Hero worship poses huge risk to any progress
What you need to know:
- It appeared the government was unable or unwilling to respond effectively to the assassination call and related hate speech without seeking out offenders on the other side of the political divide.
- Kenyans were recently treated to a circus at the Supreme Court in which two judges refused to retire upon attaining the age of 70 as required by the Constitution.
- Our politicians can confidently hop from one party to another because they are sure that their electors will follow them wherever they lead.
A series of events in the recent past have gone a long way in consolidating the view that Kenyans are a people hankering after a medieval philosopher-king to solve all their problems, and this hero desire poses perhaps the greatest threat to our progress as a nation.
Our preoccupation with tribal and group "spokesmen" is a long and fascinating phenomenon, and our tendency to see everything through a sectarian lens personified by our chieftain’s opinions continuously validates this view.
A couple of weeks ago we were treated to a ridiculous but sadly common spectacle culminating in the arrest of several politicians on charges of hate speech and incitement to violence.
An MP was alleged to have called for the assassination of a politician he disagreed with, while others were alleged to have incited people to violence for one reason or another. One could make a number of interesting observations here.
Firstly, it appeared the government was unable or unwilling to respond effectively to the assassination call and related hate speech without seeking out offenders on the other side of the political divide.
Any objective observer could see that law enforcers were hesitant to act on one side’s offences without attempting to demonstrate an equivalence of criminal tendencies on the other. If the ridiculously worded charge sheets posted on social media are anything to go by, the arrests and charges clearly had other motives than enforcing the law on hate speech and incitement.
This exemplifies the inability of our institutions and citizens to see anything clearly without tribalising and personalising it first.
Secondly, Kenyans were recently treated to a circus at the Supreme Court in which two judges refused to retire upon attaining the age of 70 as required by the Constitution.
MORAL FOUNDATIONS
The fact that we even entertained their arguments, including allowing them to insist that they could be judges in their own case, is not testimony to our democracy and openness, but evidence of the vacuity of our moral foundations. Democracy and openness presupposes a society that is committed to the underlying philosophy in which we all trust that every citizen will endeavour to make decisions that are first of all good for the commonwealth.
Citizens in a modern democracy agree to subordinate the bulk of their baser instincts and wishes to the greater interests of the nation. The unfortunate reality in Kenya is that we are yet to conquer our selfish wishes and would, without batting an eyelid, do things that would destroy national institutions as long as they satisfy some personal need.
The majority of Kenyans are unable to raise a finger against these retirement-averse judges because they feel exactly the same way and would behave similarly under the circumstances. Our social foundations are shaky because we simply took on the dress of democracy without the internal disposition to support it.
As a matter of fact we have crises in national institutions because firstly we place our collective faith in individuals we style as "saviours", and secondly because these individuals eventually believe the hype and begin carrying themselves as such. Without exception, our political parties are built on personality cults, and none can boast of members committed to party goals.
Indeed, not even the leaders of these parties are committed to party ideals, and one would be hard pressed to identify a political party leader who has remained faithful to one party throughout their political career.
All our politicians can confidently hop from one party to another because they are sure that their electors will follow them wherever they lead. To spice it all up, they will amplify the lie that they represent the interests of their tribe or clan, after which their every utterance is accepted as gospel truth by their ethnic base.
As long as we continue placing our personal interests above those of others, as long as we keep looking for solutions from proclaimed ‘saviours’, we are unlikely to have sustainable stability for any length of time.
Lukoye Atwoli is associate professor of psychiatry and dean, school of medicine, Moi University; [email protected].
