The Paradox of freedom: Is there more liberty in Kenya than in the Western world?

Kenyans who want to emigrate to the West, rarely East, cite freedom as one the key motivations. They want to be free, just like the pilgrims who left England for Americas 400 years ago. They were running from the monarch and its absolute power over their lives.

Freedom in Kenya is no longer connected without Mau Mau war particularly among the younger generation. It has more economic connotation than political. When non-Kenyans visit here, some do not to return to their countries, citing unbridled freedom in Kenya.

Who is right, the non-Kenyans or Kenyans? Is Kenya freer than the West? The Western idea of freedom is different from ours. Lots of us confuse freedom with privacy. In the West, freedom means doing what you want within the limits of the law. Luckily they have a lot of respect for law, trust their government and other institutions. What defines freedom in the West and perhaps distinguishes their freedom from ours is that it is combined with personal responsibility.

Citizens know from early in life that they have to take responsibility over their own lives. By the time they are 18, they are raring to go and work, never mind if they are in school. Kids from even affluent backgrounds leave home to go and be on their own, how else do you claim to be free if you still ask your parents for pocket money?

In addition to getting economic freedom, they live by the rules, and then harness the power of technology in the work place and at home. They can drive, use cellular phone, heat the house or warm it, use machines to cook or even wash dishes, and use the latest technology in the work place from internet to computers.

Their freedom is guaranteed by the government and other institutions. If you are jobless, the government often gives you some money to ensure you have food and shelter. Rarely do citizens abuse this privilege. Physical freedom is guaranteed by an efficient policing system. In the West, some people fear being arrested for minor offences than being attacked by crooks.

A first time visitor to the West is often perplexed by the lack of fences, walls around houses, lack of armed police around banks, and no thick glasses inside the banking halls. Houses have walls made of wood or plastic sheets, but no one loses sleep.

This freedom is also derived from long term thinking-from cradle to grave. Compulsory saving ensures that in old age you will be secure economically. That gives you freedom to spend what you earn and may be sharing it through charity.

Needless to say, they are free from fear. Lots of fear in Kenya and Africa is derived from invisible forces, the reason religion thrives. I recall asking my students in an exam about a decade ago why Africans build round houses. All I wanted was for them to explain (using calculus) that you cover more area with a circle than any other shape for the same material.

One student suggested that Africans did not like corners, where evil spirits lived. If that student is reading this, we can take tea. The west, despite exporting their religion to us has largely emancipated itself from fear. But that does mean that the West (and East) does not have its fears. Most recently it is from terrorism. But even before that there were fears from economic down turns. There are also fears about relationships and dissatisfaction with life. When life is so programmed, it becomes boring; spontaneity is like a spice.

Enough about the West; what is this freedom in Kenya that attracts people from free world? Why would one leave USA, UK or Scandinavia to come and live in Kenya? The Kenyan freedom is built paradoxically on what lacks in the West. The fact that our country is not fully formalised makes it very free. As we get more formalised, that freedom will go.

Those who have formal jobs know that freedom is an illusion; your routine is so predictable that at times you can leave your brain at home and still work. Those who leave employment for self-employment and break even, often wonder why they spent such long time without freedom. But the greatest freedom comes from the fact that you can make as much money as you can and keep it!

Lots of workers in the private sector are very bitter, they know how much they make and compare it with their pay. But they are not free to leave and make such money. That is changing now with lots of young Kenyans raring to be entrepreneurs, with some focusing on tenderpreneuring without any qualms about it.

Respect for time

Flexibility is the other pedestal on which our freedom stands. Though we rarely keep time, that is not always a bad thing, it gives us flexibility and freedom. Westerners are perplexed by this lack of respect for time. But in a country where compensation is rarely hourly, what should one expect?

The other pedestal of freedom is choice. You can choose to be born at home or in hospital, not in the west. You can choose to join a private school or public school. Even churches provide choices, in terms of how they worship, we have no state church like in some western countries. Even growing up has choices, we can chose to be brought up by parents or relatives.

When we mature, we have lots of choices. We are free to choose where to work, who to marry and invite friends to help you pay dowry for your wife. You can marry more than one wife without going to jail or worrying about child support and alimony. You can negotiate with a police man if you are about to arrested.

And you are free not to be responsible. If you have more children than you can support, relatives are there, and even after death, they can hold a harambee to bury you. If you are affluent, you can enjoy freedom you cannot enjoy in the West like hiring people to clean your house, garden, cook, and watch over you as security guards.

This freedom extends to even criminals who are free to terrorise citizens at will, without any fear of being arrested. You are even free to be corrupt; you can grab public land and become a hero. You can employ relatives where you work, and create fictitious projects to make money, paradoxically because you believe more money will make you free.

Kenya is really free. You can even become an MP or senator with all the trappings of power and money with no one voting for you—through nomination. That is really freedom. We can make the list longer by adding the weather; friendly all the year around. Even the famous Happy Valley lot was attracted to Kenya by freedom. And the echoes of that age still reverberate in our national psyche. If you read Juliet Barnes, “The Ghosts of the Happy Valley,” you could discern a few of those ghosts around.

There is brighter side to this freedom, it has made Kenya the hot bed of innovations and a place you can still become rich honestly. You can start selling sweets in Kenya and soon own a confectionery factory. You can start as a tout and eventually end up owning a fleet of matatus. M-Pesa and other innovations like Chamas would not have emerged without this freedom.

Economists would quickly add that too much freedom is an enemy of economic progress. There are limits to freedom and it is a big debate who should limit that freedom, the government, self, religion or even the market. The reality is that freedom without responsibility soon becomes toxic. That is why bringing up kids is becoming a nightmare for affluent parents. Money gives you freedom; injecting responsibility into it is the harder part. Freedom without being responsible is also driving corruption in Kenya.

Shadow of fear

The change in Constitution and laws, coupled with economic realities is slowly going to curtail the freedoms we enjoy. The best freedoms are those that will never be legislated, like visiting others uninvited or sharing a drink with strangers. Then with time Kenya will become like any other country, with citizens living in the shadow of fear.

No wonder the diseases of development are here with us. Kenyans abroad, please talk. Freedom is one of the most talked about values. But it remains both a paradox and an illusion. When you achieve one kind of freedom you lose the other. You bought a car; you lost freedom to mix with local people. You got a job; you lost freedom to make more money. You married; you lost freedom to marry someone else. Can I go on? Tell me whether you are free..