Time for the nation to sober up and resolve our many differences

Many Kenyans agree that our nation needs to sober up and imagine how best it can reconstruct itself after years of internal self-abuse. The nation is clearly in agony and there are too many lose ends in our political life, economic activities, social interactions, cultural expression and spiritual well-being.

Over the years, the political class has created too much anger, anxiety, and mistrust in the country, which peak during elections. This is because political power is viewed as to leading to access to public resources.  But with more accountability in service delivery, it is possible reduce these tendencies.

For the last four years, the political elite have ensured that no space is left for our imagination and creative impulse to flourish. They have used every nook and cranny to win followers through hollow promises and polarising rhetoric. No funeral or place of worship has been left behind by their antics.

Elite struggles over access to public resources are politicised and presented as battles of ethnicities.

PROTECTED

In the process, leaders remain unaccountable and protected by their particular ethnic groups. Questions related to transparency in the use of public resources are trivialised, ethnicised and ridiculed. Institutions charged with delivery of services are targeted, weakened and beaten to a pulp.

This is unsustainable. We need a non-partisan framework for a dialogue on national values and principles.  Nations grow through the deliberate nurturing of accountable and transparent governance institutions populated by individuals of integrity.

We cannot develop national or county governance institutions within the current political culture. It is too corrosive, individualistic, materialistic, violent, dehumanising, and uninspiring.

Driven by criminality and the insatiable greed for material things, our political culture is hollow and incapable of forming the basis for socio-economic transformation. It is incapable of preserving the resources within our borders for future generations.

Yet, it is through this political socialisation that young people are building their frames of reference that will guide their choices about how to relate with other human beings.

GENDER

How can the youth cross borders and break the shells of ethnic, gender, class or gender bigotries when at every moment they are confronted by intense images of the same from their leaders? How can the youth be expected to embody the values of humility and respect when in media all they witness is guzzling, conspicuous consumption and the negation of the value of labour?

The ability to cross borders is born through modelling of behaviour, practical interventions and the realisation of the transitory nature of living creatures. Article 10 of the Constitution of Kenya provides an initial point of reference for the nation to start imagining another future driven by ‘building bridges across divides’.

In this journey anticipated by the national values and principles of governance, the responsibility of leaders in all domains of life is to humanise the world through the practice and discourse of ‘reaching out’ to those viewed as different. Our current political culture is devoid of this philosophy.

As a result, it continues to entrench sharp economic inequalities, violence and social intolerance.  

EDUCATION

There is something seriously wrong with an economy that is extremely unequal in terms of access to basic needs such as health care, food, shelter and education.

There is need to focus on a different economic model that seeks to help more Kenyans meet their basic needs.

This might require investing more in agribusiness, smallholder agriculture, sustainable pastoralism, small and medium size enterprises, basic healthcare, reliable public transport and building of skill sets that secure households. Many Kenyans just want a life of dignity as human beings.

They have no need for the primitive accumulation of material things they see among their leaders.  They deserve better from their leaders.

The fractured life we see at the political level is mapped socially in our communities. We are witnessing a rise in gender-based violence, insecurity, grabbing of public spaces, aggression on the roads, ethnic mistrust and inter-generation tension.

HARMFUL SUBSTANCES

We are no longer sure of what we are eating in hotels considering the adulteration of food through intentional addition of harmful substances but also the use of biological and chemical contaminants.

The rise in life threatening diseases is undoubtedly a result of these food adulterants. The corruption, low value of human life and disrespect for the rule of law which is perpetuated by the political class manifests itself most poignantly horizontally with the poor as the target in the extraction of capital.  

Over the years, Kenyan practitioners in arts and cultures have generally sought to humanise the world through their compositions and products.

They have tended to ‘reach out’ and ‘build bridges’ as part of their calling and vocation.

But lacking a facilitative policy and structured framework, these efforts have not had the impact that they would have had were they to be taken seriously by national and county governments.

Many of the artists who would prick the conscience of leaders currently struggle in poverty and lack the space to enhance their creativity. 

ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES

Luckily we know that as human beings we have a unique ability to transform social structures, the nature of interpersonal relations, economic activities and other behaviours within a short time. But this ability calls for humility and the recognition that one does not have monopoly over knowledge and what constitutes truth.  This process also requires appreciation and investment in the power of the intellect in problem solving. 

When intellectuals delink themselves from the chains of ethnic, partisan and personalised politics, they are able to see more clearly the possibilities of organising society differently.

Equally, when communities discover that their concerns might not be similar with those of the political elite, they build more horizontal, egalitarian and caring relationships. They demand accountability from their leaders irrespective of their ethnic, religious or geographical basis.

In this journey, the convergence of intellectual labour and community aspirations is likely to start a process of collectivised problem-solving unconstrained by the politics of identity, conspicuous consumption and plutocracy. But, again, who is listening?

 Prof. Njogu is a scholar based at Twaweza Communications. [email protected]