Letter to Kibaki: Leadership is action, not position

• In 36 months, we must break our ‘beak’ and pluck out our ‘feathers’

This is a letter to President Kibaki. Good sir, my respects and prayers. Now with your indulgence, I will go to the point.

According to Niccolo Machiavelli, those who live on the hill tops have the best view of the valley. And those who live in the valley have the best view of the hills. I write to you as one of the ‘‘earthlings’’ living in the valley below.

I will be candid because to lie to the ‘‘King’’ is to commit high treason. Sir, we are losing faith in you.

As the country degenerates, you look paralysed and powerless. You are like the driver of this matatu which left the road and headed downhill.

Asked by the passengers where he was taking them, he said “… I don’t know where we are going; all I know is that we are going there very fast!”

From the valley, sir, it looks like you don’t know where you are taking us. The question is: do you know that you are taking us there very fast?

With your indulgence, sir, I submit that the destination is not the issue; the driving is the issue.

I say so because, as a country, we are experiencing decay. In fact, the decay is from the core; and to the core.

And no matter how hard we try, we cannot reverse it. In sum, and like the matatu, we are headed downhill by design.

However, depending on how you drive us there, we can either crash or land safely. Put differently, we need to rebuild the nation.

But we cannot rebuild it without tearing it apart first. To tear it apart is to take it downhill, but for a purpose. To refuse to tear it apart is to kill it slowly. And nothing illustrates this better than the life of an eagle.

At the age of 40, an eagle cannot survive. Its talons (claws) are overgrown, tired and weak; they cannot grip its prey. Its beak is dull and bent. It cannot pick or peck. Its body is overgrown with feathers; heavy, sticky and useless. It cannot fly.

In this condition, the eagle has only two options: to wither away and die, or to renew itself through pain. If it chooses the path of pain, it retreats to the mountain tops alone.

There it hides for a period of five months renewing itself. First, it plucks out all its feathers. Then it plucks out the talons from its feet. Lastly, it knocks off its beak by banging it against a rock until it comes out.

Defenceless, it waits for its feathers, beak, and talons to grow back. Other eagles fly overhead, scaring off predators, and bringing it food.