There is urgent need for overhaul of values in our political system

President Kenyatta addresses members from both houses of Parliament on September 12, 2017 during the official opening of the 12th Parliament. Elections and competition for office are a very delicate matter and there is need to overhaul values in our political system. PHOTO | RAPHAEL NJOROGE | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • It would seem that even though we are able to manage some things, elections and competition for office are a very delicate affair.

  • I wonder what are the values that drive Kenyans when we see them fighting viciously for political positions or lobbying for appointments to positions in public service.

  • Can these values be comparable to the values that guided and drove the noble men and women who fought for our independence?

This is an interesting and historic moment in the evolution of our independent Kenya. We have had other moments of what seems like a crisis but this is one of its own kind.

We have been boasting, and rightly so, that we were able to make our own constitution but now the events of recent times show that this very achievement may be what could easily precipitate a crisis of unprecedented proportions.

Some ten years ago or so, this country was almost brought to its knees.

A large number of Kenyans were murdered and hundreds of thousands of others displaced.

It would seem that even though we are able to manage some things, elections and competition for office are a very delicate affair.

PROGRESS

It is now clear that no matter what progress we make there will always be people who do not care for such progress as they search for power.

That is why whenever elections come many of our achievements and the peace we enjoy are threatened to a very large extent.

What could be the explanation for such a contradictory state of affairs? My submission is that a lot of us including those who run critical institutions of society are guided by value systems that have nothing to do with the common good.

I wonder what are the values that drive Kenyans when we see them fighting viciously for political positions or lobbying for appointments to positions in public service.

Can these values be comparable to the values that guided and drove the noble men and women who fought for our independence?

When I look at what I see today, I have a feeling that the values of truth, justice, courage, self sacrifice, duty of care for the rest of humanity and all those other universal ones that guided our freedom heroes do not exist anymore.

SERIOUS THREAT

Our society is under serious threat from all angles. Look the number of suicides of young people that are reported every other day.

How about the number of people killing each other even within families and the fires in schools?

At a time like this we may probably be taken up so much by the politics and forget that all these things could be interconnected.

Even as we continue to implement our Constitution, we may perhaps need to relook and talk more about the core values that drive the major institutions that are at the centre of such implementation.

In a very specific manner, the political institution is one that begs for an overhaul of the values that guide it.

 

Writer is Dean of Students at the University of Nairobi; [email protected]