In apologising to Uhuru, Kenyatta Okoth Obado stole the show from Raila Odinga

Because your intellectual knowledge is certificated, I do not impugn it.

The only question is whether the degree stands also for moral knowledge — for refinement of the mind, finesse of the mouth and restraint of the hand.

Yet that is perhaps a false dichotomy.

Perhaps the two are just one. For, although ethical consciousness is possible without formal schooling, a genuine academic experience is what can open your inner eyes to the united beauty of all reality — natural and social — and thus humble you by its very vastness.

Intellectual knowledge is what can lead you to the library of moral goodies accumulated from the works of ancient and coeval teachers the world over.

Socrates was once voted the wisest man in Athens because he was the only person in that classical city-state who knew enough about reality to make him realise how ignorant he was.

Jacob Bronowski — one of the most educated minds I have ever known — asserts that genuine intellectual knowledge will always humble the owner because (like the horizon) such knowledge always lurches away every time you come close to it, thus posing new and more difficult questions.

Wisdom, then, is a moral category. But, clearly, the intellectual strength to acknowledge your ignorance publicly is one definition of wisdom.

The moral lesson from Socrates and Bronowski is that a mind should be called educated only when it knows — and publicly admits — that what it knows is but the tiniest fraction of universal reality.

This pedestal of knowledge has important adventitious branches.

RELATIVE IGNORANCE

An educated mind is that which knows that, because of its relative ignorance of the natural and social surroundings, it will make mistakes that can prove terribly injurious to the welfare and feelings of other minds.

One definition of an educated mind is its readiness to accept its mistakes and, whenever these are pointed out to it, to apologise to all those whom the mistake might have harmed; and to be seen making deliberate steps not only to compensate the victims but also to make assurance double sure never to repeat the mistake.

The question is thus salient: What kind of ethico-intellectual education do Kenya’s leaders impart to their children whenever they stand in the agora to suborn witnesses against their rivals and then, when accosted, to announce publicly that they will never resign or apologise?

In Kenya, you can silence Kajwang, Khalwale, Kindiki, Mbuvi, Midiwo, Namwamba, Ngilu, Shebesh and their ilk only by subjecting their lips to the cherehani.

Hoping that they will apologise is like Waiting For Godot. And when the electorate finally gathers enough education to vote them out of our legislatures, they will have wreaked a great deal of havoc.

Following certain accusations, one Cabinet official spoke for all of them by swearing that he would rather die than resign. Naturally, no apology can be expected from such a mind.

But, even when, as individuals, we are not the culprits, we should drum up the courage to apologise to the nation on behalf of the ragamuffins in Falstaff’s political wake.

That is why, although I cannot say that Mr Raila Odinga unleashed anybody to embarrass the President, I think that Mr Odinga — much more than Mr Okoth Obado — is the one who owes President Kenyatta an apology.

An answer may be seen in the concatenation triggered by the unfortunate event in my native county the other day. Migori Governor Obado has subsequently drummed up the courage to apologise to President Uhuru Kenyatta for it.

In this way, young Obado stole the show from Raila Odinga.

[email protected]