Kenyans prove tide of progress cannot be stemmed

The shoes are mangled and burned. The bicycles are melted together.

A woman wails uncontrollably as she walks among the ruins of a church outside Eldoret where the unthinkable happened after the 2007 election.

Innocents were bundled and locked into the church by thugs and then everything was set on fire.

Little was left of those who had been mothers, children and fathers only hours before this barbaric tragedy.

This moment, captured in a news photo, will forever be etched in my mind.

Flash forward to summer 2011: Kenyans surround TV sets to watch Finance minister Uhuru Kenyatta read the country’s budget.

Kenyatta, dressed in fine clothes, is surrounded by admiring politicians.

Today, Kenyatta and three others are charged with orchestrating the violence that claimed more than a thousand lives and almost destroyed the country.

President Kibaki has been implicated by the International Criminal Court of meeting the mobsters that helped perpetrate the disaster.

There had been great fear that the country could explode after the ICC made these allegations and formalised charges in January.

But it did not. The stock market is trading as usual. Commerce is happening. The countryside and the country are moving ahead.

What is clear is that Kenyans now have a good understanding why their country, which had made so much progress, could have slipped into complete disaster in such a short time.

The verdict: Kenya’s key strength is its people. Kenya’s key weakness is its corrupt leadership.

Politicians have gone into government with only one purpose: To make money for themselves at all costs.

This greed has been their guiding light — not the future of the people or even their own place in history.

At a time like this, it is important to note what is going right. Kenya has a growing and powerful system of education, where tomorrow’s leaders are being nurtured.

Kenyatta University, in particular, should receive accolades for what it’s doing to raise the level of entrepreneurship.

Kenya has an exceptional tourism industry. It plays host to guests from throughout the world and most leave with a very positive image of East Africa.