We are serving our leaders instead of them serving us

There was once a time under the colonial rule Kenyans were all servants of the system. With time we got fed up of the system and fought for our independence hoping that it will usher in a future of equality, prosperity and mutual respect for each other as brothers, sisters and citizens.

We celebrated independence with so much hope for the future but little did we know that those people we were going to put in power would employ the same tactics of stealing and looting public resources, land grabbing and assassinating those who opposed their rule. This was against the very people who fought and died for them to be in that position of power.

Electing leaders is similar to hiring a new servant to help you with the house work, but things are not always what they seem to be. This is when those meant to serve us end up being those we end up serving.

When people vie for political posts anywhere in the world and specifically here in Kenya, they promise to clean up, protect the citizens, improve their living conditions and serve the country loyally.

We who put them in those posts should expect them to do their work. For instance, when we hire house helps, we expect them to take care of our homes, cook, and even entrust them with our kids. This is the expectation we have for those who serve and are paid to serve.

What if you came home from work and found the maid seated on the couch watching television yet the house is barely clean? Food half cooked, clothes washed but strewn all over the bed, children crying because they are hungry, the dishes from breakfast and lunch are still in the sink and the house help tells you that you owe it to her for employing her. This is the exact situation we face as Kenyans in the country today, and worse still is that we have been made to believe that we indeed owe it to them for voting them into power.

Those we have put in positions of power have abused it. We voted in a new constitution and they are not implementing it. Our country stinks of garbage, roads are a disgrace, food security is pathetic, education system is crumbling and our public health care system is collapsing. Corruption is at an all-time high with billions of shillings vanishing into imaginary infrastructure, but still our politicians feel that they are doing us a favor.

We protested with pigs when the parliament opened in 2013 and the first thing they did was to increase their salaries because the proposed amount wasn't honorable enough for them. However, it was futile as they went ahead and awarded themselves the money and we accepted and moved on,

Would we accept if our maids or servants at home decided to increase their own salaries? Would we let them award themselves bonuses and allowances for doing the work they were hired to do?  Would we accept that they open your safe or take your credit card and steal the money you worked hard for? If not then why do we accept it from those we have employed to serve us as a country? Have these politicians we have employed evolved into untouchable gods?

It is wrong when a politician in the senate is against the government’s decision to award a certain percentage of tenders to the youth because they fear that this will be detrimental to their political future. They are afraid because empowering the youth would give them freedom and this might pose a challenge to the politicians’ future. We voted for them and we must ask ourselves whether we need such people in power. We are their employers and they are our employees. They are there to serve our interests and not theirs. This is what we as voters have forgotten.

We are entrusting our leaders with our hard-earned money, our taxes, our future and the future of our kids and yet they take our hard work for granted.

To quote Charles de Gaulle," In order to become the master, the politician poses as the servant.” We have to ask ourselves when we shall say enough is enough.  What if we decided as a country not to vote in any elections, until our ‘fake gods’ are reduced to the servants they are meant to be?  When shall we decide as Kenyans that we are the true holders of power and those in power are mere servants?