Why our beloved country is yet to attain its potential

Agriculture CS Mithika Linturi when he flagged off five module grain driers 70,000 bags of fertiliser at the NCPB depot in Nakuru County on January 31, 2024. Photo: [Kipsang Joseph, Standard]

A few years ago, I sat in a class where the lecturer was so confident that we were all going to pass in her unit and that if anything, we could only work very hard to fail.

It sounded unusual, but for sure, it was one of those few courses where beside beautiful delivery in class you were also allowed to have all the books you needed in an exam room. So you actually failed if you wanted to.

It does happen that there are people and institutions who always have everything working for them. They have every resource needed and support of relevant entities, but still fail. Our country is a perfect example.

Kenya has an abundance of nearly everything it needs to take off. A beautiful climate, hard-working people, well-educated people, immense resources, strategic positioning—name them. We have still refused to take off.

It reminds me of a video around election time. It is of a boy participating in a relay race who, instead of picking the button and proceeding, turned around in the opposite direction.

Like that boy, it seems like it is never our desire to move to another level by getting rid of petty governance issues. 60 years after independence, we are still tiddling with robbers in the public service who can only take us in the opposite direction.

Take the example of an initiative as noble as the fertiliser subsidy programme. It is obvious that some crooks wanted or actually did take advantage of it. What is more surprising is that no one wants to take responsibility. It is accusation after accusation.

And months down the line, this will be a long-forgotten story. The hatchers and perpetrators would have long moved on to a new deal and continue to enrich themselves with public funds. 

None other than the former president admitted to the massive looting in government. Yet, we all struggle to get the name of any senior leader cooling heels in prison for corruption. In short, we do not lose billions by accident but by design, working hard to fail.

For Kenya to take off, some things must happen. First, it has to be truly governed by the rule of law. That means a chicken thief must sit side by side with a CS or a governor who has siphoned state resources or misused his power.

Of all crimes, one that must not be tolerated is stealing public funds or acting in contempt of the people.

More importantly, voters must rise above tribal affiliations and tokenism when making their choice on the ballot. The kind of arrogance we see from our leaders is either because they walk around with a big chunk of voters in their pocket just by virtue of belonging to a tribe or because they know their way around justice and accountability.

While our peers at independence took hold of the button and raced on to the finishing line, we have been running in the opposite direction ever since.

The writer is anchor at Radio Maisha