Thank you very much for seeking public office. What you did takes considerable courage, hard work and self-sacrifice.
You put yourself and, indirectly, your family out there.
You may have had some selfish motives, but usually, we want to believe that your main reason for running was to serve others and make Kenya a better country.
Even if we did not vote for you, the rest of us still benefit from what you do.
You have given us a choice, which we did not take for granted, but which is unimaginable to the people who believed in your candidature and what you stood for.
The fact that you were not elected doesn't make you less qualified. I believe your time will come, someday.
You have probably felt anger, despair, disappointment, dismay, embarrassment, fatigue, frustration, pain and regret, among many other things.
I am hoping that in your offering to serve humanity, you have also known an even greater share of happiness, hope, surprise, pride, enthusiasm, satisfaction, pleasure, and fulfilment.
Those of us on the sidelines cannot imagine, much less understand, the investment you have made in some of your most precious personal assets; emotion, energy, family, friendships, pride, reputation, resources, talent and time.
We may not compensate you for that but God will.
Theodore Roosevelt put it this way in his famous “Man in the Arena” speech: “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man.”
“The man actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, errs, comes short again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming, but who does strive to do the deeds.”
“....Who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions, spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”
John F. Kennedy is said to have kept in his wallet this excerpt from a poem by Domingo Ortega: “Bullfight critics ranked in rows, Crowd the plaza full; But he’s the only one who knows–and he’s the man who fights the bull.”
Please cut this and carry it in your wallet. We critics, like to think we play a useful role in the process, too, but we also recognise the powerful truth in these expressions.
You have experienced it firsthand. You didn't have to but you chose to for the sake of others, myself included. As an election loser, you are in very good company.
We have some of the best, greatest and most decent Kenyans in history who have suffered political defeat.
Many politicians who lost elections go on to win, and even to greatness.
Others are eventually recognised as great even if a loss ended their electoral career. Most who lose probably proceed into political obscurity.
For them, for you, there is another kind of greatness that comes from having tried, and from the well-earned, if often unspoken, the gratitude of the rest of us.
Lest this all come off as insincere and syrupy, many of us, including myself, must admit to taking delight in the defeats some of you suffer.
In many cases, we find you and your views obnoxious, or even dangerous. We did what we could to beat you and hope you never run for anything again.
But on another level, we still admire what you have done and acknowledge that you have made a valuable contribution to the political system that we all at least profess to treasure.
We may not like your kind of political tree, but we realise, perhaps begrudgingly, that without it we would not have the beautiful and beneficial political forest that we love.
Be a good loser and let your loss reveal to all that you have the kind of character that is itself a great victory.
Take the high road to the greatest extent you can and remember that “Don’t get mad, get even” may be a catchy maxim, but is probably not the best advice for a happy life.
That goes double for those of you who were fortunate enough to win. Political victory poses challenges of its own.
We thank you for running but will thank you much more if you serve well.
Doctorate student in Project Planning and Management at UoN
Edited by Kiilu Damaris
