The Holy Father challenged us all; let’s take his message deeply

It was good to have Pope Francis in Kenya. As a nation we should collectively express our gratitude to the Pope for making time to come and be with us.

But his visit is more significant to Kenya beyond the honour it bestows on us. During his stay and interaction with us, he acted as a mirror through which we were able to see our true image. I want to believe that each one of us feels individually challenged by the Pope.

In his various speeches from the United Nations Complex in Gigiri, to St Joseph the Worker Church in Kangemi and finally at the Kasarani Sports Complex, Pope Francis gave us the most honest statement of what is ailing us as a nation, and what we collectively need to do to save our country.

What is unfortunate though is that those things that the Pope was talking about have been raised many times both by our citizens and other foreign friends like US President Barack Obama. Our collective problem as a people seems to be inability to listen.

There are five issues that the Pope dealt with that we must greatly reflect upon as a nation. The first is land grabbing. The Pope spoke of our unjust distribution of land and the creation of poverty laden urban communities due to landlessness.

Kenyans have talked for so long with so much passion on the question of land. Yet we keep paying lip service to this matter, even after it was found to have been at the centre of bloody violence in parts of the country following the 2007-2008 elections.

Lately, we have seen attempts to water down all the constitutional provisions particularly related to the protection of community land.

There have been efforts at emasculating the National Land Commission and transfer its powers to subservient departments of the National Government. We still refuse to acknowledge that we have a land problem.

The second issue raised by the Pope was inequality. He spoke of the poverty and suffering that many Kenyans are condemned to, saying “these are wounds inflicted by minorities who cling to power and wealth, who selfishly squander while a growing majority is forced to flee to abandoned, filthy and run down periphery”.

“This is what happens when we forget that God gave the earth to the whole human race for the sustenance of its members, without excluding or favouring anyone.”

We heard the cry of our youth through Lynette Wambui Njogu and her heart-wrenching lamentation “does God have favourites?”

I want to believe Wambui was directing her question to all of us; Opposition and Government alike. It is true that in Kenya, we have created a country of favourites. We have pursued development programmes that are high sounding in international economic jargon rather than those that give every Kenyan at least one hot meal every day.

The Pope called the Kenyan type of development a “pursuit of symbols of exclusive economic growth such as vibrant stock exchange”.

He both harshly and correctly told us that this was “crude music to the ears of the poor”.

The Pope challenged us to uphold the values of the poor, “values not quoted in the stock exchange, not subject to speculation and have no market price”.

We must start thinking of changing our development paradigm. We must stop the “trickle down” economic type of development and start putting money in the poor, in their activities and aspirations, and in their humanity. That requires putting the nation above party, personalities, tribe and region that often plague our politics.

This issue of inequality is tied to that of tribalism. Because many times, it is ethnicity that is used to create and maintain favourites. The Pontiff told Kenyans that fighting tribalism is an everyday struggle. It is not a matter of holding hands and saying we are united. It is a matter of respect, of dialogue, and of love for fellow citizens.

“If you don’t dialogue with each other, if you don’t discuss with each other, you are going to have divisions like dust, like the worms,” he warned us.

Then the Pope talked of corruption. It was an embarrassing castigation of us all to hear the representatives of the youth Lynette and Mr Emmanuel Monga frankly tell the Pope how in Kenya one cannot get any public service without paying a bribe in cash, or in kind.

The matter of corruption is one that has occupied most of our talking time since independence. Yet it is also the one in which we have made the least progress. Every government in Kenya comes to power promising to tackle the vice then all end up blaming the people for it.

This is making the people feel hopeless. Kenyans are electing governments with the full knowledge that they are suffering from the cancer of corruption.

They are not electing governments to diagnose the problem. They want the government to solve it.

And every government comes in with that promise, only later to not only fail to solve the problem, but instead to contribute to its gravity. Eventually, each government excuses its failure by telling Kenyans that they are the ones that are corrupt, so the government cannot help them. Corruption is and remains a problem of the political and economic elite. We have to accept this then confront it without blaming the masses who are mere victims.

Lastly, the Pope raised the issue of the youth, another historical promise that we never get round to fulfilling. We must be more innovative in the way we seek to benefit our youth.

We must realise that the benefit of the youth lies in creating a better country all round since the youth are the ones that are worst hit by all the ills of the society.

We must measure our concern for the youth in the way we promote good societal values rather than in just setting aside monies to be lent to young people to engage in commercial enterprise.

We must see the benefit for our youth in protecting the interests of future generations to ensure that in years to come, our youth can raise families in good physical, social and economic environments. If the visit of the Pope means anything to Kenya, it must mean that we engage in deep contemplation about the above issues.

The Pope challenged all of us, Government and Opposition. From time immemorial, even leaders who did not listen to the people did listen to the prophets. We must obey the Pope.