Cost of indiscipline: Why neighbours are eating our lunch

Tanzania's President John Magufuli welcomes Deputy President William Ruto on arrival for the 18th Heads of State of the East African Community Summit at State House Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. [Photo: Courtesy]

I have a few distasteful things to say about Tanzania, including how it has become a nasty neighbour, but we have to applaud its economic progress in the last one decade. Throw in Rwanda and Ethiopia, and you have a full picture of success in economic growth and development buoyed by national discipline. For many years the world considered Kenya the island of peace, but with increasing levels of national indiscipline, this title has slowly slipped away, with our neighbours eagerly gobbling it up.

Kenyans should focus on national discipline, else this will slowly eat into our economic and social development. Small things like littering the streets with abandon, jumping red lights and dignitaries overlapping in traffic-jammed streets speaks volumes of our levels of national indiscipline. Our social media venom is at a world high and we have no respect for laws. Political indiscipline has reached a crescendo. While we have a progressive Constitution, it has often been abused by politicians.