President Obama is in the country and everyone, rightly so, has welcomed him as “our son.” His visit has, however, got me thinking about his fortunes in ascending to the highest political office in the world given his background and what parallels can be drawn with the situation in his ancestral country.
Our current President Uhuru Kenyatta and the immediate former United States President George Bush have something in common. They are scions of former presidents of their respective countries. Both owe a good part of that achievement to their second name and the privileges that come with it.
In both the US and Kenya, people have a certain amount of reverence for names and wealth, it is possible to be elected president because of who your father was. Sadly, that is where the similarities end because in the US, it is equally possible to be elected president without a name and nest egg to tap into. Obama was not elected due to blue-eyed pedigree and privileged background or vast wealth. It had much more to do with the man and the set-up of the society in which he found himself.
While the US is far from Utopia, it nevertheless, offers more opportunity and social mobility than any other country.
Critics complain that equal opportunity is a myth in America, but there is more opportunity than anywhere else in the world. European countries may have better mass transit systems and more comprehensive health care coverage, but nowhere does the ordinary citizen have a better chance to climb up the ladder and to achieve success than in the United States.
It is disconcerting that in much of Africa today, a vast majority of the richest people are not immediately identifiable with any legitimate business enterprise or invention. The common thread is usually having been in or close to power for extended periods or having parents who were. Success stories of people who have risen up from nothing are so common that they are unremarkable. Nobody bothers to notice that in the same family, one brother is a petrol station attendant and the other is a vice president at a blue chip company.
The freedom to be the architect of your own destiny is the force behind America’s worldwide appeal. At present it is highly unlikely that somebody with Obama’s background would ascend to power in a country in Europe or in Russia or China.
Compare Obama’s fortunes to our other son Peter Kenneth. When Kenneth, a man of diverse ancestry, ran for president of this country, he did so on the back of a stellar record as Gatanga MP. Yet his presidential ambitions were dead in the water because he neither had provenance of name nor looted billions.
Here, the first tool you must acquire before engaging in politics is vast wealth. Your ability and capacity come a distant second. This will continue to be our undoing as we for the foreseeable future continue to elect princes and tribal chieftains instead of gifted individuals.
I daresay that were Obama himself to acquire Kenyan citizenship and attempt to run for president, he would flatly fail. But of course he would be a shoo-in for governor were he to run in a certain part of the country. Such is the sort of society we are. Our adulations for ‘our son’ must be put into perspective.
They must be, in the end, be found to be rather hollow. What we excel in is printing T-shirts and putting out tenders for grass to cash in on his visit. We are not about to emulate his legacy as an example here. When Obama takes his leave, nought will have changed; we will be left discussing the strange aircraft that prowled our skies while pillage and plunder will continue to condemn us to third world country status.
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