Patriotic Kenyans must rescue state from the hands of selfish politicians

In a three-paragraph letter to the editor of The Standard (Thursday, May 21, 2015), Dennis Mangwa of Bungoma captures one manifestation of intellectual bankruptcy in our country, namely, the alacrity with which every Tom, Dick and Harry in politics dismisses the opinions of all his or her opponents as “mere politics”.

If statements or activities of low moral quality can be declared “mere politics”, then we have no choice but to conclude that something is endemically wrong with “politics” itself. Mr Mangwa affirms this by lamenting that “...most of the [politicians’] time is spent on politics and unnecessary arguments...” from which “... the common man benefits nothing...”

Note my italics. Clearly, this manner of putting it reduces “politics” to the category of “unnecessary arguments”. If you doubt it, any casual visit to, for instance, Hansard will confirm it for you. Mr Mangwa proceeds to make his theme unassailable by attaching the adjective “bad” to the substantive “politics”.

In this way, he shows awareness that such a thing as “good politics” may also exist. But, in that case, the problem cannot lie in politics per se. For the political state is the mode of existence of all civilised – that is to say, of most modern – mankind. Aristotle was so convinced of it, he ordained that only a savage could live outside the state.

But the question is ineluctable. If politics is not the culprit, who is? The answer: The politician. Politics is a necessary instrument by which modern society seeks to achieve certain basic purposes collectively, including (a) to educate and train itself for the production and reproduction of its wherewithal and (b) to defend itself from external interests (both human and environmental).

It is only in the hands of politicians that politics goes haywire. Humanity has arrived at the situation where individuals seek political positions, not because they desire to serve society with impersonality, but only because it is through politics that they can secure enough personal clout with which to enrich themselves and, in the process, make themselves even more powerful.

DELIVER WITH IMPERSONALITY

Humanity has arrived at the situation where individuals now seek political positions, not because they desire to deliver with impersonality any goods and services to society, but only because politics is what can confer enough clout to enable the individual politician to enrich and make himself/herself even more powerful as the vicious circle continues.

In Kenya, the run-of-the-mill politician is not a purveyor of knowledge either of history or of the present-day needs of his or her people. He or she is neither a pedagogue of wisdom nor a trainer in skills, nor yet an organiser of people for the purpose of tackling a problem together to achieve a collective good as soon as possible.

In Kenya, the average politician excels both in cheating the constituents and in self-aggrandisement vis-a-vis the peers. Being ignorant of its real (objective) interests, society easily falls victim to whoever, although not having the social interests at heart, has the gift of the gab. Given to chest-thumping heroics, he or she pledges this and that, even where “this” and “that” are as unearthly as the man in the moon.

The self-pursuit is marketed with such crudity as would nauseate any real aesthete. Like the priest, who promises goods and services that he cannot deliver till domesday, the politician, when he or she comes to power, promises goods which, says he, he will deliver only “when funds are available” – a phrase which (because the funds have been channelled into personal pockets) means “never”.

That is why those Kenyans who claim to have society at heart – especially the so-called civil organisations – so urgently need to explode this mystique of politics by which the politicians and the political state perpetually seek to swindle society by enriching themselves at the immense expense of the long-suffering mass.

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