Obsession with succession is our greatest undoing

Succession talk will define our politics for the next five years. This premature preoccupation by the political leadership is all about planning, positioning and the presidency. Starkly absent in the equation are conversations about building the nation; contribution, construction and cooperation. Being five years before the next poll, this ‘succession obsession’ is an obvious case of putting ‘the cart before the horse.’ Speaking of farm animals, if this, our country, were a massive farmland whose leadership was rotational; next season’s harvest would be jeopardised by this presidency mania.

I say this for three reasons. The first is that farmer-in-chief, Uhuru Kenyatta is fixated on getting the work done, and deliberately ignoring the political noise. This on one hand is good, because he should remain focused and not just ‘talk politics.’ But on the other hand, he should ‘do politics’. Presently, Kenyatta’s focus is on the ‘Big Four.’ In keeping with our farm analogy, he wants to increase productivity by ‘mechanising operations,’ taking care of farm welfare in housing, health and food security. But it is counter-productive for a farmer to invest heavily on the estate and ignore security of the projects.