Jubilee Reflections.

It is difficult to reflect on the past fifty years when one is not fifty years, and ones experience of independent Kenya is seen through the prism of corruption, incessant crime and endemic unemployment. But it is important to make the attempt, if only to contribute to the discourse on the place Kenya finds its itself fifty years after attaining internal self-rule and declaring independence from colonial Great Britain.

One of the constants of the past fifty years was as a result of a Mzee Jomo Kenyatta homily along the lines that one must eat where one works. It was directed at Bildad Kaggia who continued to fight the liberation war long after Jomo Kenyatta and the rest of the Kenyan establishment had declared it won. It is a sentiment that seems to have captured the minds of every single senior mandarin of the Government of Kenya. Corruption was the outcome and it has captured the imaginations of Kenyans ever since it became apparent that shortcuts were the preferred path to great wealth or power. As a result, problems that bedeviled Kenya at Independence seem intractable today. Basic healthcare remains a privilege few can afford. Universal free education is defined by its low cost and poor quality. Poverty stalks over half the population without any sign of improvement. Meanwhile, because of corruption, there is an elite in Kenya that can afford to send its members overseas for medical care or education and for whom poverty is what they read about in economics' treatises and political party manifestos.

The other constant has been crime and violence, both by the State and non-state actors. The sixties, seventies and early eighties were characterised by violent clashes between the government and the peoples of Somali ethnicity in Kenya's North East, with atrocious crimes committed against these people. The late eighties and early nineties were characterised by what were euphemistically described as land clashes and cattle rustling. The late nineties and the first decade of the Twenty-first Century were characterised by violent crimes against the people by organised criminal gangs. It is the adamant refusal of the State to take action or the opportunistic and predatory behaviour of politicians out to foment greater chaos that defines the utter hopelessness of the situation.

Finally, even the least informed must admit that Kenya's unemployment skyrocketed because of the Structural Adjustment Programmes of the International Monetary Fund and has remained stubbornly high despite rising numbers of graduates. It is a challenge that has defeated two regimes, that of Daniel Toroitich arap Moi and Mwai Kibaki, and seems set to defeat the Jubilee government of Uhuru Kenyatta unless radical changes are made.

The Rainbow Coalition had bright ideas that foundered on the intractable politics of Kikuyu versus Luo.If the economic blueprint hammered out over the course of the first Kibaki government had been faithfully implemented, and if the political understanding between Mwai Kibaki and Raila Odinga had survived the sabotage of late 2003, Uhuru Kenyatta would have inherited a country on a sound economic footing with a chugging economy that absorbed more of the university graduates being churned out by Kenya's high education industry than is the case today. President Kenyatta still has a chance to turn things around, but it is clear that the challenges he faces, both political and economic, have only multiplied since Mwai Kibaki retired to Othaya.

Mr Kenyatta's hope lies in streamlining bread-and-butter policies: public safety (and security); employment generation among the educated and skilled youth; faithful devolution of redundant functions; greater investment in development by the private sector; greater integration into the global economy, especially as an exporter of finished manufactured foods and skilled services; and the final destruction of the politics of negative ethnicity, marginalisation and victimhood. For this Mr Kenyatta and Mr Ruto must demonstrate that their government does not simply exist to reward Jubilee voters or Jubilee-dominant regions. If this is not reflected in the manner that policies and decisions are made, or in the face of the Cabinet and the public service, all the lofty speeches in the world will not salvage the Year of Jubilee from the disaster many believe it is.

It is not unpatriotic to shine a bright light on what ails us as a nation. Nay, it is vital if we are to take on the next half-century with determination. We know deep in our hearts that we should be more affluent than we are today. We know deep in our hearts that we should not be slaughtering one another over land or political differences. We know deep in our hears that we should be the leading economy in Africa. And we know why we are not any of those things. Therefore, it is simplicity itself to address the elephant in the room if we are to achieve what we have always been destined to achieve. We must learn the proper lessons of history or we are simply doomed.