I'm tired of waiting for a saviour

We watched, transfixed, as the sedan driver lost control in the flash floods.

Bystanders tried their best to help. But in the two-minute video, things went from bad to worse and you could hear the horror and desperation in the voices of the young men valiantly trying to save those in the vehicle.

Then, the multi-storeyed building in Huruma. As I write this, the events, the tragedy is still unfolding. Scores dead, and even more injured.

In January 2015, a seven-storey block of flats collapsed on a Sunday night. Same area. The same gut-wrenching images, floors upon floors of occupied floors squished beyond comprehension.

Back then, the Nairobi County was tasked with the mandate to, within three months, conduct an audit of all buildings and develop a database of those unsafe for occupation.

The ipowers-that-be acquiesced. But over a year later, the same epithets as history repeats itself and as more lives are lost.

Every time the country suffers extreme weather we all get that sinking feeling in the pits of our stomachs. Because, let's not fool ourselves, any of us could be caught as victims in any of those incidents.

They are not isolated incidents and they are not acts of God. They are borne of corruption, recklessness in discharging our mandate and greed.

In every of those instances, you will find a trail of bribery that allowed for a construction that should not have been permitted to go ahead. Blood money.

I'm tired of the philosophists (different from philosophers) who cannot wait to throw those hollow and tired "you deserve this for electing the wrong leaders" and "stop laying blame on civil servants" statements.

We pay taxes, and that is enough reason to expect that our lives will not be lost from the incompetence and corruption that accompany office holders in this country.

Before last year's El Nino, a kitty was created to ensure that disaster management would be in place for disruption during the rainy season.

I would like to see one single comprehensive task that was undertaken for the benefit of the citizens, and enriching campaign kitties does not count.

Instead, all we see are roads that have no business being used by cars wearing away with each downpour and exposing the poor workmanship.

Hours and hours of traffic all over the city and its outskirts from craters that resemble a small city and motorists who have no idea if they will emerge on the other side intact.

And rescue efforts by the Red Cross (and various other Kenyans of good will), the one entity that we can always depend on when it all goes to hell.

At this juncture allow me to interrupt this rant to thank everyone who leaves the comfort of their house to join in the rescue efforts whether on site or remotely and the Red Cross for always unfailingly co-ordinating these efforts.

This is what true bravery is.

As one Kenyan on Twitter suggested, why don't we just dismantle the National Disaster and Operation Centre and allocate its funds to the Red Cross? As well as these amorphous kitties that we keep creating in the guise of serving the wananchi?

Are we tired yet? This is the recurrent theme of all the conversations that we are holding and it belies the 'resilience' that we have been beholden to continue living by?

Once the sun shines again, are we just going to dust ourselves off and continue with business as usual until the next man-made calamity strikes?

I am about to launch into somewhat sticky territory, so if you take offence at what I say next, then so be it. I am tired of waiting for a saviour, of pegging leadership on tribe or party politics or any of those nebulous notions that we think will deliver us but end up sinking us more into the gutter.

I am tired of pegging my hopes on autocrats, feeding myself the fable that they will deliver better than career politicians.

At this point, I don't care who ascends into a position of leadership. What I care about though, is whether we have created systems that ensure boundaries are respected, the Constitution is followed without exception and no one is above the law.

Look at it this way. No one is immortal. By expecting an individual or set of individuals to deliver us we are subjecting ourselves to the whims of nature. What happens when the individual is no more?

We can't keep crying for a Michuki to come and save us.

But if we have the right systems and enforcing bodies to play their role, then there will always be a stick, a very big stick to ensure that if you step out of line you get what's coming to you.

If we are going to create a revolution, let us do it to force all arms – the Executive, Judiciary and Legislation to start playing by the rules.

There's no saviour coming to rescue us. We need to take our power back, all 44 million of us.