Who will save Kenyans from the tyranny of selfish politicians?

We have been in election mode since March 2013, when we last went to the ballot.

That is three years of politicking and it speaks volumes about the pivotal place of elective politics in Kenyans’ lives.

Now, that does not make us all willing players in the political arena. It has been said ad nauseam that the problem with Kenya is its "winner-takes-all politics".

The statement bears repeating at this time when the voices of politicians and their acolytes are rising to a deafening crescendo in endless campaigns that have become a national repast.

In the shouting match where logical thinking is sacrificed on the altar of convenience and playing to the gallery of ethnic chauvinism, reason goes to the dogs as gullible Kenyans are treated to the theatre of the absurd.

I hold no brief for Central Bank Governor Patrick Njoroge, but it was shocking to hear a presidential aspirant ridicule his efforts at reining in rogue banks with double-edged ad hominem expletives directed at the office holder and his appointer.

Pray, Senator Moses Wetang’ula, when did being a monk preclude financial know-how, even supposing that Dr Njoroge was one, as you so derisively put it?

INSULT TO RELIGIOUS MEN

The statement is an insult to all religious men and women who have chosen to serve God as they know best, not because of any mental deficiency on their part, but purely out of choice.

And yet, this is just one example of the vacuous arguments that obtain on both sides of our political divide, where logic is an alien word and sophistry reigns supreme.

Because of the burning ambition to get to State House by all means, politicians play all sorts of mind games on voters, in most cases flashing the ethnic card.

It is John Githongo who popularised the “our turn to eat” ethos that drives Kenya’s national politics.

Because of this culture, politicians have lost all sense of morality, breakfasting with one party, lunching with another, and shamelessly supping with a third, all in the hope of either grabbing the ultimate crown or, at least, joining the eating chiefs.

And then the voter is treated to the tired cliché of “there are no permanent enemies in politics”.

Really? If you are ready to assassinate the character of an opponent or denigrate his or her efforts, all in the name of gaining political mileage, isn’t that enmity?

And if you are ready to dine with the same enemy the following day so as to partake of nusu mkate, what distinguishes you from a prostitute?

Kenyan politics took a perilous acquisitive slant on that ominous Saturday, April 10, 1965, in Murang’a, when founding President Jomo Kenyatta railed at Bildad Kaggia, accusing the socialist-minded politician of advocating free things.

“...we were together with Paul Ngei in jail. If you go to Ngei’s home, he has planted a lot of coffee and other crops - what have you done for yourself? If you go to Kubai’s home, he has a big house and a nice shamba - Kaggia, what have you done for yourself? We were together with Kung’u Karumba in jail, now he is running his own buses - what have you done for yourself?” Kenyatta said, capping it with a statement that he, too, had worked very hard since leaving detention.

POLITICAL GOOSE COOKED

With that tirade, our political goose was cooked. Politicians aspire for Parliament with an eye on the highest office in the land for themselves and for their cronies, not to serve the voters, but to amass as much as they possibly can for the duration of their tenure in office as Dishonourable Members.

The political class is governed by blinding rapacity that does not hesitate to teargas school children to grab their land.

Our hope lies in a crop of leadership, à la Patrick Njoroge, who shun the trappings of power, upholding the spirit of service.

If we all voted for a Njoroge come next General Election, we would be the better for it.

For now, it is doom and gloom as politicians jostle for office without a thought for ethical values and principles that they long bastardised by mutilating Chapter Six of our Constitution.

Ms Kweyu is a freelance journalist and consulting editor. [email protected].