Why put up shows just for visitors?

Bricks on a dug up median of Uhuru Highway which is being spruced up ahead of Barack Obama’s visit. [Photo: Tabitha Otwori/ Standard]

I was working and living in Dar es Salaam in 2008 when the then most powerful man on earth, George Walker Bush, visited.

As usual, the marines and FBI took over the city, electronically jamming phone signals and all.

This brought back memories of the visit by another US President, Bill Clinton in 2000.

As part of preparations to receive him in Arusha, the Tanzanian government cleared the streets of hawkers and the homeless. The town's fire brigade personnel washed the streets with soap!

And here we are, with just a few weeks before President Obama visits Kenya, things are being spruced up, as if we are waiting for Nikolai Gogol's Inspector General.

In her award winning story, My Father's Head, Okwiri Oduor talks of the preparation that went into receiving of the local priest.

Apart from putting on their best clothes and brushing their hair, the villagers also practised how to smile! Everything had to be right.

Those of us who were watoto wa Nyayo remember how well we prepared to receive the Big Man and we had to line the streets, smile and wave miniature flags.

There was excitement, and for a while we forgot our troubles.

Watching the developments around us, one can easily notice that those in government are really preparing to receive one who is bigger than themselves, sometimes resulting in a comedy of errors and gaffes.

We can only hope that these efforts will suffer the fate of the bananas that we love uprooting and "planting" to beautify our thoroughfares for visitors, only for them to wilt once the guests leave.

Most of the time, our script usually reads like Nikolai Gogol's satire, The Government Inspector in which the mayor of the town, Anton Antonovich, is informed that an inspector is coming to visit his district and that the inspector will probably travel undercover.

The friend advises Anton to clean up the town and hide evidence of any bribes that might discredit him.

Quickly, the mayor calls a meeting of the local dignitaries and instructs them how to make a good impression for the inspector.

Zemlyanika, the hospital manager, is advised to put clean nightcaps on the patients and take away their strong tobacco.

Lyapkin-Tyapkin, the judge, always reeks of liquor hence, the mayor advises him to eat garlic to mask the smell.

Hlopov, the head of the school, is advised to cover up the more obvious weaknesses of his teachers.

All these had to be in place for the duration the visitor will be around.

Certainly, the measures did not help the people, and did not remove the rot that obviously existed in this district.

Closer home, things are happening and the script reads like the biblical "Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised..."

It is as if a message is being passed on to President Obama and his administration.

They have to be told of great happenings in Kenya such as expansion of democratic space, respect for human rights and corruption is being dealt with.

Obama is without doubt, expected to comment on these "good" things when he lands in Kenya.

But what happens after he leaves?