BWIRE: Why our votes must break the poverty curse in 2027

Once we as citizens accept that poverty is created by systems, and not by people who live in it then we might make better voting decisions come 2027.

Just to paint a brief image of this: when facilities in schools and hospitals are not equal; when infrastructure in certain areas is way better than others in one country, then certainly, poverty is by design and not by default.

At no point does poverty ever look good. For instance, go to a five-star hotel in the Coast, by the beach, while you have to pass through shanty villages as you drive or you are driven in, is when you will feel the guilt of living in an unequal society.

Kenya’s latest data shows that the national poverty headcount index stands at about 39.8 per cent, meaning roughly four in every 10 Kenyans are living below the national poverty line, a stark reminder of how widespread deprivation remains.

This reality stands in direct contrast to United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 1, which calls for the complete eradication of poverty in all its forms everywhere.

Yet, for far too long, countries like Kenya have remained recurring case studies in global poverty reports, where statistics that are analysed, cited and discussed, but rarely transformed into lasting structural change.

In the book Corruptible, the author gives the example of a former leader of Madagascar who rose from poverty to presidency, only to forget where he came from by making policies that were against the very low-income areas and people he once belonged to. This is how easily power can disconnect leaders from the lived realities of the people they are meant to serve.

Just like the Madagascar, we have leaders in Kenya, who come from very humble backgrounds. These same leaders, forget their background and the promises made during campaigns and go into wealth accumulation sprees.

See another example of Félix Tshisekedi, who even went ahead to publicly invite the United States to access DR Congo’s vast mineral wealth, stating in essence that American partnership was welcome to “benefit from our resources”, a declaration that sounded like a presidential decree of sorts, made without broad consultation; the promise may not have been actualised, but who knows.

Bottom line, only a few might benefit from the deal, with majority in DRC remaining in poverty. This in essence is poverty by design.

What we have been witnessing over the years in Kenya, since independence, is not accidental. We have certain areas mainly occupied by the poor, for many years on end, like slums, so bad that our slums are tourism spots.

These slums pre- and post independence, have been structured, maintained and, in many ways, protected by the owners of the houses as well as a politically guarded business community.

If you look across the major cities in Kenya, there is another unfortunate quiet violence in inequality that we have normalised. A child in one part of the country walks into a classroom with cracked walls, outdated textbooks and an overworked teacher.

Another, just miles away, sits in a well-equipped classroom, with access to technology, numerous mentorships and opportunities that they can choose from.

I personally believe even school exam failure or success to some extent may be by design. These differences may have been born out of fate; but they are also the result of choices, meaning policy choices, budgetary priorities, and most definitely political will.

The same structured poverty can be said of healthcare. In some places, a mother must travel miles on rough roads to reach a facility that may not even have medicine.

In others, care is immediate, dignified and well-resourced. Yet both citizens vote, both pay taxes and both are told they are equal under the law. Where, then, does this inequality come from?

These examples unfortunately come from systems that decide who matters more, and we need to remind ourselves this, all the time to make better voting decisions.

Poverty, therefore, is not necessarily laziness or lack of effort. Poverty in Kenya, and mainly the Global South is the lived reality of those who have been systematically excluded from opportunity.

It is the consequence of being born into areas that have been historically neglected, where development is promised every election cycle but rarely delivered. Those who break the poverty cycle in our very promising countries have to try very hard.

And perhaps the most painful part of poverty is how we have been conditioned to blame the victims. We point fingers at the poor, questioning their choices, their work ethic, their ambition, while ignoring the structures and election decisions that have limited those very choices in the first place.

Nevertheless, awareness is powerful and poverty should not be permanent. The moment we Kenyans will blatantly see poverty as a policy failure is the moment we will begin to demand better.

It is the moment we start asking harder questions of those who seek our votes and ignore the tribal nuances and empty promises we have forever been sold to.  Come 2027, the ballot must become more than a ritual. It must become a reckoning.