My Dearly Beloved King:
Let me commence this short missive by extending my condolences to you and the entire Kenyatta family as we commemorate the 43rd anniversary of the death of your father, our Founding President Mzee Jomo Kenyatta, the Burning Spear.
It has been almost a decade since I last addressed you in this manner: My silence should not be taken to indicate that I have not been paying sedulous attention to your leadership of the Republic of Kenya.
And this is the reason I have elected to use this moment, as we commemorate the unfortunate passing of our founding President, to strongly urge you to consider what your legacy will be.
We aree now in the political twilight of your presidency as currently provided for by the Constitution of Kenya. Even in politics, we too have masaa ya Jayden!
You see, my Dearly Beloved King, when Jomo ascended to be the undisputed leader of all Kenya, three key challenges were identified as those beleaguering the people of Kenya, namely, poverty, ignorance and disease.
By the time of Jomo’s demise, however, it was clear that poverty was still the overarching challenge as the country had performed pretty well in enhancing healthcare and education.
When the country imploded into internecine self-cannibalisation after of the botched 2007 presidential election, it was clear issues of non-inclusion and corruption were now, alongside poverty, the dominant challenges.
These needed to be transcended if we were to emerge as a true democracy. And this was the reason the Kenyan National Dialogue and Reconciliation process incorporated these issues into the four agenda items that formed the overall KNDR agreement.
So let me start with the overarching challenge in terms of the time-travelled since Independence: Poverty. Kenya may be a poor country when metrics such as per capita income are considered but Kenyans are, more accurately, impoverished.
This is because there are more than adequate public resources to ensure there is a dignified living for all but these are invariably either squandered or privately consumed; in most cases both actually apply.
The so-called Hustler narrative has venomously captured the imagination of a generation of poor, helpless and vulnerable. The reason is that the policies of all governments since Independence – except to a large extent, the Mwai Kibaki administration – was that no policy focus was invested in ensuring Kenyans have money in their pockets.
Instead, infrastructural projects (mainly white elephants) were favoured due to pervasive corruption: Procurement remains king.
Of course, procurement within infrastructure projects is but one example of a practice that symbolises the brazen impunity whereby public offices and goods are deployed to private gain. This denies and deprives the hungry food and clean water, the sick medicines and hospitals, and the ignorant schools, books and laptops.
Private solutions to public problems reign as the overarching mantra and it is no wonder your perfidious deputy has been very visible as a one-man charitable organisation: The high priest and knight of the Order of Robin Hood.
Obviously, tribalism or ethnicism thrives in this toxic political, social and economic milieu. Note that tribalism/ethnicism are not the equivalents of tribe/ethnicity.
The latter are actually our linguistic or kinship containers. Despite the fact that 'tribe' may have pejorative roots, it is not a bad thing altogether as it provides identity, belonging, kinship and social support.
It is, however, tribalism or ethnicism that we must battle. Again, the characterisation of these as 'primitive' or 'primordial' or 'atavistic' is not wholly fair. There is actually sound political, social and economic logic behind them.
At a basic level, it is the nucleus of political mobilisation to challenge and retain power. The tragedy is the fiction that are political parties, which are animated to function as special-purpose political vehicles. They include and exclude, as needed, other communities to seek or maintain power.
Naturally, those excluded will do the same and what this results in is a kind of political treadmill that we, for instance, see in today’s Kenya. At play is are a kind of significantly cynical, zero-sum, bankrupt, policy-deficient politics.
My Dearly Beloved King, you have less than 12 months to be the main instrument facilitating this country out of this hopeless miasma of political mediocrity.
On poverty, you can ensure more money reaches the pockets of ordinary Kenyans and that government policy and priorities are aligned to those sectors where the majority eke out their living, for example, agriculture.
Manufacturing will also need your sedulous attention in addition to the fact that the ridiculous taxes recently introduced on literally everything were both reckless and insensitive to the plight of Wanjiku.
The digital, creative and sporting economies also require your adequate support, facilitation and boosting to achieve their full potential.
On corruption, more decisive action against those at the heart of mega corruption needs to be in evidence. I cannot tell you how dismayed I was when you some time back asked us what you were supposed to do with the skunk that is corruption.
My response: Throw it out immediately. And recover the two billion bob a day that we have been haemorrhaging to corruption: To be re-injected into our jaundiced economy.
Your approach to inclusion, starting with the handshake with your now-brother Raila Odinga, has been most welcome. Your efforts to bring in others who have as yet not had hands shaken is also commendable.
However, I deeply disagree with how this has, through some political abracadabra, morphed into the BBI constitutional amendment process.
My Dearly Beloved King, hapo umechoma, Sir! Please wachana na Katiba 2010. For if ever there was to be an illustration of how the road to hell is paved with good intentions, it is amply and manifestly demonstrated in the process (and some of the content) of the BBI constitutional amendment proposal.
Of course, I am aware that you and Jakom may strongly disagree with my last point, as you are entitled to; in your case, I am only but your loyal subject.
But please do not raise cudgels if, in so ignoring, rejecting or declining my passionate exhortation I, in turn, resort to all legitimate recourse available to me under the same Constitution. For, as Article 1 of Katiba 2010 reminds so eloquently, I am the sovereign.
This is Mugambi Kiai’s personal opinion.
