Just vote for whoever you like. We should not fight over it

People queue to cast their ballots at Bungoma High School in a by-election in December 2013. FILE PHOTO | JARED NYATAYA | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • Do not burn your neighbour’s house.
  • Free your mind and use it to liberate you and your them economically.

Kenyans, please, don’t fight over this election, however it turns out. You will be fighting the wrong guy for the wrong reason. Not all of us are gifted, but we all have a serious problem: The people of Kenya are rarely able to process outside the tribe.

What amuses me is that you will support a person from your tribe, even when you know that he is incompetent, or ineffective, or too old, or too lazy or an outrageous thief.

Choose whomever you like, I will not judge, but don’t fight. What are you fighting for? Kenya has no real political parties. The groupings that now exist are like porous membranes across which politicians and the corrupt, maggot elite flow by osmosis freely and unimpeded by either principle or ideology.

IDEA THEFT

If you have been listening, politicians have been trading accusations that the other party stole their ideas. They have the same ideas, some being recycled for the fifth election.

This is not a change election; 10 years ago, all these guys were in the same camp. Ten years from today, they will probably be back together, happily wearing the same uniforms, dancing to the crowds and talking the same fluff. If you think the guy you support is different, that’s probably your tribe talking.

We have problems, but we are not too badly off. We are, politically, one of the freest countries in Africa. You can speak your mind, and you can do your stuff, without anyone interfering with you.

Actually, the complaint may be that we abuse these freedoms, rather than lack them. So our problem is not political freedom and if anyone tells you that this is the kind of liberation you need, they are just playing with your psychology.

Across the border in Tanzania, something really nasty is cooking. It has become a place where opposition leaders are locked up for doing something that Tanzanians love to do and are very good at: debating issues.

Political leaders can only hold a public rally in their constituency, and not outside. In that context, people can talk about liberation and political rights.

Our big problem is not political, it is economic. We are enslaved by a class of shadowy operators who profit from our sweat, export the jobs our children need and rob us of the money we have today and what we are expected to have tomorrow.

As a matter of fact, I think the money due to us in our lifetimes has already been stolen through promissory notes and other sovereign debt. So has that of our children. What we must now protect is the welfare of our grandchildren so that their taxes will go to providing services to secure their common welfare.

OUR BRAINS

We need a Mau Mau II, waged not with guns and pangas, but with our ideas and our brains. The challenge is to delink the economy totally from elections and retail politics. We must find a means to destroy the “tenderpreneurial” class and all its appendages, once and for all.

Kenyans, who have a very good nose for easy money, are fighting to get into politics and government in the hope that they will make a killing. Tenders are the new pyramid schemes. And to make sure that your supply of tenders is assured, you have to own the MCA, the governor, even the President himself, if you are big enough a tenderpreneur.

First, we need to make corruption unattractive. Laws that impose penalties of 50 years, which are actually meted out, coupled with large-scale asset recovery – if you stole it, we’ll get it back, all of it – will get people thinking very seriously about whether they want to proceed with that palm-greasing business.

Actually, most people are afraid of being caught and punished. With a little bit of pressure, honesty can be the way of life for many.

Secondly, we must find a means to undermine the demand for political corruption. Politicians become involved in, and tolerate it as a way of funding their activities. Rather than funding individuals, how about funding ideas?

If people came together in political entities such as foundations and so forth and mobilised finances in support of ideas and policies, politicians would be encouraged to go in that direction, rather than become outright thieves.

If a sector could mobilise some Sh10 billion for the candidate who presents the most credible plan to tackle corruption, we would make significant headway.

LEGITIMATE ENTERPRISE

Finally, a strong, deliberate effort has to be made to open opportunities for Kenyans to invest their ambition in legitimate enterprise.

Today, some of the folks referred to as businessmen are thieves. But it is possible for such people, and ordinary folks to be encouraged to put their brains behind good business and investment.

If children can join a middle-level college or the military without having to pay a bribe, if you can open a small quarry and have the National Youth Service come and buy your stones, what would be your motivation for risking your freedom by being corrupt?

So, don’t burn your neighbour’s house. Free your mind and use it to liberate yourself and your neighbour economically.