Self-reliant citizens are a politician’s nightmare
Ever wondered why Kenyan politicians do not invest in the electorate in a manner that can make them independent and self-sustaining in the long run?
It is simple, a society that is self-sustaining is difficult to govern, control and manipulate. That is not good news for politicians because they will find it difficult to get their way.
How else will they make you crave for their handouts and food donations that come in disguised as empowerment programmes?
How about the funeral contributions that must be publicly announced or the mandatory presence of the media during bursary issuance ceremonies?
This would never happen in a country or society that is well and truly empowered and that is why the politicians have ensured that Kenyans remain downtrodden so that they are easily manipulated.
Whereas politics is about the capture and consolidation of power for and amongst the political players and their associates, leadership is about service to the people, through sacrifice and commitment to the greater good. This should always be the point of reference whenever the people choose the leaders to represent them.
However, for many years, Kenyans have failed to vet and elect the right leaders but instead recycled the same politicians every five years and the result has been the suffering currently experienced, like the high cost of living occasioned by poor policies.
Politicians and failed governments will never aspire to have a well-informed, well-educated, socioeconomically empowered population that can make independent decisions devoid of social, economic, ethnic, geographical or political bias. Why? Because such an enlightened populace can never be ruled as is the case in Kenya. It can only be governed as per the people-decreed constitutional provisions.
The political class just wants an ignorant and desperate population of survivors, whose obedience and retrogressive loyalty can then be bought using handouts, funeral contributions, school fees donations at the expense of proper government services like health and education, access to job opportunities and many more.
Politicians want people who are smart enough to run the machines and do the paperwork, but dumb enough to passively accept slavery through hand-to-mouth salaried commitments. No day will they want you to think big so as to act and live like them. They know if this happens, they are finished.
Our over-politicised government on the other hand just wants a public that is smart enough to keep paying the taxes but dumb enough to keep voting the same type of leaders. That is why they are not afraid even if our taxes are diverted into the pockets of a few because they know the much we can do is complain online through hashtags such as #lowerfoodprices and life will continue.
As a population, we have never come up with ways to light a fire under the seat of our elected leaders and even the recall clause in the Constitution, which allows the electorate to recall non-performing leaders, is skewed towards the politicians.
With our options limited, the only way to ensure we have the right people in place is through the ballot and that is why this time round, we have to sieve through and ensure we are electing leaders who have our interests at heart and not politicians who have failed us over the years.
— The writer is a political analyst and a supporter of youth in leadership —[email protected]
