While the fall of Uhuru Kenyatta’s ratings should be cause for concern, it should be no cause for alarm.
Uhuru is Kenya’s Fourth President in an age of indeterminable expectations and fractured outcomes.
And this is true worldwide and also for both sides of the political divide.
Everywhere, there is a general devaluation of political effort, no matter how well-intentioned. We live in an age where people don’t believe what they see but see what they believe and the politicians can’t figure that out.
We have been converted to a state of political faithlessness and we don’t want to be disturbed. To a large extent, Jubilee should take the blame for this situation. When they came to power, they firmly believed what the people wanted was a stream of goodies and the pride of seeing projects commenced in their backyards. Despite doing that, the people still don’t seem to believe that they mean well for the country.
Years ago, I remember opening a women’s magazine that had the headline ‘What do men want?’ There was a long narration about men failing to understand what women want in men, but the question still remains without an answer to this day.
The men are also asking similar questions about women and I highly suspect that both genders don’t themselves know what they really want. The same is true about the electorate. The politicians today are finding themselves asking the same question – What do men want? Remember Uhuru’s frustration with the war on corruption? ‘What do you want me to do?’ he asked, and, sure enough, none of us has an answer to that.
Shifting expectations are every politician’s nightmare. The political class today is playing catch-up with the expectations of the people. It is a difficult time to be a politician. There is a way in which the traditional explanation of ‘development’ is failing to quench the people’s thirst for whatever that might be.
While the UhuRuto establishment has indeed worked to make the traditional goodies of roads, electricity, water and the like a reality through much of the country, there is still a thirst that can’t neither explained nor slaked - much like the difference between diamonds and water. Both are clear (usually) but while one is essential for life, the other is much more valued than the first.
UhuRuto simply can’t figure out what, or where, the diamonds are.
