Post by Jared on Nov 9, 2005 22:39:01 GMT 3
Beyond fruits: Needed - A grand future for Kenya
It is not always easy to tell which side of the coin US based academic Professor Makau wa Mutua prefers in our ever intriguing political dispensation. In his latest pastiche penned from his recluse at the State University of New York, Buffalo, appearing in today’s edition of Daily Nation, Mr. Mutua, employing sophisticated jargon, enunciates the folly of present day banana and orange politicians succinctly:
“Both the orange and banana camps, which represent the sum total of the country’s dominant political class-, are inherently incapable of envisioning a grand future for Kenya.
“Ethnic chauvinism, the culture of anti-intellectualism, corruption and political greed have claimed yet one more African success story.” Mr. Mutua suggests that the ever smiling Information and Communication minister Raphael Tuju, may already have eclipsed Professor Anyang` Nyong`o ( one of post Tom Mboya politicians I greatly admire in Luo Land alongside Shem Ochuodho and James Orengo) as the second most important Luo politician. Please, permit me not to indulge in Mr. Mutua`s fantasy.
Clear absence of vision
The points Mr. Mutua raised on lack of vision among our political leaders today are broadly correct. Both camps have yet to bring to our suasion the Marshall plan they have for a better tomorrow. This has dramatically indicated the failure of so called leaders who have long since lost their luster, as run away corruption and ethnic chauvinism reach a new peak.
An opportunity that was to usher in a new-found political stability and economic reinvigoration has badly been rattled as chest thumping theatrics, use of state resources to woo voters and talks of coup plots show no signs of abating. So that, as the Biblical Apostle Paul, speaking on the highest authority of the matter, tells the Romans in Romans 5:12, that all of us have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory.
Big ideas
After 82 year old Labour Party member Walter Woflang was rough handled out of the Labour conference for hurling brickbats at British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw over the latter’s justification of the presence of British soldiers in Iraq, I read an opinion article in the 30th September edition of the Guardian. Columnist Polly Tonybee offered that what the Labour Party needed are big ideas not clever stratagems.
Clever stratagems and jostling for power are what have become daily recipes of our political process at the expense of the overall wellbeing of the country.
Writing in the current issue of Project Syndicate, Ralf Dahrendorf posits that what makes societal change is a middle class that “has begun to move forward to new conditions, but then find their paths blocked.” Borrowing from Karl Marx and Alex de Tocqueville, the former European Commissioner suggests that it is this group that may ultimately bring about change. Unfortunately, Nairobi`s middle society, yesterday’s civil society activists and, sadly, a swelling number of creative talent abroad, have taken not too dissimilar positions to the present day ruling and opposition politicians.
These groups then, have sacrificed a golden opportunity to earn a sterling reputation as the Messianic force in our nation’s renaissance.
I shudder at the thought that for the next decade, my contemporaries and I will be subjected to the visionless leadership of Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta, George Saitoti, Gideon Kipsielei Moi, Gerald Otieno Kajwang`, Herman Odhiambo Omamba, Stephen Kalonzo Musyoka, , Mwancha Okioma, Mutula Kilonzo, William Samoei Ruto, Christopher Ndarathi Murungaru, Charity Kaluki Ngilu et al.
The nineteenth century Russian writer Leo Tolstoy had long foreseen our situation today. Apparently encouraging the progressive Kenyan of today, he wrote: “There is only one time that is important-NOW! It is the most important time because it is the only time that we have any power.”
Jared Valentine Oluoch
Nairobi
It is not always easy to tell which side of the coin US based academic Professor Makau wa Mutua prefers in our ever intriguing political dispensation. In his latest pastiche penned from his recluse at the State University of New York, Buffalo, appearing in today’s edition of Daily Nation, Mr. Mutua, employing sophisticated jargon, enunciates the folly of present day banana and orange politicians succinctly:
“Both the orange and banana camps, which represent the sum total of the country’s dominant political class-, are inherently incapable of envisioning a grand future for Kenya.
“Ethnic chauvinism, the culture of anti-intellectualism, corruption and political greed have claimed yet one more African success story.” Mr. Mutua suggests that the ever smiling Information and Communication minister Raphael Tuju, may already have eclipsed Professor Anyang` Nyong`o ( one of post Tom Mboya politicians I greatly admire in Luo Land alongside Shem Ochuodho and James Orengo) as the second most important Luo politician. Please, permit me not to indulge in Mr. Mutua`s fantasy.
Clear absence of vision
The points Mr. Mutua raised on lack of vision among our political leaders today are broadly correct. Both camps have yet to bring to our suasion the Marshall plan they have for a better tomorrow. This has dramatically indicated the failure of so called leaders who have long since lost their luster, as run away corruption and ethnic chauvinism reach a new peak.
An opportunity that was to usher in a new-found political stability and economic reinvigoration has badly been rattled as chest thumping theatrics, use of state resources to woo voters and talks of coup plots show no signs of abating. So that, as the Biblical Apostle Paul, speaking on the highest authority of the matter, tells the Romans in Romans 5:12, that all of us have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory.
Big ideas
After 82 year old Labour Party member Walter Woflang was rough handled out of the Labour conference for hurling brickbats at British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw over the latter’s justification of the presence of British soldiers in Iraq, I read an opinion article in the 30th September edition of the Guardian. Columnist Polly Tonybee offered that what the Labour Party needed are big ideas not clever stratagems.
Clever stratagems and jostling for power are what have become daily recipes of our political process at the expense of the overall wellbeing of the country.
Writing in the current issue of Project Syndicate, Ralf Dahrendorf posits that what makes societal change is a middle class that “has begun to move forward to new conditions, but then find their paths blocked.” Borrowing from Karl Marx and Alex de Tocqueville, the former European Commissioner suggests that it is this group that may ultimately bring about change. Unfortunately, Nairobi`s middle society, yesterday’s civil society activists and, sadly, a swelling number of creative talent abroad, have taken not too dissimilar positions to the present day ruling and opposition politicians.
These groups then, have sacrificed a golden opportunity to earn a sterling reputation as the Messianic force in our nation’s renaissance.
I shudder at the thought that for the next decade, my contemporaries and I will be subjected to the visionless leadership of Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta, George Saitoti, Gideon Kipsielei Moi, Gerald Otieno Kajwang`, Herman Odhiambo Omamba, Stephen Kalonzo Musyoka, , Mwancha Okioma, Mutula Kilonzo, William Samoei Ruto, Christopher Ndarathi Murungaru, Charity Kaluki Ngilu et al.
The nineteenth century Russian writer Leo Tolstoy had long foreseen our situation today. Apparently encouraging the progressive Kenyan of today, he wrote: “There is only one time that is important-NOW! It is the most important time because it is the only time that we have any power.”
Jared Valentine Oluoch
Nairobi