Starvation: Why Kenyans need to take a long hard look at themselves

From the frying pan into the fire? The heavens have opened up and flash floods have already claimed lives. Torrential rains, however, will not provide an instant solution to the threat of famine.

Meanwhile, as we battle the vagaries of nature, it is time we took a long, hard, look at ourselves.

We have rightfully condemned the government for failing and refusing to take action until it became apparent that poor Kenyans in remote areas faced the threat of death by starvation.

I still don’t understand why at least a half-dozen Cabinet ministers, scores of permanent secretaries, provincial and district commissioners, DOs and other government officials down to chiefs in the affected areas were not sacked for dereliction of duty.

The only time we heard an officer was being held responsible was when some lowly chief in Turkana received a ‘show cause’ letter for daring to tell the media people had starved to death.

I think the persons who should show cause why they should not be disciplined are the big guns at the Office of the President.

Anyway, back to the need to take an inward look even as we hold the government responsible for starving its own people.

The other week, I kept one ear tuned to the TV with the live broadcast of the fundraising shindig, Kenyans4Kenya.

I heard former Safaricom CEO Michael Joseph berate the government for pushing resources to “White Elephant” projects such the Lamu Port and the Lamu-Juba road and rail link, instead of combating hunger and starvation.

For good measure, he also berated Kenyans for getting too many children and keeping too many cows.

‘‘MJ is in his ‘peculiar Kenyans’ mode”, I tweeted, to get some instant responses from friends who felt that Mr Joseph had spoken the hard truths we prefer not to address.

His comments elicited quite some rebuttals from other corporate bigwigs present. I recall Equity Bank chief James Mwangi, who is also chair of the Vision 2030 initiative, stoutly defending the mega-projects that will open up neglected areas of northern Kenya.

Kenya Airways CEO Titus Naikuni addressed Mr Joseph’s comments more directly: “We will never give up our cows”, he said, obviously the ‘we’ coming from his pastoralist heritage.

That one really interested me. From whence he hails, Mr Naikuni must be elite amongst the elite. He is educated, sophisticated and at the helm of one of Kenya’s blue-chip corporations. He is not some traditionalist Masai chieftain of little education but plenty of cattle wealth and a sprawling brood.

If he keeps cattle at all, I doubt that it will be scores of scrawny cows roaming the plains in search of pasture and condemned to death when drought stalks the land.

I bet that his would be ‘grade’ cows and bulls that probably have names in Kenya Stud Book or whatever record it is the serious cattlemen keep; the kind of animals whose mother and father, and grandparents too, probably had identity cards.

The pastoralists in Kenya’s parched north whose cattle are dying, and with that their only wealth, would probably react in the same outraged fashion.

But if truth be told, we must rethink what can only be referred to as the cattle economy. Let us keep large herds only if there really is an economic benefit and they can pay for themselves.

In this day, also, we surely should be limiting ourselves to the number of children we can afford to educate, clothe, shelter and love.

Like Mr Joseph, I also have no time for White Elephants. I am deeply suspicious of nuclear power plants and other projects that seem designed to gobble up millions in consultancy fees before a single brick has been laid.

However one cannot gainsay the importance of opening up marginalised regions with road and rail links, electricity, telephones and piped water.

That will be the only way to attract investment, create jobs, provide security and end poverty, and thus tackle perennial threat of famine once and for all.

The only qualification is that the projects be transparent and devoid of the malignant presence of wheeler-dealers and influence-peddlers claiming links to State House and other important offices.

mgaitho@ke.nationmedia.com