Enough. It is time to take back our dignity and pride.

What is it about fat, old geezers and their pursuit of pretty young things? In the recent few weeks, Kenyans have been horrified by tales of betrayal where political types entice barely legal college types with money, booze, sex and promises of adventure that have ended in tragedy. Now, a story doing the rounds about a Cabinet Minister abandoning an upcoming female musician in Zanzibar raises uncomfortable questions about the morality and integrity of our elected leaders and whether or not Kenyans, and Nairobians in particular, have become inured to their antics.

2012 could not come soon enough. It is time that Kenyans demonstrated that their previous awe-struck amazement at the political and financial prowess of our leaders are no longer the criteria that we will use to choose the next batch of MPs, Senators or President. The constitutionally changed political landscape offers us an opportunity to redraw the map and remind all potential leaders that it is no longer business as usual. It should not be OK that a young woman, in the prime of her life, is killed and nothing is done to catch and punish her killers or that a man will take a young woman out to Zanzibar and abandon her to her own devices without a means to get home.

For far too long we have suffered our political class, and 2012 is an opportunity to take back all that we have lost: our dignity and pride. Chapter 6 of the Constitution lays down what should be obvious. Integrity and morality should not be legislated; they should be matters that come naturally to any person who wishes to hold a position of authority in any country. Kenyans cannot keep suffering thieves, philanderers and liars in positions of power. Kenyans must be dignified and proud enough to admit that their favourite sons and daughters have let them down and that it is time we got ourselves a new leadership cadre.

It is heartening that many Kenyans are debating these matters in public after a very long time of silence. This is what reform is all about. Without public debate or discourse, however disagreeable, it is not possible to create a new dispensation. Kenyans demonstrated maturity and wisdom when they overwhelmingly endorsed Dr Mutunga and Ms Barasa as CJ and DCJ. They must do the same when they go to the polls in 2012. Just because we have done things a certain way for forty-seven years doesn't mean that we must continuing doing so. We may love, or appear to love, our current crop of politicians, but if they have done anything to bring shame upon themselves, their families, the government and the country, they must be given the steel toe and sent packing. I don't want to explain to my foreign interlocutors why so-and-so is still Minister when he displays behaviour akin to that of a five-year old with a machine-gun. I shouldn't have to. Neither should you!