Better have an illiterate leader than a looter

Nyandarua Nominated MCA Milka Nyambura Mwangi went viral for struggling to speak English fluently in the county assembly. [Courtesy]

 There is this county executive lady from Nyandarua who has been in the news for her acute inability to express herself in the Queen’s language. She stutters and stammers as she tries to string together three or four words in English in vain.

In one of the clips, when asked about her educational background, she says she finished her basic (primary) education in 2097 or some such date in the very distant future. This lady is definitely illiterate for all practical purposes. I bet she must be having a rough time carrying out her duties as a county executive. It also puts to question the vetting that take place for such critical public positions.

I only wish the poor lady wouldn’t try too hard to speak a language she’s not familiar with but rather settle for Kiswahili or even her native tongue if everything else fails. It’s not a crime to be functionally illiterate. But this is beside the point because as far as we know, she stumbles along in her day-to-day work, but we haven’t heard her implicated in any scandal, away from the embarrassment of diction, or rather, lack thereof.

Worst case scenario is a situation where she gets paid a salary for hanging her coat in the office and generally hanging around the governor looking busy, in which case it would be a misdemeanour compared to the crime perpetrated by her stiff upper-lipped Harvard-educated superiors who speak as if they don’t want to let their English escape through clenched teeth.

Personally, I would rather have an illiterate person in a position of power than a person with a PHD in looting and thievery, or a doctorate in murder, abductions, political intrigue and such shenanigans. Integrity in my humble opinion should come before everything else. It should define our culture and be part of the selection (and election) criteria for our leaders.

A simple question for our leaders is: “How did you amass so much wealth? How can you explain your choppers, your private jets and your fleet of cars yet we don’t know of a business you have ever started and succeeded in?” If you can’t answer these questions, your face shouldn’t be on the ballot.

The reality is this: when you look at our most brazen thieves, most claim to have several degrees from local and international universities. Hell, we even have a couple of Ivy League plunderers among the political elite.

Most speak flawless English – I am hereby reminded of a young legislator who spent an inordinate amount of time at university and today throws archaic English phrases like ‘crinkum crankum’ casually in conversation in an attempt to show people that he knows a thing or two of the Queen’s language.

He must prove to hoi polloi who vote for him that he is well educated, despite having spent more than a decade at university, not filling his head with legal knowledge but pursuing the perks that come with student leadership. The fellow has never been known to do any work nor ever started a thriving business. But he had a Range Rover while at the university. Go figure.

What happens with educated people when they ascend to political positions, be it lawyers, economists, engineers, lecturers you name them? They seem to conveniently leave whatever they learned at the university back home.

There’s not one single foundational course at the university that does not touch on integrity. The moment one takes up political office however, I bet the pressure is irresistible to conform with the rest of the horde in the race to determine who is more crooked.

Lawyers forget their oath and instead, engage in illegalities because they have become bona fide members of the merry band of thieves. Doctors forget the oath of preserving lives and join the gang of killers in ‘disappearing’ those seen as a threat to the government.

Ivy League educated economists increase in girth on the fat of the land (in exact inverse relationship with the rest of the population) while they attempt to rewrite economic theories known to reduce unemployment and inequality. Pity our nation.

-The writer is a communications consultant