Kenya at a crossroads and the path we refused to take

NAIROBI: It is hard to look at Kenya today and not recall Robert Frost’s classic poem, The Road not Taken. The persona in the poem tells of two roads that “diverged in a yellow wood”. In other words, the persona has come to a crossroads and has to make a choice between two roads. One road seems well trodden, and like the biblical road to ruin, is wide enough for the traveller’s comfort. The other was less travelled, judging by the fact that it was narrow, grassy and not fun at all to stroll along. Luckily for the persona, he took the narrow path and later says:
“I shall be telling this with a sigh. Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I — I took the one less travelled by. And that has made all the difference.”

One can draw a parallel between Kenya, especially after promulgation of the 2010 Constitution, with the journey of the persona in Frost’s poem. Only that unlike the persona, we seem to have taken the wide, well-beaten path. So today, even after we insisted on integrity in governance, we are bombarded daily with claims of top State officials creaming off the fat of the land as the poor sink deeper in the mire of destitution.