We have the power to correct our course

This week, we celebrated 55 years of independence from colonial rule. As a country we are grateful to the men and women who made costly sacrifices resisting colonial occupation for more than 70 years. And even though so far in our history, we have not been willing to publicly and unapologetically celebrate their lives, I believe that in time this will change. There will come a time when Kenyan children will grow up knowing that they are the inheritors of a brave cast of men and women who stood for true uhuru (independence) and were willing to make the ultimate sacrifice.

As we look forward to the next half century, it is important to take stock on the things we have done right, and also acknowledge our many failures. First, we have managed to keep together a country of multiple tribes and associated centrifugal forces. This is no mean feat. Running a young multi-ethnic society is hard. Second, we should also be willing to accept that political ethnicity has been our biggest undoing. Negative ethnicity has blinded us to the potential of different parts of the country. It has also reduced our leaders to little more than hawkers of votes and rent-seekers. Our politics works not to improve the life of the common woman, but to enrich the few.