Kariũki wa Gĩthuku

As they say in Nairobi, syllabus inakimbia mbio sana. This last week has been a week of trying to keep up with and process mountainous information in one of my favourite political forums online. There’s always a hot-button debate on almost everything going on there!

All issues and debates that are worth having, we are having there as we ought to; and as we should; and as we always should teach our children to do for a better Kenya. A better Africa. A better world.

And so, I couldn’t resist commenting on one such hot debate: the politics of ethnicity and individuals, as opposed to meaty issues-based or issue-driven siasa. Because in Kenya, what one sees or finds is the politics of this individual or that ethnic group. A zero-sum game. A futile chasing after the wind.

Kenya doesn't need Kasongos, Kenyattas, Odingas, Kalonzos, Mudavadi, Uncle Wetaa, Matiang'i, and all these spoilt, selfish, political class.

Now, I am not saying we get rid of all of them (although we eventually should). We need some of them to show us where the "bodies" are buried (literally and figuratively).

Like other people more knowledgeable than I have said, what Kenya needs is values, never-changing and always reliable. Values like shared responsibility, accountability, selflessness, mutual obligation, transparency, generosity, hospitality, integrity, unity, and community, or Ubuntu. All African values.

Also, we need to build longstanding and solidly independent institutions for posterity across the board. The judiciary, electoral oversight body, police service, KRA, everything!

Hii mambo ya Ford-K this, KK that, NARC Kenya there, Kanu here, Jubilee oh, and ethnic and individualistic siasa, is utter nonsense. Absolute hogwash!

Moreover, the spatial format of our political conversations needs to change. Literally. Totally. We do not need car rooftop and roadside speeches from politicians. That's too top-down lecturing and condescending!

We need neat, well-organized town hall meetings where elected leaders meet wananchi and answer tough, benchmarking questions.

Did you ever see Obama addressing a crowd on top of a car? Where did you ever see that other than in Africa, and especially in Kenya?

Watu waende maofisini ama mashambani to see how Kenyans really live and address their concerns and plight!

Talking from on top of cars should be shamed! Wanasiasa washuke!

And corruption should be a death-worthy communal taboo too!

The crowd-pulling moves, because that's what Kenyan politicians always want, is mediocre beyond words. It's a political ego measuring contest: "See my crowds? They are bigger than yours!" 

Ugh! So frustrating.

A caring leadership targets specific groups of people, and not necessarily in public, and certainly not on top of cars.

You do not need to deploy 60+ fuel guzzlers on Landhis Road to talk to Jua Kali artisans. Instead, do your research and call Jua Kali vets who have worked there for over twenty years. Talk to them. Anticipate their needs and wishes.

Nurses - they have KNUN. Call them.

Doctors.

Dons.

University students.

Farmers (and all farmers are not the same).

Call them quietly. Talk to them. That's real work and not a shamba la wanyama political circus.

Unfortunately, one must accept that the problem is also with the people, and the leadership is a reflection of the people. We are an extremely tribal society, regrettably, and corruption is now expected and accepted as part of our society. 

As an old and dear friend always reminds me, in Kenya, we have succeeded in normalizing abnormality. Corruption is the norm. Normal? Not.

Simply put, we are not principled or value-based people.

My friend Fred, in his description of our leaders, pulls no punches: "Our leaders spit on us every morning, insult us at lunchtime, and piss on us at night going to bed, but our people still vote for them!! Look at what Raila Odinga has done; a deal with Ruto despite all the atrocious acts that Ruto did, is doing, and will do."

And yet, we the people shrug. Or worse, we clap. 

We eat it all up like hungry hogs in the trough of childish oblivion. Quite Panglossian indeed. "Misguided optimism", as one of the foremost political satirists of all time, Voltaire, would call it.

Every election cycle, we rinse and repeat this unwavering and unwarranted optimism. What a shame. Sad, even.

The cycle continues because we enable it. Wananchi are enablers. Always talking about our person this, our child that, protecting their own politicians. Because we elevate politicians to near-deity status. Because we defend "ours" blindly. 

Because the bar is so low, it’s in the basement. And still, many of our leaders can’t seem to reach it.

But it doesn’t have to be or stay this way, good people.

We must stop waiting for saviours and start building systems. Rock solid institutions that will last the test of time. We must move from personality-based politics to issue-based politics. We must start seeing leadership not as an inheritance but as a burden of service. We must reject performative patriotism and demand substance. 

We must challenge, question, and call out folks, even when it’s uncomfortable, even when it’s someone we “like.”

And above all, we must de-normalize the abnormal.

Let’s raise our expectations, good people. Let’s reward honesty and humility. Let’s build a meritocratic society. Let’s make it uncool to be corrupt, shameful to be tribal, and embarrassing to be mediocre in leadership. Let’s quit voting for people who bring nothing but clownish, monkey vibes, and speeches atop vehicles.

We owe it to ourselves. We owe it to our children.

Because Kenya, for all its faults, still has a pulse. Still has potential. Still has promise.

But only if we are bold enough to stop pretending everything is okay.

Only if we’re honest enough to admit: the syllabus may be running fast, yes—but so must we. Running fast to catch up not with information alone, but with truth, with principle, with nationhood.

It's about time.

Dr. Kariũki wa Gĩthuku is an Associate Professor of African History at the City University of New York, York College, New York City, New York, and the author of Mau Mau Crucible of War: Statehood, National Identity, and the Politics of Postcolonial Kenya (2016)