Let's whine less, make 2015 better year

As we all prepare to bid farewell to 2014, I hope we do not take for granted the year that was. In fact, living to usher in 2015 is nothing short of miraculous, given that Kenyans are a besieged lot.

Between insecurity, atrocious road users and all other manner of negative incidents that seem to befall us, every day we live should indeed be a celebration.

Our mortality aside, I hope we have learnt some valuable lessons. Whether in or out of politics, this has been a year of fortitude for Kenyans. Politics was coupled with gaffes, woe unto those who had theirs paraded for all and sundry to smirk at.

If you were unlucky enough to have one of those 'what was I thinking' moments, you can take solace in the fact that Kenyans are long on mirth and short on memory.

And for the new year, I shall put forth a wish list. These are neither the things I want to buy myself, nor those I expect those nearest and dearest to gift me.

Rather, they are my expectations. They may fit in as demands from those I have given my trust, hard-earned money or both.

Seeing as I have no choice but to survive, I reckon that I have no choice but to lay down the rules of engagement.

I wouldn't be me if my list did not start with the thorn in all our sides. Ours is a case of damned if we do, damned if we don't.

I have long accepted that there is truth in the adage that people deserve their leaders.

I heard someone say that as long as the middle class stay out of politics declaring it too dirty to dabble in and preferring to instead engage in 'hashtivism' and protecting their existence, we will remain with the duty of electing the 'devils that we know' at the polls.

After all, electing a lesser evil for lack of choice is still electing evil and we will be on the 'rinse and repeat' cycle.

Maybe my 2015 wish list should start with seeing a different breed of leadership come to the polls in our next election, but I have a feeling we're all, sadly, cut from the same cloth.

I fervently argue against deserving bad leadership at every turn, though, because what does it say about me that I deserve the flesh-biting, chair-throwing, random-slapping mass that purports to represent me? Going down I may be, but it will never be without a fight.

I grew up on Max Ehrmann's inspirational poem, 'Desiderata'. We had a framed copy in our house, and I can recite it by heart. Most of my philosophical (or just plain argumentative) discussions therefore bordered obsessively around it and I recall often ending an argument with 'the Desiderata says so'.

In the very first section, the piece says 'As far as possible, without surrender, be on good terms with all persons. Speak your truth quietly and clearly and listen to others, even to the dull and the ignorant, they too have their story. Avoid loud and aggressive persons, they are vexations to the spirit'.

These few sentences are so profound that I could end this article here and it would give my readers food for thought. I just think Ehrmann or whoever wrote it was lucky enough not to have encountered our parliamentarians, he might have been tempted to hastily erase the section. And this brings me to my first demand.

Dear members of the august House, in the course of the year you have conducted yourself in a thoroughly unbecoming manner for the titles that you carry. Granted, this is a generalisation but you have to bear in mind bad apples in a barrel and all that.

We have sat by and watched as you ignored legislation that was important to us while self-aggrandising bills sailed through without dissent.

Year in year out you have done us the injustice of plundering tax payers funds with such little respect one would think it you have monopoly over it.

We are tired of the flagrant displays of greed and demand that you actually start to debate policy that has an impact on our lives. The state of small businesses in the country is choking under cheap imports, retrogressive taxes and inaccessibility to capital.

You should perform the duties we elected you to do. Kenya should not be slipping down the 'Doing Business' ranking, while you observe.

There's a reason why wish lists are called wish lists. I can shout myself hoarse and demand all I want, but I doubt the political elite care what other Kenyans think.

So I'm going to try to be short on rhetoric and longer on action. After all, I have to be able to say that I did my best, not I whined my best.

As we usher in 2015, I wish you prosperity and happiness. I also wish you the courage to stand for what you believe in and the strength to work and leave the world a better place.

As the popular quote by John E. Lewis goes 'If not us, then who? If not now, then when?'