It's easy to blame the watchman who was here. The former sentry is often the excuse during the initial steps of a new journey, especially one whose destination is unpredictable.
The former watchman may have made some mistakes – of omission and commission – but such excuses are tired lines. The new watchman shouldn't blame the past. After all, the current watchmen are deniers of history.
Immediate former British Prime Minister Liz Truss resigned after 45 days in office, but she has not blamed her predecessor Boris Johnson for the United Kingdom's economic quagmire. Truss arrived at a time of economic and international instability. Many families are struggling with soaring energy bills.
The Conservative Party elected Truss to fix the mess, but it turns out easier said than done. Truss appointed her friend Kwasi Kwarteng Chancellor of the Exchequer.
Their tax-slashing budget spiked bond yields. The British pound plummeted against the US dollar. Truss sacked Kwarteng, the Ghanaian-British who was billed as the resuscitator of the economy. New Finance minister Jeremy Hunt has reversed the Truss-Kwarteng bottom-up economy revival model.
Should the crisis be blamed on Russian President Vladimir Putin's illegal war against Ukraine? Or the former watchman takes the blame?
Then what – end the war or recall the former watchman to fix the mess?
This is a familiar line for Kenya. The prices of fuel, maize flour, and other basic goods are galloping northwards. The sour taste of the morning after is suffocating the gullible. They got inebriated on the promise of one-touch solutions.
Former President Uhuru Kenyatta slipped on handling the software that counts for the electorate's basic needs. But his government made significant contributions to infrastructural development.
People don't eat roads, but they need motorable highways for ease of movement, especially for doing business. People don't eat fertilisers, but farmers need the additives to increase crop yields. Farmers need water more. Crops don't need rain – they need water.
Seven years ago, Nairobi traffic was impenetrable. The relative ease of movement, especially between the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, top-end city hotels and Gigiri, the host of United Nations offices, is President Uhuru Kenyatta's legacy.
The target audience of the current excuses doesn't appreciate the fact, but international visitors to Nairobi do. It is easier to move in Nairobi now than it was seven years ago.
Prof Francis Odipo Osano of Moi University, School of Environmental Studies, recalls the concerns his research associates from Europe had before they arrived in Nairobi, early this year.
They wondered whether two hours was enough for them to travel from the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, stop at Villa Rosa Kempinski for a shower, change of clothes, and refreshments, then attend a meeting at the United Nations Environmental Programme offices in Gigiri, before travelling to Eldoret for another appointment at 2pm.
When some of the professors visited in 2015, it took them two hours to move from JKIA to a high-end hotel in Nairobi's Central Business District. The leg to Unep took another two hours in the sweltering heat of Nairobi traffic. They missed a flight to Eldoret.
When they visited in July, the journey from JKIA to Kempinski took 15 minutes, down from the two hours of 2015. The movement from the hotel to Gigiri took another 15 minutes, also down from two hours.
The journey back to JKIA for the Eldoret flight took 25 minutes. The last time they missed the flight because of traffic congestion on narrow, potholed roads. They arrived in Eldoret one hour before the scheduled meeting.
Kenya was rising, but the developments relied heavily on Chinese financing. The West detests the influx of Chinese yen in Africa.
The incumbent watchman should settle down to business, possibly with renewed Western support.
