Stop, you can't live off taxpayers indefinitely

Kenyans demonstrating in Nairobi. To the political class, ordinary citizens are a congregation that just won't stop giving. They feel nothing burdening us with their financial needs and never-ending demands. Of course, they know that what they want, they will get. After all, they hold the knife in one hand, and the yam in the other. They will always have their way. It all starts on the campaign trail. They toy with our emotions and get our gullible selves to vote them in on false promises that they did not intend to keep. As they enjoy the trappings of office, fully paid for by taxpayers, for the maximum number of terms allowable by the constitution, they continue scheming how to extend the freebies off our sweat. Even in retirement, they still want to live off our largesse; that we should continue picking the tab for their lavish lifestyle, for the rest of their lifetime. And it is not just a small stipend and such bread-and-butter issues to get by. Of course, they want to get paid, even with their spouses. On top of it, a fully staffed office, fully serviced and maintained vehicles, and a retinue of aides to take care of their matters, all at the taxpayers' cost. Their claim to all this is the political office that we elect them to. Never mind that these post-retirement perks are on a new budget line in tough economic times with a cash-strapped government struggling to raise revenues from overburdened folk. Even if it means raising taxes for the ordinary citizens, so be it; as long as the big men and women are taken care of. The politicians' humongous expectations get magnified when they are political detainees, or victims of torture or second liberation agitators. In their minds, and their followers', they deserve unquestioning support for their time and suffering in prison for fighting for us. The running battles with anti-riot policemen, teargas thrown into their vehicles, and sometimes, being bludgeoned. Granted, theirs was a steep price to pay and an act of selflessness. Their role can neither be downplayed nor taken for granted. They put their lives on the line for a cause greater than all of us, individually and collectively. That we can enjoy many of the freedoms we do today because they put their feet down many years ago, and chose to die on their feet than live on their knees, together with the rest of us. They forewent normal lives, got locked up in difficult and dehumanizing circumstances and even got injured by the dark agents. However, it does not necessarily follow that the rest of us citizens owe them, together with their kin, a huge unlimited favour. That these second liberators are now our messiahs; since it is their blood and sweat that watered the tree of freedom, in whose shade we sit and whose fruits we enjoy now. At the risk of sounding politically incorrect, it cannot be our collective problem as taxpayers that the system of those days chose to make the lives of these individuals so difficult. That they were made to suffer, their rights withdrawn and even personal property appropriated. Thus, whatever desires they have will be considered like everyone else's. There are no priority passes because of their gallant pasts in the trenches. Thus, if these saviors choose that it is State House they want, we will not necessarily give them the vote unquestioningly. Also, when they retire, will do not have to take care of them indefinitely. It is just how the world works: it owes no one nothing. We all have to accept to play our role in nation making, without expectations. Ultimately, to each their own, which they have to sweat for. If each one of us lay claim to being a hero deserving of being the taxpayer's responsibility, would we ever be able to take care of us all?

Stop, you can't live off taxpayers indefinitely

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