Get over the gloom and make 2013 memorable

Each New Year brings with it a fresh sense of purpose. We are full of resolutions and new hope, and faced with the opportunity to change some aspects of our lives, be it personal or in a more general fashion.

Of course, many good intentions are lost along the way, but others are carried out to our immense satisfaction.

Specifically, 2013 is significant to Kenya in more ways than one. The New Year — also called the Year of the Snake on the Chinese calendar — affords us an opportunity of a lifetime to right our past mistakes.

On March 4, we go to the polls — an exercise upon which the future of the country singularly hinges. The first under the new Constitution, the elections have been billed as a make or break exercise for the economy and whose results will see Government devolved to every corner of the country.

Already, the World Bank is feeling the pessimism with forecasts of persistently sluggish growth. At a downgraded 4.3 per cent, the growth forecast falls short of the five per cent government had projected and pales even further in comparison to the 10 per cent growth needed to add steam to the Vision 2030 — Kenya’s long-term economic blueprint.

Key sectors of the economy are already taking a beating due to election-fuelled anxieties. Tourist arrivals plummeted in the last quarter of last year as international visitors stayed away due to the country’s violent history with elections.

The dent could be worse if the election process in not insulated from factional contamination and toxic politics.

This year should herald a mature democracy where elections are not a zero-sum game but an exercise that tests alternative approaches to national growth. Elections must not threaten the economy nor hurt human relations but allow an environment that puts people at the centre of national development.

Essence of living

Our prayer for the New Year is that the nation reflects on the past 12 months — the high and lows, milestones passed and opportunities missed — and prime ourselves to capitalise on the promise and potential of 2013.

As individuals, we will appreciate more the value of each minute in the New Year when we spend time with family and friends, not politicians whose remit is often selfish and egoistic.

We must derive fulfilment from the company of loved ones — sharing portions of success, failure, good fortune, friendship, loneliness and health — as we move forward. This is the essence of living and not the stuff of noxious politics that saturates our lives.

Yes, it’s what we see, read, hear and talk about with friends and colleagues, but for most people politics is simply life in the abstract. It may concern us, but rarely has a direct impact on our lives.

Let this year be a time to renew bonds of affection with the people closest to us — family, neighbours and friends. We must never fight over who should be president.

The alternative to peace is too costly and frightening to contemplate.