Is there a quiet life after politics? Ask Jimmy Carter

By TEE NGUGI

Normally, when politicians leave office, they retire to a quiet life, and are rarely seen in public. They figure that they have spent their active years in politics and deserve a retirement in private.

The desire to transform society, which once drove them to seek public office, seems to end when their tenure terminates. Well, except for former US president Jimmy Carter. Since leaving office in 1981, Carter has traversed the world, advocating several social and political causes.

His humanitarian work covers human rights, peace negotiation, election monitoring, building homes, emergencies, and disease prevention and eradication. In recognition of his humanitarian work, Carter was awarded the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize.

It’s perhaps his work in disease prevention and eradication that is the most impactful. Since 1986, the Carter Centre, based in Atlanta, has led an international campaign to eradicate Guinea worm disease. Working in partnership with governments, local communities and organisations such as the WHO, the Carte Centre has mobilised resources, volunteers, expertise and the political will of governments towards eradication this disease. The centre recently announced that Guinea worm disease is about to be eradicated from the face of the earth like smallpox.

Jimmy Carter and his wife Roselyn have worked to mobilise volunteers in several countries to build and renovate houses for poor people. The former president’s visit to Kibera a few years ago brought focus on so-called “flying toilets”. The term might be colourful, but it refers to the degrading practice of wrapping human waste in a paper and flinging the disgusting cargo out of the window because of lack of toilets.

I wonder how many of our politicians have visited Kibera and other slums to see firsthand the degrading conditions of people who live there. Just the other day, President Uhuru Kenyatta was shocked to learn that 300,000 residents of Mukuru Kwa Njenga slum in Nairobi were served by only one small clinic. To his credit, the president commissioned the building of several medical centres in Mukuru and nearby areas.

Historians rank Jimmy Carter’s presidency as below average. But his post presidency activism and humanitarian work has transformed millions of lives across the globe. He demonstrates that you can make meaningful impact even without political power. His example shows that what local communities need is facilitation and partnership, not handouts, in order to transform their own lives.

Our retired billionaire politicians and corporate heads should be inspired by Carter’s example and use a fraction of their wealth and the weight of their voice to impact lives of poor people. The rest of us without wealth or prominence, too, can get inspiration from Carter’s aphorism: “My faith demands that I do whatever I can, wherever I am, whenever I can, for as long as I can with whatever I have to try to make a difference.”

Tee Ngugi is a Nairobi-based political commentator