'It's our turn to eat' mentality an existential threat to Kenya

Kidi Mwaga

It's Albert Camus who once observed that "In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me lay an invincible summer''. As we mark Mashujaa Day, the day of the heroes and heroines of this country, excavating the invincible summer in our hearts is an imperative of our time.

Truth be told, we are a people in a quandary about the present. If there is no course correction, then even the future may not be any better. I will not waste time reciting the problems of the present times. For to do so might simply depress an already depressed people. Our challenges are enormous and complex. The mounting disillusionment is palpable while the elected leaders are trapped in an unending self-seeking journey that knows no end.

We must isolate in the cocktail of issues that our generation is grappling with, which ones are so important, so urgent and so much in concert with our most fundamental values and thus cannot wait any longer. We may then measure those issues against the hard reality of our prevailing political and economic trajectory and see if this is the country we want to bequeath our children's children.

We must then isolate that which is not in our best interest which must be fought by everyone. That way, we will know who is for and with us in the endeavour of realigning this country with its highest ideals and who is not.

For starters, we must ask ourselves, what are our most fundamental values?'

This is critical because strong, prosperous nations are built on the foundation of certain cardinal values. Those values then become a nation's true north. It then begins to matter not who is president at any given time as long as they remain committed to those cardinal values.

When we enacted the Constitution, we attempted to do this by enacting Article 10 and Chapter 6 of the Constitution. But we quickly gave Chapter 6 a kick in the neck when we passed the Leadership and Integrity Act 2012 which is a mockery of the lofty standards set in the Constitution.

We became a country fixated on rights, especially as held against duty bearers, but have always been silent on our responsibilities as rights holders. This has made it so easy for the political class to take us through a continuous revolving door. They can conveniently take one position in the day and quickly abandon it by sunset and get away with it.

How can two antithetical positions find abode in the bosom of one individual?

The answer may lie somewhere in the colonial legacy. We prioritised state-building before nation-building as colonialism was coming to an end. We then propped ethnic elites who continue to look at our ethnic groups as their personal fiefdoms. This is what has heightened inter-ethnic competition and exacerbated the feelings of exclusion of certain ethnicities at the expense of others.

We may need to go back to the good old rugged cross of nation-building as opposed to state-building; a nation premised on loyalty not to ethnicity but to a set of values and institutions. If you critically analyse one of the existential threats to our nationhood today - corruption - you will realise it has been sustained by the primitive mindset of ethnic nationalism. This is where when a leader comes to power, his cronies, largely his tribesmen and sometimes women, take it upon themselves to raid public coffers to build the tribal-political war chest.

Michaela in her book, 'It's our turn to eat' narrates how the individuals around President Mwai Kibaki felt that Anglo Leasing was a means to build a political war chest for Kibaki and retain the power within the community.

We must rededicate ourselves to an anti-graft crusade that has no regard to political affiliation. We must come together as Kenyans and forge an ecumenism that will see us rekindle the soul of the nation.

Mr Mwaga is the convenor of the Inter-parties Youth Forum. [e-mail]