We have a nation-state whose existence is paid for by the citizens, but whose chosen leaders have no intention of keeping their end of the bargain

The traditional rationale for the existence of the State is grounded in the nastiness of nature and the desire for security: humans try to survive the vagaries and threats of nature by forming families.

But families are themselves small, vulnerable units – a small, isolated family is easy prey for both human and animal predators. If it were just one man, his wife, and two or three kids, who will hunt, who will farm, who will defend the family, who will cook the food, who will make the weapons needed to hunt and defend the family?

The realities of human fragility in a world of natural predators drives humans together into larger groups that can better share out the duties required to supply the group with food, provide security, and indeed ensure genetic diversity within the group: no one wants to marry their own sister or brother, if not for aesthetic reasons then at least for genetic ones.

And so humans naturally come together in groups grounded in the family – several related families band together as a clan, with common origins and common goals and a common desire to survive whatever nature and fate throws at them.

But this structure is not sustainable. Rival clans will feud for the same resources, resulting in war, suffering and death. War has the potential to finish off both fighting groups, so over time humans discovered that it was always better to cooperate with other clans than to fight them.

These were the foundations of the nation-state, and they were based on a division of duties or labour no different from that of a large family. This quid pro quo is the basis of every nation-state: that different clans of peoples come together to live in an entity which has certain duties to perform, while the various peoples all have clear responsibilities towards each other and towards their shared social entity, the state.

That is the basis of the existence of Kenya as a nation-state: that we, the citizens, generate money for the state in the form of taxes and other levies. The state calls upon us to defend it, so we enrol in the armed force. The state calls upon us to be orderly and to not resort to violence, so we leave the maintenance of law and order to the police service.

What underpins all this is the overt, declared understanding that in return for our carrying out these responsibilities, the state will in return run the country reasonably well, to the benefit of the majority, and will seek to maintain law and order, keep the peace, ensure that those we charge with the duty of running the country do not misuse our taxes and that they adhere to the supreme law of the land — the constitution that we, together as a polity, drafted and passed as our supreme law.

We have departed from this nation-state template. Those we have chosen to govern us have gone rogue. We therefore have a nation-state whose existence is paid for by the citizens, but whose superstructure – the chosen leaders – have no intention of keeping their end of the bargain.

The impunity with which Kenya’s ruling elite continue to openly steal public funds, the feigned helplessness of the president and his deputy and ministers and the unwillingness of any branch of government to so much as listen to the disgusted, disappointed dissatisfaction of the citizenry should worry every Kenyan, irrespective of clan, tribe, religion and race.

Unfortunately, all we do is dance for our tribal chiefs as the nation slides towards the abyss.

The author is an information systems professional based in New Zealand.

[email protected]

Hockey
SCHOOLS: Ng'iya Girls, Ageng'a Mixed, Kisumu Girls and Nyamira headline hockey
By Mose Sammy 6 hrs ago
Golf
Ireland Brendan wins Nakuru Captain prize
Athletics
Clean podium sweep as Kenyan stars dominate Rome Marathon
Rugby
Nondescripts and Menengai Oilers book Kenya Cup semis