Is Deputy President Ruto’s call to stop politicking sincere?

From where I sit, I believe it is a genuine call to get the country out of the rut it got stuck in after the August 2017 General Election. We cannot allow ourselves to get stuck in politics as the days are flying past and we expect our leaders to have delivered at the end of five years.

Having finished with the campaigns, politics should have immediately taken a back seat to allow the elected individuals to prove their mettle, but this is not happening. Before they even start to deliver, they are talking about who should become president in 2022, and such talk is not beneficial to the common man.

We need leaders to stop politicking and address issues of growing unemployment, insecurity, food shortages, a declining medical sector and why lecturers are on a prolonged strike. This cannot happen when all the leaders think about is themselves and what they can squeeze out of the system. Corruption has been allowed to prosper because leaders don’t pay attention to it, leaving those who are stealing from the public enough room to continue stealing.

Today, people are suffering because heavy rains have caused floods that have washed away their homes. Many have died and like in the Patel Dam tragedy, families still can’t find their missing loved ones, yet here are politicians scheming how to capture or retain power. Must it always be about them?

Ms Jeptoo works with a security firm in Nairobi