Joyce Wanjala patiently waited her turn in a line of cars on Waiyaki Way. Intending to turn into Chiromo Lane, she joined the weekday rush hour traffic. Minutes later, as she eventually negotiated a corner towards her desired direction, a huge fuel-guzzler driven by an arrogant looking youth cut in ahead of her. Barely avoiding a fender-bender, the youth responded to Joyce’s startled hoot with a one-finger salute, adding insult to near-injury. Curious on-lookers sympathetically responded to a visibly shaken Joyce with a phrase that is increasingly becoming the quintessential expression of helpless stoicism in Kenya: “Bora uhai”, literally, nothing else matters if one is alive.

If good manners are indicative of the state of well-being of a country, then Kenya, where a good number of the populace is degenerating into boorish behaviour, is headed for tough times. Common courtesies such as “excuse me” or “please” or “thank you” are becoming alien in our national culture. That much touted ability to make orderly queues for buses or supermarket check-out counters, as a mark of progressive societies, is clearly losing sway. And it has not helped that the political class has propagated a culture of “me first” over all others, an elevation of “the self” over other selves. Nor that national resources are lining the pockets of a few at the expense of the clear majority.

Kenyan youth

Worse still is the erosion of a reading culture among the youth today. It is said that on a plane, Kenyans stand out for their ability to quaff endless rounds of wine or beer while watching movies. This, even as other nationals read books to while away the long hours of flight or work on their laptops. And it shows up in conversations where Kenyan youth can hardly string together five coherent sentences without recourse to Sheng or street language. Or where their thoughts are so ill-defined that they are unable to take up business opportunities or leadership positions meant for the youth, thus falling prey to the machinations of the well-heeled gentry who are invariably well read and old.

A good number of young Kenyans, sinking into a pitfall of tedium over a badly managed economy, have not only vowed to refuse to take part in an anticipated referendum over constitutional reforms, but also to completely eschew voting in the country’s 2022 elections. For them, the more things change, the more they remain the same. While it is true that the current Government has made a complete hash of the economy, failure by the youth to take an active role in the decisions over the country’s future is a display of a lack of nous. It is the grotesque folly of a people so debased that they have retreated to a primordial instinct of survival.

Civic education

Opposition leader Raila Odinga recently stated that the push for a referendum vote is unstoppable. He mentioned that it is about Kenyans deciding their future. In this, he is right. The future does belong to all Kenyans. And they have the right to decide on it in a plebiscite. But there must be a wellspring of righteous indignation sprouting in youth that will not allow them to accept mediocrity as their lot in life.

The youth must be allowed to decide the agenda of the referendum. It must not become a tool for the perpetuation of power by the ruling elite, nor of the creation of government positions for jaded old politicians at the sunset of their lives, nor of the locking out from pole position of political adversaries so that others gain an advantage in future elections. This should not be about politics but about the lives of Kenyans. It should be about empowering Kenyans through sound civic education so that they see beyond the complexities of internecine warfare prevalent among political parties.

It should enable a better understanding of the structures of governance, where most Kenyans find the roles of Parliament and county governments beyond their purview. And it should also remove the prism that distorts poor leadership and masks the current crop of leaders who are bereft of ideas so that Kenyans can see beyond the razzmatazz and pick those who can truly deliver on a promise.

As we recreate our Kenyan culture based on the mores of African society of being our brothers’ keepers, the fatalistic resignation of “bora uhai” will cede to a new creed of hope for the future and good living. “Maisha bora!”

Mr Khafafa is vice chairman, Kenya-Turkey Business Council