We have a lot to do before we can claim right to be proud Kenyans

We are seeing these days many great moments that make us proud to be Kenyan. Too bad, however, that our swelling chests are all too often speedily deflated by the things that make us ashamed to be Kenyan.

The Rio Olympics provided the stage for Kenya’s greatest-ever sporting success, but the celebrations were dimmed by stories of incompetence and corruption in the management of the games team.

Then we have just hosted probably the largest and most prestigious international gathering in Kenya since the Organisation of African Unity's 18th Summit of Heads of State and Government in 1981, but the moment of pride had its thunder stolen by reports of the Rio fiasco.

Let us look first at the Olympics. A team that brought so much glory should have had a triumphant victory parade from the airport on an open top double-decker bus, military brass band, ticker tape parade, and all.

Instead, the athletes virtually slipped back into the country individually or in small, anonymous batches.

The big news post-Rio was not a glorious victory parade, but the fallout from the games management scandal.

This was the news that stole attention from the Sixth Tokyo International Conference on African Development Summit.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was joined by 24 African heads of state and government as well as representatives of all the 28 or so other African countries, United Nations agencies, over 70 international and regional organisations, and local and international private sector and civil society bodies.

Ticad VI was the latest in a host of major international gatherings that serve as massive votes of confidence in a country that not too long was facing the threat of being declared a pariah state for electing leaders under indictment for crimes against humanity.

And it is also a country facing serious security threats that saw CNN infamously declare it a “hotbed of terror”.

STAND TALL

That the world is descending on Kenya without that much fear of contamination, or terrorist bombs, makes us stand tall and proud.

But instead of seeing Ticad VI as a path to prosperity and development, our mercenary selves tended to focus only on the trillions Japan promised in aid.

That was much the same approach to the “rival” Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in Johannesburg last December.

The problem with this begging-bowl approach is that it indicates a lack of appreciation that Africa is about the wealthiest continent and should be an aid donor, not perpetual recipient.

Conferences such as Ticad are well-meaning, but serve to mask the fact that Africa is not poor; it is just the people who are.

Ours is a poverty of leadership and ideas, not resources.

The Nairobi Declaration out of Ticad VI presents a great road map for African prosperity.

It addresses succinctly the development priorities, but as usual we prefer to focus on the short-term dollops.

As long as we are salivating at the aid on offer, we will be looking primarily at how much we can stuff into our pockets.

I can just imagine a conversation taking place right now at State House, Nairobi, where the usual crowd of First Family and associated wheeler-dealers are haggling over who gets what bite of the pie. One fellow will be arguing that he was short-changed on the Chinese railway deals, so he will be angling for a piece of the action on what Japan is offering.

Another one will be reminding the gathering that he is in charge of “resource mobilisation” for the 2017 presidential campaign, so any new infrastructure projects should be his exclusive territory.

Another will come up with a reminder that cancellation of the airport expansion project hurt his business networks, so he should be given special consideration.

And there will also be the fellow looking forward to amassing his war chest for the 2022 elections.

This is not idle theorising. It is a snapshot of what now happens every day in the upper echelons of power, where despite all the anti-graft posturing, grand corruption has come back on the mega scale.

The Chinese are aware, the Japanese are aware, and so are the Americans, the Europeans, the Russians, the Arabs, and everybody else seeking to buy loyalties in Kenya.

We have a lot to do to reclaim the “Proud to be Kenyan” tag.

[email protected]; Twitter: @MachariaGaitho