How much are we able to do on our own?

In the last one week or so, there are some matters – all of them foreign in nature – that have come into the attention of the world and, of course, to the attention of those of us who care about Kenya.

If truth be told, and if we, as a country and as a society, have to get anywhere, we have to ask ourselves a few questions.

Take the issue of our two pilots who were captured in the context of an accident in Southern Sudan and were held there until a ransom was paid.

Of course political and military leaders have their own differences out there in Southern Sudan but I would have thought that those of them who call themselves leaders would remember what Kenya has done for them.

I live around Lavington in Nairobi and whenever I am doing my shopping, I see a lot of Sudanese people who obviously look very happy to be in Kenya.

LOVE AND RESPECT
Should a Kenyan not be happy and comfortable wherever they are if they are doing the right thing?

Even a Kenyan pilot who is going about his business in the Southern Sudan and gets into an accident like anyone else – including the SPLO-OP – surely should be taken care of not because he or she is a source of ransom but because they are part of us and our common history.

Let our people take care of each other.

The other international matter that I find interesting is the complaint by the American ambassador that the Nasa leader – effectively leader of the opposition – in this country is accusing him of interfering with our internal politics.

ELECTION
From what I have seen, that is not anything new.

Whoever cares to remember knows about one of his predecessors who, on voting day in 2007, went and sat at a voting station at Olympic Primary School because that is where his preferred candidate was voting.

A narrative had been crafted that the election was to be stolen and violence was about to break out – as it did.

What has happened all of a sudden? Have those Western powers, who used to believe everything that leaders of the opposition said, changed their mind or have they seen the truth?

As a nation, we have our own failings and that is why the nations of the world got into our politics through the NGO fraternity.

Internally as ordinary Kenyans, we must ask ourselves a question or two.

Have we outgrown that phenomenon yet?

How much, in the context of world politics, are we able to do on our own?

The writer is dean of students at the University of Nairobi [email protected]