President Barack Obama’s three-day stay accorded Kenyans the most serene period in recent times. Kenyans were united in welcoming and listening to a “long-lost” son and brother. Everyone, it seems, hang on to the words as they rolled off his lips. The praise and encouragement Obama had for Kenyans are things that don’t come easily from our leaders these days.
Kenyans cannot recall a time when they sat to articulate their concerns and chart the way forward in a constructive manner without putting their tribal and political affiliations first. In fact, there has been no time that Kenyan leaders sat at a round-table discussion forum to address issues of unemployment, women and girl-child empowerment or job creation for the hordes of educated but unemployed youth.
In the period before President Obama came calling, the Opposition had stepped up its activities doing as it ought to, to score off points against the Government. They criticised the Government on insecurity, alleged favouritism in State jobs and tenders and corruption. Yet it was easy to notice they were simply trying to portray the Government in bad light.
But it seems President Obama let the cat out of the bag when he seemed to suggest that the Opposition leaders often engaged in doublespeak. A few politicians will dispute President Obama’s embarrassing revelation. In truth, the predatory nature of Kenyan politicians is legendary. Politicians will flip-flop depending on what suits their greed and overblown egos. It is never about the common good. Most would rather it were them rather than the others with their noses in the trough.
Put in another way, the country lacks principled politicians. Often, self-appointed politicians use political parties as vehicles for self-preservation rather than as a forum to articulate policy and ideas to help move the country forward. At best, many politicians are members of briefcase parties, at worst, many belong to private parties owned by tribal chiefs where to enrol, one has to do the bidding for their sponsors. By and large our politics remains unclean.
It is therefore easy to understand why Opposition means seeing and hearing nothing good about the Government of the day. That sort of thing shades into empty rhetoric that retards development and reinforces a culture of mediocrity in public service.
It might have shocked Mr Obama that the Opposition leaders’ prescription to tackle sticking governance issues was to force the hand of Government or try to undermine it one way or the other.
Yet despite that, those in Government stand accused as well. They have not lived up to all their promises. In many instances, it is a case of the same forest, but different monkeys. There are half-hearted efforts to clean up the politics, unite the country and make common cause with the citizens on critical issues despite high-sounding words during election campaigns.
The shenanigans surrounding the war on corruption are disappointing, serious security challenges confront us each day, millions of youths still want jobs, the cost of living is rising each day. Meanwhile, the politicians politic.
High levels of dishonesty where those in the Opposition play on the common man’s insecurity only to turn around when in Government is prevalent. In such circumstances where leaders don’t tell the truth and only seek self-perpetuation, corruption and tribalism, which feed off the “it-is-our-time-to-eat” mentality, take hold and conspire to condemn millions to an unending cycle of poverty and want. Changing such habits will take time, but it is time to stop.
One way of doing that is by holding the feet of politicians to the fire and ensuring they do away with the culture doublespeak.
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