Voting, passion and our economic reality

During an election year, the world gets a chance to sample Kenyan creativity, humour and absurdity.

We are now using all the tricks at our disposal to get as many Kenyans as possible to register as voters by February 14. But suppose they register and vote for your opponent?

Luckily, voting in Kenya is inelastic, with few voters switching their loyalty. This makes politics a very expensive game. You need money to shift voters’ loyalty, either by advertising or bribing them.

This is not different from any mature market, like drinks or automobiles. Note how we stick to the same drinks and car models. Passion (and some irrationality) makes such shifts hard. Try asking your friends why they take a certain drink, drive a certain car or married so and so.

Politicians know passion is their secret weapon. They are eager to learn from nature. That is why they are talking of denying men sex if they have not registered as voters. Can women be denied sex, too? What of the unmarried? What of prostitutes? Will they forgo their income?

Some are taking passion to another level – they talk of denying Holy Communion to those not registered as voters.

Passion makes sense beyond politics. One wishes our passion for voting would spill over into other facets of our lives. Suppose we were as passionate in our workplaces as we were about voting – Kenya would become a developed country overnight.

Passion for work is what sets apart developed countries from underdeveloped ones. Talk to Kenyans who live in Europe or the US. If you work at night, you are paid twice or one-and-a-half times more than during the day. In developing countries like Kenya, work is avoided but we love the money passionately.

Jobs, not work

The passion behind registration of voters is closely tied to our distaste for work. We believe that if our preferred candidate is voted into the highest office in the land, we shall get political positions with big salaries and very little work. If our candidate gets into office, we shall get jobs, not work.

The connection between work, passion, compensation and economic growth has been the missing link in most countries.

Could colonial experience, where workers were supervised in plantations, be the source of our dislike for work? How many Kenyans work with passion today? A lack of passion for work but lots of passion for money has made corruption, graft or rent-seeking a growth industry.

How can we make Kenyans passionate about work again?

Many think good pay is enough. But even highly paid workers skip work, or do it shoddily. Lack of personal passion leads to lack of national passion. A nation without passion drifts along.

Mwai Kibaki tried to create passion with Vision 2030 (noted every big project is now a Vision 2030 project?). Jomo Kenyatta created passion by constantly reminding us that we shed the yoke of colonialism. Daniel arap Moi created passion with the Nyayo philosophy and making Kanu part of our lives.

Foreign powers

Our current leaders’ soft underbelly is failing to create passion beyond ICC. Through passion, Trump won the US presidential polls. Whoever creates enough passion will win the Kenyan polls this year.

Where do we get passion from? Our families and its experiences. That is why immigrants and, some suggest, those who grew up in the village tend to be very passionate and successful. Does your family have any experience that can stir up the next generation?

Nations get their passion from experiences, too. Americans talk about liberty, landing on the moon, safeguarding democracy and winning over communism. Just listen to Barack Obama’s closing remarks in his farewell speech. Britons had their empire and China has a civilisation that dates back thousands of years.

The Middle East is a hard nut to crack for foreign powers because of its long history, which creates lots of passion, deepened further by religion. Two of the world’s biggest religions have holy sites in the Middle East (Jerusalem and Mecca). Closer home, Ethiopian passion arises from never being colonised and a long civilisation, with its own calendar and alphabet.

In addition to seeking votes, it is time we created national passion that goes beyond gambling, pessimism and a love for Manchester United.

Such passion would find a place in our homes, schools and the workplace. Passion will be reflected in our GDP statistics. We could borrow from the missionaries and settlers who opened up Africa’s interior.

Passionate people and nations are focused, more innovative and more productive. That logically leads to economic growth.

Appealing to nature through natural acts like sex to stir passion for civic duties like voting shows how shallow our national passion is. The passion void is being filled by gambling, English soccer, news on corruption and muchene on social media.

The writer is senior lecturer, University of Nairobi. [email protected]