By Barrack Muluka
I have been shocked, although not surprised, to hear gleeful radio listeners say that the elections mark a "new beginning young Kenyans have been waiting for".
And I am hearing that change has come to Kenya. They say that there is more of this in store, set aside for 2012. To the best of my mind this kind of thinking is not just reflective of innocent naivety.
It is the kind of substance out of which social tragedy is fashioned. An elder Kenyan whom I hold in very high regard had this to say of our so-called change: "I agree about the possibility that there is a youth revolution in the making. But I am not so sure about the eventual outcome of this ‘revolution’. The dragon slayers in the elections were mavericks with mysterious personal fortunes."
A money loving society that is starved of true heroes all too often lionises just about anybody in sight. During the 2007 General Election campaigns I came across a bishop from a mainstream church who claimed there was no money he could not cleanse. And I do not doubt it is not only in church that money is sanitised. I suspect that money can be sanitised in Parliament as well.
The tag of Mheshimiwa can cleanse anything. As you know I am the dreamer of dreams and so if Kenyans do not understand what I am saying, or if they do not agree with this, then they are past caring about; so much the worse for all of us. We probably deserve pity than we deserve anything else.
Someone was telling me that even President Obama has congratulated Kenyans "for demonstrating democratic maturity through these elections." But what is democratic about someone spending Sh150 million to win an election so that he or she can get a parliamentary job that will pay them a cumulative Sh20 million by the time this tour of duty ends? What is this person seeing that the rest of us cannot see? Someone has told me that such an individual is just large hearted and he or she is just being charitable. I told him to go and sing to the birds in the bush.
As this country continues to claim curious democratic credentials for itself, the electorate ought to be a lot more inquisitive and judicious about the decisions they make. Voters who get mesmerised by mysteriously wealthy strangers are a danger to democracy and to society generally. There is nothing criminal about being excessively rich. But some kinds of wealth need to be interrogated before the owners can pass the test of leadership.
Some other gentleman told me that our victorious politicians who spend more money than they can legitimately hope to make in Parliament are only reaching out for self-actualisation. That having achieved everything else, the only thing left is for them to acquire political tags and power by going to Parliament.
Naturally, I told him to go and sing with the birds in bush. For, it was Abraham Maslow who was talking about the human hierarchy of needs and of self-actualisation as the ultimate need.
But Maslow has been thoroughly misrepresented by people who know next to nothing of the thought that he developed, but pretend to be experts on it.
When he spoke of self-actualisation, Maslow had in mind individuals who have satisfied all their lower needs so that the only need left is to excel in their avocations. Self-actualisation does not mean, therefore, being called Mheshimiwa. If the reason you go into politics is so that you can be recognised and be referred to as "Honourable Someone" then you are still at a very basic stage in the hierarchy of needs.
For, you crave recognition – one of the baser of human needs, according to Maslow. It is because of this basic need that people seek to draw attention to themselves through all manner of curious antics.
Self-actualisation in Maslow’s thought means you have been freed of common want to the extent that you now only dream of excellence for the sake of excellence.
You can now release all your energy and faculties in doing that which is finest. If you are a musician, you produce the music to end music. You are one with the music. If you are a painter, you do paintings that will defy age forever.
I am afraid this is not the reason superbly rich fellows with mysterious money have entered politics. While they have every right to seek elective office, it is probably time we got to know the sources of our leaders’ wealth. Something simply doesn’t add up and I am not joining the victory party.
The writer is a publishing editor and media consultant
