Poverty is not natural; it’s made by man—that’s why we are trapped in a Mafia den

So what has been happening in Kenya recently? There was the numbing news that the Office of the Deputy President was the centre of an audacious criminal racket. The script, according to what is known so far, is straight out of a James Bond movie.

In another scene out of Bond movies: A court of appeal judge was arrested on suspicion of coaching a murder suspect.

Then there was the arrest of a youthful senator for spewing hate speech during a Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) rally. At the same rally, another youthful politician articulated a truly dark vision. He said that Kikuyu should rule themselves in Kiambu while the Luhya do the same in Kakamega, and similarly in historically Maasai regions, the Maasai should rule themselves.

The 2010 Constitution proposes that political mobilisation should be on the basis of “community of interests” not tribe.

What the Constitution envisages is that Kiambu or Kakamega belong to all who live there, not Kikuyu or Luhya. Therefore, all those who live in the two counties have a constitutional right to participate in county political processes, either as electorate or candidates for political leadership.

It further envisages that people should vote for a person based solely on the relevant competencies he or she demonstrates. I am not as naïve as to think that this ideal can be achieved overnight. But I was hopeful that youthful politicians would take advantage of every opportunity, especially BBI forums, to articulate this constitutional vision.

We have also learned that taxpayers lost more than Ksh1 billion ($10 million) in the 2017 maize importation scam. But what has driven Kenyans to the point of despair, is the revelation that the Standard Gauge Railway, a good project in principle, was a literal gravy train.

Billions spent on grass along the railway, millions allocated for entertainment, millions for airtime, and millions for items that ordinarily cost a few thousand shillings. Any wonder that similar projects in Tanzania and Ethiopia cost a fraction of the hundreds of billions spent on the SGR.
Some years ago, a few brave souls raised alarm bells over the exorbitant cost of the SGR, but government officials were quick to reassure citizens that the project was value for money.
Then in a dramatic turn of events, Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko surrendered key functions of the county to the national government. That Nairobi has been a total mess under both Evans Kidero and Sonko was no secret.

Nairobi has been bedevilled by poor drainage, criminal gangs who are as audacious as the white collar Mafia siphoning billions from taxpayers, unplanned buildings, slimy tender-for-kickback deals, and comical inefficiency.

Nairobi, like the national government, seems to be lurching from one mega corruption scandal to the next. Nairobi and Kenya have become a metaphor for dysfunction in Africa.

To give proper perspective to the gargantuan mess that is Kenya, let’s see what has been happening in another regions of the world.

China, in reaction to the coronavirus, built two massive hospitals in a matter of days. Throughout history, the country has always taken on the impossible.

In the 14th century, China built the Great Wall of China which stretched for 8,000 kilometres. In 1934, Mao Zedong led his army on an epic march of more than 9,000 kilometres in order to evade encirclement by enemy troops.

In 1964, China, a largely agrarian society at its founding in 1949, exploded its first atomic bomb. In the 1990s, China moved a staggering 400 million people from poverty to middle class status.

During US President Donald Trump’s state visit to India, the media reminded us of that country’s accomplishments. While India still struggles with a huge population of poor people and a traditional culture that dehumanises women and members of lower castes, it has become a leading military and economic power.

In the 60s and 70s, prognosis of the country’s future was bleak. Now, pundits marvel at its spectacular accomplishments in science and technology.

These two contrasting narratives show why Kenya remains such a poor and backward country. While others are concerned with achieving the impossible, our greatest concern is that Kikuyu, Luhya and Maasai should rule themselves.

When other leaders endeavour to pull their nations out of poverty, ours are preoccupied with the next kickback. When others use their public offices to advance the interests of their countries, we convert ours to Mafia dens where we plan heists.

We obsess over the next election, others over the welfare of the next generation. We have low expectations of ourselves.

Others aim for the stars.

Tee Ngugi is a Nairobi-based political commentator.