Politicians run for office to promote their interests, not transform society

Two hundred years ago, German philosopher Karl Marx – accepted by some as one of the most important figures in history alongside Freud, Einstein and Jesus – believed that the ideal society has no economic classes, no wages, no private property, and no exploitation.

In an ideal society, according to Marx, each person would not only be provided a fully adequate material existence but would also be given the opportunity to develop freely and completely all physical and mental faculties.

Things like marginalisation, corruption and state terror would be minimal. 

In an attempt to appeal to the electorates, Kenyan presidential candidates are increasingly trying to peg their course on Marx’s ideal society.

Recently, ODM leader Raila Odinga launched his 2022 presidential bid in which he highlighted a number of issues – including social welfare, industrialisation and affordable healthcare – that his administration would give priority to.

Equally, Deputy President and the presumptive UDA presidential candidate William Ruto has spent a good deal of time trying to package himself and his bottom-up idea as the solution to the trouble with Kenya.   

As far as Raila supporters are concerned, their candidate will initiate the process of reclaiming the Kenyan dream in its original form.

He will create a country in which equity is entrenched in the national culture and corruption will become a capital offence: A country in which all jobless citizens will receive Sh6,000 every month – at least that’s how they understand it. To put it another way, for his supporters, Raila is the cream in the coffee, the gin in the Campari.  

On the other hand, Dr Ruto's supporters believe he is the choice of heaven; the panacea to all that troubles Kenya. Ruto, as he likes to say, is a man on mission: A mission to liberate the average Kenyan from historical economic exploitation.

Whether he is the right person to talk about liberating Kenyans from the consequences of state failure is a matter under public debate.

The economic meltdown that Kenya is grappling with today is as a result of polices pursued by Jubilee government which Ruto has been part of since 2013 when it came to power.     

While such political rhetoric might sound refreshing to the average voter, it is the kind of expectation it creates on the minds of the masses that should raise concern. Ideal societies don’t exist here on earth; maybe in the next world.

Politicians don’t run for office to transform the society. They do so primarily to promote their interests. In order to access political power, one doesn’t need to do the right thing; one must always do the expedient thing.

And the expedient thing most of the time is to lie to the masses from whose consent one derives legitimacy.

It’s important for the average Kenyan voter to make peace with the fact that none of the presidential candidates will turn around their lives in the way they are envisioning.

Politicians don’t make policies for public good; they push for policies that make public goods accessible to themselves and what political scientists call small coalition of ‘essentials’.  

Every once in a while, the masses develop a kind of collective consciousness that compels them to question the business of riding on tenterhooks of false hope perpetuated by the political elite.