Politicking at the expense of our country’s development

I shall have to salute you from the Holy Land once more dear friends and trust all is well. I must tell you that after a week away, I am missing all the drama that goes with our national life.

Where I come from, and some of you have guessed right – the central region of Kenya – people say that the person who never goes out of his home believes that his own mother is the best cook. Since I know this to be true, I also feel that the people we call our leaders do not quite tell us the whole truth.

This time round, I wish to talk about leadership by genuine leaders who dream serious dreams and believe in a course that is about developing their own people and do everything in their power to see that the job is done.

This last week, I have seen two projects that have made Israel a real power in the world in only 67 years. In the desert of the Negev stands a prestigious university named after the first prime minister of Israel, David Ben Gurion.

Apart from the university, in that desert there are agricultural research centres which are inspired by Ben Gurion’s prediction that the future of Israel is in the Negev.

He personally demonstrated that belief by retiring into a Kibuttz within that desert. Let us not forget that 60 pc of Israel’s land mass is in that desert. Ben Gurion is also the same man who said after he became prime minister that every Israeli child must go to school and if he or she does not, then the father must go to jail. It worked. Parents took their children to school.

The second project I saw this week is the Weismann Institute of Science. Weismann was the first president of Israel and he is credited with saying that science would be the basis of Israel’s future development.

That institute has come up with serious research findings that have changed human life. In short, Israel’s development has been anchored on a number of pillars. The first one is education and particularly higher education.

The other one is the management of water and how that affects agricultural development. All these are linked to the other key pillar, which is high technology. Even the most powerful nations on earth cannot shake Israel in this area.

Let us not forget that Israel is a land of immigrants who now number just about eight million. Remember that even the farmlands here were claimed from desert land.

Where are we Kenyans after 50 years of independence? Just politicking every day?

Fr Wamugunda is dean of students, University of Nairobi; [email protected]