They want your vote but ignore your needs
Voter registration goes on in Isiolo on January 18, 2017. PHOTO | PHOEBE OKALL | NATION MEDIA GROUP
What you need to know:
The poor are targeted for voter registration but are not sure of food and water in the drought affected areas.
The elites want the votes of the poor but are not offering anything back in return.
We have coalitions, alliances and new parties but none of them are speaking about the massive inequality that exists in this country.
It is campaign season and the chattering classes have gone overdrive. The annual spat between the county and national government dominates the airwaves in the coast. It is hard to avoid the passionate views even when you find the whole Marwa–Joho war of words to be tiring, puerile and elitist. Just to repeat, when two elephants fight it is the grass that suffers.
Meanwhile, Mombasa residents spend the dry month of January searching for spaces and fees for their children in schools, beds in any hospital for their sick ones while paying exorbitant prices for the luxury of acquiring a jerrycan of water in the dry city. Of course, the political class just dig bore holes and go access private education and medical treatment at home or abroad. This is the disconnect and where the two worlds may soon collide.
There are two worlds existing side by side in Kenya that of the political and ruling classes and the world of the citizens who do their best to keep bread on the table and the bailiff away from the door. The former dominate the airwaves and the purse strings while the latter quietly go about their business of finding meaning, sustenance and a little beauty in what they do. Unfortunately, the tiny minority daily add to the misery of the vast majority and there appears very little that Wanjiku can do about it.
THOSE BELOW
The media and other elites view life from the perspective of those who are comfortable and aspire to have more. It is time we viewed life, politics, change and policy from the side of those below, from those who just struggle to get by. In theological terms we would say it is time to make an option for the poor.
The poor are targeted for voter registration but are not sure of food and water in the drought affected areas. The elites want the votes of the poor but are not offering anything back in return. We have coalitions, alliances and new parties but none of them are speaking about the massive inequality that exists in this country.
We are frequently told that the GDP of the country is growing by 5.9 percent. There are some signs of this in the construction industry. But the 60 percent who live on less than $2 (about Sh200) a day know they are not in any way benefiting in this growth. Their lot is not in any way improving. Besides governance is not a business and must be measured differently.
MORE COMPREHENSIVE
This is why the World Economic Forum this week released a more comprehensive way of measuring inclusive growth and development. This includes matters like household income, life expectancy, inequality, gender, access to education and employment.
Kenya does not rank well in the survey at No 65 out of 109 countries in the Inclusive Growth and Development Index. The country has a growing middle class but inequality has increased considerably in the past five years. Only 23 percent have access to electricity and 30 percent to sanitation.
This report confirms what we all know about our unequal society. Question is will all the hullabaloo about voter registration and elections make any difference for the masses?
