Defections underscore moral, political bankruptcy of elites

Hassan Omar (Photo: Courtesy)

The Kenyan political landscape is a snake pit of betrayal. That’s largely because our elites suffer from a poverty of philosophy. To the extent most of them have a theory of politics, it’s the full belly thesis.

That’s why colloquially many of our elites are known as “tumbocrats” — those driven primarily by politics of the belly, or personal, narrow self-interest. Nothing illustrates the moral and political bankruptcy of our elites than the “defections” back and forth of senior politicians between NASA and Jubilee. Mombasa ex-Senator Hassan Omar is Exhibit A.