pangas and machetes on the heads of those who supported our political rivals. After all, just as outgoing president, Mwai Kibaki once sarcastically noted, elections last a day, after which everyone goes back to his usual life. This is not a life-time affair!

We have recovered from the election mood of the hotly contested 2013 polls and Kenyans are going back to their usual lives, those of daily challenges and hardships. Post-election hangovers are slowly but surely being drowned in the sea of hardships and challenges that best describe the life of an ordinary Kenyan.

However, just like in any other contest, disgruntled and dissatisfied losers have moved their petitions to court, with the big one being that of CORD’s Raila Odinga, who has challenged President-elect, Uhuru Kenyatta’s win. The battle swords have once again being unleashed, luckily this is along the corridors of a now reformed judiciary. The eagerly awaited ruling by the Supreme Court on this tussle, promises to be a big one, one that is expected to shake the political setting of this country. But as the law dictates, we cannot comment on issues presently before the court, and Chief justice Willy Mutunga has rightfully too warned against that. Our learned friends will tell you that this is contempt of court. There is a betrayal of its kind in the country.

Kenyans who earn a living from Industrial area are back to what they do best; trekking  from the Kiberas and Korogochos of Nairobi in the biting cold, work under the scorching sun and go back home under the cover of darkness. They wake up early and go to bed late, only too unsure of how tomorrow will be in these informal settlements. This is the daily process that earns them some paltry coins. These are the very Kenyans who religiously took part in the electoral process, after seeing politicians troop to their homes and lives to woo them with all manner of promises and pledges, that you are sure will never see the light of implementation and realization. Welcome to the Kenyan comedy show that is politics.

Politicians throw their manifestos and promises to the shelves after their election. Never mind that these are what ushered them into the voters’ hearts, and on the other end, an electorate that never bothers to see that these manifestos are implemented keeps mum. These shows go on for five years when the politicians and Kenyans come together once again; it is election time. This is when politicians bombard our ears, telling us that tuko pamoja and all manner of cheap political storylines. Sadly, Kenyans never ask what this means. Immediately, the polls are gone, the politician disappears to the comfort of his Karen and Runda homes, never mind that the people he represents are fighting daily to guarantee their tomorrow, far away in Turkana and other marginalized areas of the Kenya.

Out of this bitter frustration, these Kenyans seek solace in the church. The institution that since the days of Jesus on this planet, comforted the afflicted, dressed the naked, instilled hope to the hopeless and answered the cry and anguish of the society’s down-trodden. This is so reflected in the miracles that the son of Man performed, from turning water into wine and giving food to the hungry to raising Lazarus and others from the dead.

However, this is where Kenyans are economically and spiritually plundered by some religious charlatans, who promise the heavenly goodies, at a fee! Pastors in these churches apparently perform miracles at a rate that would make Jesus Christ turn green with envy! HIV/ Aids is now curable, courtesy of these men and women. Domestic issues become a thing of the past, poverty vanishes in a minute and hardships that wreck Kenyans can now disappear in a minute, at the click of a prayer! At this rate, Kenyans do not have to work and study so hard in life; prayers are an equally able avenue to good life! What a fallacy! The faithful are buying services that the Son of God offered freely to those who cried out to him.

A Nigerian, pastor Chris Ojigbani  came to Kenya, to pray for Kenyan women and help them get their much elusive better-halves! As expected, women thronged the Nyayo National Stadium and the Kenyatta International Conference Center (KICC) on the two instances that this husband-offering Nigerian landed in town. Religiou mesmerization  at its best.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

Gospel of prosperity is the in-thing today that has captured the rich imagination of many a Kenyan. Kupanda mbegu is all what a troubled Kenyan needs to do. This trend has turned the word of God into a career that has changed the lives of the congregation and the men of cloth in two contrasting ways. The faithful lose money, families break and Kenyans are slumping into the poverty abyss at a very fast rate. These churches drain these Kenyans dry and yet they have never been known to take part in any charitable endeavors or the so-called works of mercy, like attending to the poor, the sick, widows and orphans. They never take part in any compassionate activities to comfort the aggrieved and afflicted in the society, never mind that is a key responsibility of the church, that Jesus, through his works, taught us to do.

 On the other side, the preachers transform their lives into of flashy clothing, top-of the range cars and state- of- the art houses that even the rich envy. This is the irony of most of these churches that afflict more pain and anguish on Kenyans. They pile misery on the very people they are supposed to comfort and a give a shoulder to lean on when times are thick and uncertain.

The country has eaten her people. Most of our politicians have turned the public offices into milking cows and the fastest way to becoming stinking rich. Corruption, impunity and all sorts of shameful scenes best describe these offices. The church that was supposed to be the shepherd of God’s sheep is not sparing them either. Churches spring up from all corners of the republic, as Kenyans hold the Bible and begin the voyage to flashy lives. Those financially able have moved it to the next level where the holy word of God is preached on our television sets. These are men and women who only accept money as the only form of thanksgiving to God. Any other offering can rightly-fully be described as a non-grata in the church!

At the backdrop of all this fallacious living that the Kenyan society has adopted, our sportsmen and women continually fly our flag high on the globe. Shujaa lost in the semis of the main cup in the Hong Kong 7’s, our cross-country team to Bydgozyk, Poland emerged victorious and Harambee Stars snatched a hugely-deserved one-all draw against the much fancied Super Eagles at their own backyard, in Calabar. Let us not forget the deplorable conditions that they met on landing in Lagos, poor food and lack of a training pitch to prepare for the match.  They defied odds and nearly became the first team to win in Nigeria in over three decades.

These are the men and women that we owe so much to, as a country. Sadly, we hardly appreciate what they have tirelessly done to the country. Maybe they are victims of society that has betrayed its people and is now eating them!

POLITICS GONE WRONG

‘The Digitals have won it against the Analogues’. Uhuru Kenyatta is the country’s fourth president after a grueling battle against his rival, Raila Odinga of the CORD coalition. This is the battle deputy-president elect; William Samoei Ruto had christened the analogues versus digital era’s showdown. Outgoing premier minister, Raila Odinga called it the punda na farasi race. Forget these farasi na punda and analogue versus digital story lines. The election eerie is gone and Kenya must forget the political fights and move towards Vision 2030! We cannot eat and sleep politics. Never!

Elections are supposed to usher in new leaders and breathe a fresh air into the leadership of any nation. Thus, there should be development on the social-economic and political aspects of a country. They are not supposed to be a cause of bloodshed and agony to the ordinary citizens who religiously take part in the electoral process, to the advantage of the leaders. Congo DR, Somalia, Ivory Coast and Mali represent the latter, where elections bring agony, bloodshed and misery upon the very people who unfailingly take part in the electoral process. Kenya almost went down this tumultuous road in 08 after the bungled 07 elections, when three months of madness had the entire world worried as the country was nearly thrown to the dogs. 

Thank the political gods because the just concluded elections have not ripped the country apart. Indeed Kenya has not let herself down! Democracy has won and the Amani, CORD, Jubilee and other parties’ differences have been put aside and the election results accepted by all Kenyans. Those disgruntled have the courts as the avenues to seek redress from and not the streets that were too busy during the 07-08 post-poll bloodbath!

However, subsequent elections have left the Kenyan voter a disillusioned fellow. High expectations in new regimes have best remained to be fertile imagination! Election pledges and promises never fulfilled. The end of every five years has been characterized by agony and frustration by the voters. Perhaps this explains why every election has seen the fall and demise of great men and women, those who never thought of life outside the August house. Waheshimiwas become watakaokumbukwa!

These unfulfilled promises have been the outcome of every five years in Kenya. In 2002, NARC ousted KANU from her 24-year reign in power. A constitution was to be delivered in the first 100 days. Corruption was apparently condemned, to be fought head-on by the Kibaki administration. Bitter reality set in and the first meaningful attempt to a new constitution was in 2005, 3 years later and was unanimously rejected through the referendum. It was later baked afresh and promulgated in 2010, after it passed the August 4^th referendum. Corruption was never fought and impunity has reigned supreme. The Kazi Kwa Vijana funds, the Grand-Regency saga, Free primary education and Mavoko cemetery mega-scandals are some of the key corruption issues that were never addressed. The culprits stayed put in office. It took the 2013 ballot box to send them home and indeed Kenyans got their day to pay off the politicians in the same coin!

When one takes a keen look at these election promises and how they are gather dust on the shelves after the elections, you ask yourself if the Kenyan politician gets carried away by the election heat or if it is a case of the Kenyan voter losing his head to the election euphoria! One has to bitterly realize that election promises and pledges in Kenya mostly wither and die without their realization. The politicians are never held accountable by the very people who voted them into power.

The 2013 elections were characterized by ground-shaking manifestos that promised to turn Kenya into the heaven we so much dream of. The pastoral communities were promised lasting solutions to their water and pasture nightmares, school children were promised free laptops and five new ultra-modern stadiums are to be build across the country. These pledges made the difference on

March 4^th   but the question of their realization is a different one altogether, never mind that teachers are poorly remunerated and must down their tools to get an increase in their salaries, a nationwide shortage of these invaluable Kenyans, notwithstanding!

Kenyans religiously heed the calls by the politicians to vote them into office, follow parties and coalitions based on the goodies their manifestos promise to them. A six-piece suit system of voting to ensure that even the incompetent corruption-smelly politicians are retained in power is openly advocated for by the country’s senior politicians, who seek the highest offices in the land.  However, once the elections are over, the two go back to their old ways. Politicians throw these manifestos to the archives to rot while Kenyans fight with their daily challenges, not concerned with what becomes of the manifestos and pledges. This makes me think that the Kenyan politician is not to blame for underdevelopment. Rather, Kenyans should be accused of voting in incompetent leaders who forget about their pledges and promises once they get into office.

As a nation we need to start keeping our leaders on their toes to ensure that they live up to every word of their election pledges promises, no matter how fantastical they might be! This is the only way to avoid desperation and agony every five years. If this is not done, then the politician will continually plunder the public coffers and enjoy state security as the Kenyans in Kibera, Korogocho and Kyang’ombe slums sink deeper into economic hardships!

Let us tame the politician before these cheap politics eventually eats up the people!