Why Uhuru should be a ‘benevolent’ dictator to protect his legacy

Uhuru Kenyatta with Lillian Kwamboka as he sews disciplined forces uniforms at the National Youth Service (N.Y.S) Textile and Garment Technology Institute in Ruaraka, Nairobi [File, Standard]

‘What an Augean Stable: …. where does one begin? With the masses? Educate the masses? …. Not a chance there.  It would take centuries.  A handful of men at the top, or even one man with vision … an enlightened dictator. People are scared of the word nowadays. But what kind of democracy can exist side by side with so much corruption and ignorance?  Perhaps a half-way house, a sort of compromise.’

This is was true of Nigerian in the last three decades of the 20th century as it is true of Kenya presently. Chinua Achebe in No longer at Ease saying that Africa’s solution to leadership is in an “enlightened” dictator or a “benevolent” autocratic rule. He also observed that Africa’s democracy was not as pure as that in the US, but a compromised one, an “in-between” democracy and dictatorship.