The trouble with Kenya is that we have little regard for human life.
What you need to know:
- The trouble with Kenya and perhaps many other failing African states is not simply a failure of leadership.
- The failure of leadership is a terminal symptom, and not the disease itself.
- We place so little value on human life that we are willing to let a person die so that we can inherit or “grab” their property.
- Claiming that the problem with our country is a failure of leadership is like saying that the cause of sudden death in a person is death itself.
In his acclaimed treatise on ‘The trouble with Nigeria’, the famous Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe asserted that “the trouble with Nigeria is simply and squarely a failure of leadership.
There is nothing basically wrong with the Nigerian character. There is nothing wrong with the Nigerian land or climate or water or air or anything else.
The Nigerian problem is the unwillingness or inability of its leaders to rise to the responsibility, to the challenge of personal example, which are the hallmarks of true leadership.” Many subsequent commentators have agreed with this assessment and even generalised it to many failing African states.
Today, I would like to differ, at least in the case of Kenya.
The trouble with Kenya and perhaps many other failing African states is not simply a failure of leadership. The failure of leadership is a terminal symptom, and not the disease itself.
FAILURE OF LEADERSHIP
Claiming that the problem with our country is squarely a failure of leadership is equivalent to saying that the cause of sudden death in a person is death itself. Death only arises after a series of events in the body that eventually push the body across the proverbial Rubicon.
Similarly, leadership failure is a product of the complex interplay between many factors ranging from the character of the citizens, their values, their history, their geography, and their culture and traditions.
I posit today that of all these factors the basic character traits of the majority, or the most influential section of a society, trump all else.
Character determines the values a people will hold dear, and how they will interact with their environment and other people around them. Character shapes our history, and helps us to subdue unfavourable geography and take advantage of our environment for our benefit.
The trouble with Kenya, therefore, in my view, is the national character. A disclaimer must of course be offered in the sense that this is obviously a generalisation that may not reflect the character and behaviour of all Kenyans.
However, it is a useful device in attempting to understand why, as a country, we tend to behave the way we do, and in predicting our future behaviour given a set of actual and hypothetical circumstances.
LITTLE REGARD FOR LIFE
The trouble with Kenya is that we have very little regard for human life. The value we place on human life is so abysmal that we can very easily be aroused by an “inciter” to kill a neighbour we have lived alongside for decades.
We place so little value on human life that we are willing to let a person die so that we can inherit or “grab” their property.
What evidence exists to confirm these assertions?
Away from the now over-used reference to the 2008 post-election violence and its aftermath, as well as the familiar intermittent “tribal clashes” around election time, there are every day observations that confirm this hypothesis and contradict Achebe’s assertion that there’s nothing wrong with our character.
In the past week, for instance, we have been treated to the saga of the “fake doctor” who allegedly conned his way to the top management of a health facility in Nandi County.
Along the way, it is implausible that those who worked with him did not have misgivings about his training and skills in medicine. Our disregard for the value of human life meant that we let him continue working even though we had serious doubts about his abilities. Allegedly, his “elevation” to the position of a medical superintendent was meant to remove him from the more demanding rigours of clinical work. Nobody knows just how many Kenyans were injured or killed under his “care”.
Of course we continue to tolerate government officials who steal money meant for lifesaving treatments in our hospitals, or road contractors who make dangerous roads resulting in crashes that maim and kill many Kenyans. Yes, the trouble with Kenya is with our character.
Atwoli is associate professor of psychiatry and dean, School of Medicine, Moi University; [email protected]
