The Pope was right to point out that our unjust society is unsustainable

What you need to know:

  • A fortnight cut-off from Facebook, Twitter, and even my Google account initially seems like being subjected the third degree, but eventually feels liberating.

  • Pope admonishments against land-grabbing and greedy leadership was akin to waving a red flag on President Kenyatta and his deputy Ruto.

  • The Jubilee coalition principals may have inwardly seethed at what looked like direct accusations, but it would have been impolitic for them to respond to the Pope.

I was not around to personally experience the visit of “Papa Franjes”.

But thanks to the wonders of the modern day, I was able to follow in real time events half a world away, notwithstanding the limitations imposed by the Great Firewall of China.

A fortnight cut-off from Facebook, Twitter, and even my Google account initially seems like being subjected the third degree, but eventually feels liberating.

Anyway, I digress. I may have missed much of the build-up, but by the time the Pope landed in Nairobi I had moved on to territory where the official censor is not that enthusiastic.

I followed keenly the papal visit and could not help but feel that many local leaders were squirming in their seats.

POPE'S ADMONISHMENTS

The Pope admonishing corrupt, greedy, land-grabbing leadership and unjust policies designed to concentrate the national wealth in the hands of a tiny elite while making the poor poorer was like waving a red flag in the faces of President Uhuru Kenyatta and Deputy President William Ruto.

I imagined that it would not be long before the usual choristers started accusing the Pope of interfering in domestic affairs and acting at the behest of foreign elements or under the influence of the local opposition.

The Jubilee coalition principals may have inwardly seethed at what looked like direct accusations, but it would have been impolitic for them to respond to the Pope.

ENTHUSIASTIC SYCOPHANTS

“Kenya is a sovereign state and outsiders should not come and dictate to us… we have adequate policies to deal with such issues,” he said.

In classic Jubilee mindset, he went on to suggest that the Pope had been misled by an opposition keen to project the country in bad light, saying the visitor should have confined himself to praying for the country while leaving Kenyans to solve their own problems.

It is a wonder that Mr Maiyo did not throw civil society, the media, the White House, and the rest of the usual Jubilee bogeys into the mix, but then there is still time for others to add their voices to the stand for fake sovereignty and patriotism.

Mr Maiyo obviously missed the story of President Kenyatta, a confirmed if not too pious Catholic, asking the Pope to pray for him as he sought to conquer the monster of corruption.

The Pope was thus directly invited by the highest office in the land to pay attention to our very real problems and help in the search for solutions.

Mr Maiyo and others of his ilk may call this meddling, but if divine intervention is what we need in the face of deliberate human failing, so be it.

AN UNJUST SOCIETY

The Pope recognised very well that an unjust society is an unsustainable society that is doomed to failure and collapse. In the early years of independence, rebel politician J M Kariuki correctly described President Jomo Kenyatta’s Kenya as a country of 10 millionaires and 10 million beggars.

He was killed by State assassins, and now we are closer to 40 billionaires and 40 million beggars.

The rampant inequality all too evident even in those early years inspired Chinese Prime Minister Chou en Lai to correctly diagnose Kenya as a country ripe for revolution.

Nothing has changed. Despite all the over-hyped policies put in place since the Moi era to supposedly banish poverty, support small enterprise, economically empower youth and women, and support development in historically neglected and marginalised regions, Kenya still remains one of the most unequal societies in the world.

The government’s own statistics show that the rich-poor gap in Kenya mirrors the colour-bar regime of the pre-independence colonial state, or apartheid South Africa and its successor regime of economic apartheid.

Before the Jubilee apologists start accusing me of being a socialist, as they often do when I point out these truths, let me remind them that these numbers do not lie.

Yes, President Uhuru Kenyatta needs prayers. But he probably has heard the truism that God helps those who help themselves. 

Therefore, he must roll up his sleeves and work earnestly towards banishing the corrupt leeches from his company and creating a just and equal society.