We should celebrate selfless high achievers like Peter Tabichi

This week on Twitter a Kenyan public intellectual asked a simple but important question: “What is it like to be a citizen of a country that actually wants you to succeed?” The question expressed most Kenyans’ profound disappointment with the governing architecture that is the Kenyan state. In every imaginable sphere of life, the Kenyan state is failing our people. Kenyan creatives cannot catch a break from the Film Classification Board. Patients escape the thieving cartels that are crippling the health sector, not to mention predatory insurance companies. The judiciary, once a beacon of hope, is increasingly being revealed to be a cesspool of corruption, no different than the Police Service.

We know that the rot is not because Kenyans, individually, are uniquely corrupt or unable to excel. Outside of the country, individual Kenyans continue to be celebrated for their achievements. For example, schools, streets, and parks have already been named after the late Professor Wangari Mathai. A nobel laureate, Prof Maathai continues to be denied official honor and recognition in Kenya. I say it is time we renamed Uhuru Park in her honor.

Peter Tabichi is another example. The Nakuru-based teacher was recently proclaimed the winner of the Global Teacher Prize, in recognition of his selfless service to his students and community. Like other high-achieving Kenyans, it took external recognition for our government to realise that we had a gem among us. As a product of public schools, I am grateful to teachers like Mr Tibichi who dedicate their lives to the education of young Kenyans. The Jamhuri owes them a lot.

The reason why these two examples stand out is because the same Kenyan governments that refuse to recognise true role models for our people are often quick to give thieves and otherwise mediocre individuals the highest state honors.

Going back to the earlier question, it is important that our leaders consider what kind of administrative structures we would have if the government’s primary objective was to create an enabling environment for Kenyans to succeed. What would our education and healthcare systems look like? What kind of regulatory bodies would we have? How would we hire and incentivise the the civil service? What kind of individuals would we valorize and award state honors?

In its singular focus on grand theft, the current leadership of our government continues to ignore these very important questions. The Kenyatta administration has made it abundantly clear that the purpose of government is not to make it possible for Kenyans to succeed, but to dream up schemes to defraud tax payers of billions of shillings. In other words, the social contract is broken and no one cares.

So what is to make of it all? The only saving grace is the resiliency of Kenyans. Unlike our politicians, they live in a world of scarcity and hard budget constraints. They also try their best to lead moral lives, however they define it. This is in sharp contrast to our amoral leaders who make donations to churches on Sundays and steal money meant for the elderly and medicines for infants on Monday.

One of our core failings as a society is that despite our private morality, in the public sphere we continue to valorise the amoral among us. They are the ones we hold up as examples of success, leading to the graft we witness in public sphere. To have a country that works to enable its citizens to succeed, we will need to remedy this failing.

- The writer is an Assistant Professor at Georgetown University