Madaraka Day, a time to reflect on state of the nation

Today Kenyans celebrate the 54th Madaraka day. It is a milestone in our country’s history for on this day, we celebrate and honour valiant men and women whose contribution to the independence struggle handed us victory in 1963. These men and women paid the ultimate price in blood and sweat.

In trutch, there is a lot to be proud of: Kenya is much freer, more developed and generally, life is better than it was in 1961 when life expectancy was 35 years. A Kenyan today expects to celebrate their 64th birthday. At independence, there were only about 800,000 students in our schools yet that number has shot up to stand at a 10,000,000 registering an enrollment rate.

From 151 secondary schools at independence, there are now over 30,000. The Sh320 billion Standard Gauge Railway is underway which when complete, will lower the cost of transporting goods between the hinterland and the port of Mombasa and moreover, minimise the damage on the road network.

Even though devolution still faces some challenges, it has brought services closer to the people and the impact is being felt in the way counties are able to respond to their unique needs. Women, marginalised groups and the youth are getting attention through the Uwezo Fund which seeks to disburse Sh1.8 billion as start-up for small businesses. Child mortality rates have reduced by 30 per cent in five years.

But while we have come a long way since then, the struggle continues for many Kenyans.  The stakes remain stacked against them. Indeed, self-governance means nothing to many households across the country whose sons and daughters are out of school, or educated, but with no jobs or have no food, or proper shelter or who have to walk long distances to fetch water, those who, if they fell sick, they would die because basic healthcare is unaffordable.

In fact, many of them still exist in conditions far worse than those they fought the colonialists. They are poor and hopeless. The politics of exclusion is the bane of Independent Kenya: It is tribal and short-sighted; it is inimical to the wider interests of the country. The feeling is that despite self-governance, the political space and competition remains hugely imperilled by vested interests; that politics has become a conduit for the elites to illicit riches, self-preserve and self-promote rather than an enabler of a people's vision and aspirations.

Corruption and impunity feeds off this form of corruption which in turn breeds disaffection and disunity. Attempts have been made to change the way things are done. At independence, many Kenyans had their heads in the clouds. The illusion that it would be Heaven on earth quickly evaporated. Soon, there was clamour to change the Independence Constitution, then the clamour for multiparty democracy, then a renewed push to change the Constitution that culminated in the promulgation of the new Constitution in 2010.

Students of history must relish seeing history repeating itself. The political crisis experienced now over the reconstitution of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) is nothing new and so is the feeling by a section of the country that they have been short-changed mainly by the political class. By refusing to put country before self, the political class have continued to deny Kenyans the change the Independence Fathers craved for while mounting formidable resistance in the bushes and the hills and the valleys.