Let’s seriously think of Kenya we want for future generations

Agents of Jubilee Party aspirants on April 21, 2017 protest delay of nominations at M.V Patel Memorial Hall in Huruma Ward, Uasin Gishu County. PHOTO | JARED NYATAYA | NATION MEDIA GROUP

By  DOMINIC WAMUGUNDA

What you need to know:

  • The “sacred cow” syndrome was not such a big thing in some of the parties.
  • How well or badly we manage Kenya is squarely in our hands.

I think we all agree with one thing fellow Kenyans: That our carelessness in the manner in which we manage our political and even economic life notwithstanding, we have a great country that God gave us as our heritage.

Of course how well or badly we manage this heritage is squarely in our hands.

This is a subject that is critical at this time when we are going through party nominations in readiness for the General Election in August.

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Just to show what a great country we have, a group of us from Nairobi arrived in Cape Town last Tuesday dressed warm and ready to face a climatic environment which we had been warned was going to be cold.

I do not know whether we were disappointed or not but, on arrival, we found a beautiful warm summer day.

HEAVY RAINS

The following day there were heavy rains, thunderstorms and lightning.

The third day was even more inconsistent – something between winter and spring.

Someone had actually warned that in Cape Town, one can experience all four seasons in one day.

Such extreme inconsistencies in the weather are not some of our major complaints here in Kenya.

Geographical conditions not withstanding, however, we have bigger issues to be thinking about.

PARTY NOMINATIONS

My sincere hope when I see how the party nominations are going is that we may be on the way to setting up a proper political system that can withstand the test of time.

Unfortunately for the moment we still have a situation in which not all the candidates who emerge victorious are the best for managing the kind of Kenya we would want for future generations but, because of party affiliation, they will “lead”.

Some of the people who are better equipped to manage the Kenya of the future just get wasted.

The most important part in all this is that to a large extent the “sacred cow” syndrome was not such a big thing in some of the parties.

That being the case, if we can get to learn to manage our party nominations in a manner that internal party democracy is given serious consideration by all, then there is hope in a possible future of our overall democracy. Kenya is greater than all of us.

Writer is Dean of Students at the University of Nairobi [email protected]

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