Our politics is that of greed and entitlement

The Obama weekend was one like no other.

He certainly took the place by storm.

Come to think of it, he did accomplish quite a good bit in just two days.

He met and dined with his relatives, participated in the conference that was the excuse for his coming, held bilateral talks with government, addressed Kenyans at Kasarani, met the Opposition and addressed civil society groups at the Young Leaders Centre in Kenyatta University.

The meeting with the leaders of the Opposition is what generated a little mirth.

He himself let the cat off the bag when he told the group at KU that he had differed with one those leaders – without mentioning names – on the suggestion that he and the US government push our government on some issues.

He amused everyone when he told us that he had pointed out to that leader that when the said leader was in government, his views were different. He thought that the US government ought to mind their own business.

CAME OUT ON THE DEFENCE

No sooner had Obama left that the opposition leaders came out on the defence.

In all this one would have to try and understand the mentality of most of us with regard to the relationship between government and those who are out of government including ordinary citizens.

Government can often seem to be highhanded and probably a little unreasonable.

Look at all this talk about corruption in high places.

Surely, someone knows something about who is doing what but we have not yet seen any senior government officer jailed.

The most critical question is how long we have practiced opposition politics and under what circumstances.

Even though there had been some subversive activities particularly since the 1980s, real formal opposition took root in the 1990s during the Moi regime.

WORKED WITH NGOS

At that point everyone including some of the international community was tired with the way things were going.

The Americans and others preferred to work through NGOs rather than government.

Somehow many of us felt that those foreigners were our good partners in the struggle for good governance.

I suspect that it was in this spirit that the said opposition leader asked Obama to intervene.

As I have often argued in this column, I do not think that there is a real marked difference between the various players in “our” political class.

By and large they are all the same and they look at issues with the same lenses whether they are in or out of government.

Ours is a political culture of the worship of big money and the cult of following individual tribal chiefs and not one of philosophical ideas and the good of all.

Fr Wamugunda is dean of students, University of Nairobi; [email protected]