The most consistent story of the past fifteen years has been that "Kenya is about to take off and join the Asian Tigers in prosperity and success". It has been repeated so often it has now become a cardinal political truth, spouted with certainty and conviction by every man or woman determined to separate you from your ballot -- and the contents of your wallets. The story always ends with "But if it were not for the corruption". The two elements of the story must be there for it to justify the immense national resources we expend to listen to politicians lying through their teeth about what ails this country. First remind us of the glory days before the Coffee Boom became the Coffee Bust when Kenya was the peer of the Yen's Taiwan, Park's South Korea, Suharto's Indonesia, Mahathir's Malaysia and Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore. Second, insist that the problem isn't the received political wisdom that has been applied by successive politicians for nigh on fifty five years but the corruption that the same politicians have engendered, encouraged, participated in and protected for the same period. It hasn't worked so far. But that doesn't mean that in 2017 the narrative is about change, does it?
2 comments:
The narrative will not change. Corruption is like a disease eating up our politicians and acting as fuel to keep them going. Nepotism and tribalism also play a big role, that notion of "our people" for anything to work.
Same story, different cast(where it applied). until each one of us forgets tribal lines and our narrow point of view in politics, we will get ahead as a country
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