Governing must be harder now than at any other time. This makes me genuinely sympathise with those holding public office because of the many times they have to endure online ridicule, insults and even misplaced outrage.
The wonder of the internet has also been its curse. It has precipitated rapid social changes that have outstripped the existing institutions and that are difficult to regulate through the existing means. With it, we have also witnessed that it has higher expectations than any other generation before it. As such, a restive youth populace coupled with an anxious middle class can form a potently volatile political environment that populist politicians may pry on to expand their political stranglehold.
The much-talked-about growing mistrust between the citizenry and duty-bearers does not stem, per se, from government failure or incompetence. The mistrust emanates from the fast-changing political and economic structures that the government bureaucracy can't keep up with. For example, you have young people with college education, without a job but with a smartphone in their hands. They are then able to see how their peers in the advanced economies are living large, say, on sports. This may make them want to see that same experience replicated in their own lives without the patience to realise that you don't plant a mango seedling in the morning then pluck a mango fruit from it in the evening.
Some economist friend, in exasperation once called them the tik-tock generation. But we must first appreciate the circumstances that a country like Kenya finds itself in. Economic growth indicators such as income, health, education and the like are dependent on the strength of both the political and economic institutions of the country. But these institutions sometimes decay, or are out rightly captured and repurposed to serve the interest of the few at the expense of the majority. Long periods of capture can be so corrosive that even a change of government may not immediately translate into economic buoyancy, for it takes both time and skill and political commitments to disrupt the networks of the capture elites.
All these may slow down the time within which a government can be able to institute plebeian-centric reforms that would avail security to the people and conditions necessary for individuals to flourish. This is why at this point in time Kenya's salvation is in the hands of Kenyans who are going to reject the outrage that the politicians have perfected as a stock in trade. In the recent past some have been less than judicious in their speech so much as to openly call for civilian unrest. In their innocence they called it a revolution. The humorous part of it all is that these are people with deep, intimate connections with the capture-elites of the past.
In a country where six families are almost as rich as the country, you don't need rocket science to tell that historically the system has been rigged against the ordinary poor people. As the good book in 2nd Chronicles 7;14-16 places premiums on repentance so as to find redemption, Kenyans must place premiums on unity of purpose and stoicism so as to whether the storms that will certainly persist for some time before we dock safely in calm waters and under bright skies.
Truth is, in spite of the president's commitment to give Kenyans an opportunity to build better lives and incentivise individual enterprise of the people, the fiscal headroom within which he has had to operate has left him with very limited options, most of which carry very far reaching implications. We, the people, must therefore ask ourselves; will we come together to support the president through this difficult phase or fall prey to divisive politics that will make it difficult for transformative work to be done? Let us come together to reject prejudice and contempt clothed in the garb of ethnic solidarity that most politicians have resorted to.
Mr. Mwaga is Convenor, Inter parties Youth forum.kidimwaga@gmail.com
