What do we want to be as Kenya? Let's work on our contradictions!

I am almost sliding into my comfort zone of apathy but I have to struggle and wiggle myself out. The question I am struggling with is what do we as Kenyans - I need to be careful too because there are the Kenyans and there are Kenyans - want for this country. Right now more than 10% of Kenyans are fighting to stay alive as famine and hunger starkly stares them in the face. As we are fantastic at reacting and coming to the rescue of the suffering, we are going it 'Big Time' to raise 1 billion to feed the hungry. And I have no grudges against this. We have to save lives. And this time we don't need 'We are the World' because we can do it ourselves, in Nairobi and not New York,  this time round. But did we have to wait this long, after the writing has been on the wall for a long time?

That, however wasn't my issue for now. My issue is what it is we want as a people, as a country and as leaders (those who carry that responsibility). I am not sure who that 'we' is. But I know that we must decide if we want to be a 'Middle Income Country', and start earnestly the journey towards realising the Vision 2030. Do we have what it takes? It is obvious despite the 'stark poverty' in our midst, we have financial resources. But should this remain at the level or reaction. It is obvious that we are in dire need of leadership - and this goes with people who are visionaries. We need structures and governance that works for the majority. After all, aren't we a democracy or aspiring to be one?

This is a perfect time, if we can grab the opportunity, to sit back and think, and think strategically. And this is where, the 'middle class' that is said to be growing, has a responsibility to themselves and their country. This is an opportune time as we are facing serious problems. It is not just the hunger, it is also the energy crisis, the high cost of living, housing for the majority, the anarchy that is our education system, the story of Pumwani Maternity hospital and that of Thika hospital, buildings collapsing, the traffic jam in the city, unplanned development that has been accompanied by lack of basic services and infrastructure. It is the story of the many symptoms of an economy and a political system that is carrying a heavy burden of illnesses. It requires serious treatment, not palliatives. On the other side, we have a new Constitution, which to a lot of us seems to be the 'wand' that will solve all our problems, but I believe that democracy requires hard work from all of us. We have elections coming next year and we can do something to change our lot. That is if we want to.

My great concern has been, how do we attract investments when many hungry faces and frail bodies splash the television screens all over the world? How do we beg for food and at the same time advertise our country as a tourist destination? What do we want to be known for; a country that consistently begs for food because it can't feed its own people or a country that has great potential for business? What kind of Kenya are we branding and what does the world associate with us? Do we want to be known for destitution while at the same time showing the world the greatest marathoners and cross country champions? Do we want to be known as top tea, coffee and flower producers while at the same time declaring emergencies because within the same country people are dying of hunger? What image do we want out there depends on our visionary thinking and the actions we take towards achieving our vision.

How do we even spend the money we do, in branding Kenya unless really we are truly convinced of what we want to be as a country, as a nation? What are we branding, the poverty that can earn us more aid or the beautiful country with a diversity of peoples, fauna and flora? Are we branding a country that will have the so called post-election violence or tribal clashes and have outsiders to come and put off a fire we ignited and played with, yet knowing the damage it can do to our country? As we know, 'kizuri chajiuza, kibaya chajitembeza' as they would say in Kiswahili, meaning that people will know a good product and talk about it to others, while you have to really go out of your way to sell a bad product.

I will share two real experiences that have made me too aware of the contradictions. Recently, while queuing at Immigration at Heathrow (these queues can be long), we started a conversation with a fellow traveler. Having told her that I was from Kenya, the first thing she asked me was if I knew of an organisation or individual who could be trusted, because she wanted to support some children in Kibera, and see them through school. What she didn't want was that the money she gave didn't end in the wrong hands, or go to NGOs who had to take a percentage for their running costs. I was sincerely taken aback, first because my being a Kenyan reminded this woman of Kibera and destitution, and here I was queuing with her to enter into the UK where I was going to visit a university where I was a distance learning student. So, I already started wondering about the contradictions of how much money I was paying to the university, and my travel costs, and here I was with a woman who genuinely wanted to help children in Kibera but the issue was if the money she wanted to give would go directly into helping the children. For a flitting moment I wondered if I could also offer that service and support such a mission, linking the 'donors' to children in those places and run an organisation with integrity that could be trusted by such 'donors'. But, I soon went back to my self. That was not the solution!

Another example is one time I was living in France in the early 19990s, and one Sunday as I was attending Mass as usual, during the sermon, the priest talked to the congregation about efforts to supporting countries in Africa, which were struggling with the HIV pandemic. And one of the countries that were mentioned was Kenya. I wanted to stand up immediately and correct him; that Kenya didn't have a high prevalence of HIV/AIDS. I knew he must have got it all wrong, since most likely the priest could not tell one country in Africa from another. To say the truth, I was so angry, I wanted to go and talk to him after Mass and ask him not malign our country. I had to be patriotic! Later on, of course, there was the realisation that as usual we had wanted to keep this under wraps, just like we claim publicly that there is no famine and no one has died of hunger, and even go further to sack those who have embarrassed the government because that is more serious than loss of life.

So my issue has been, how can we be the country that flies the 'Pride of Africa' while at the same time we remain a begging country? How can we have come up with innovative ideas like 'M Pesa' while at the same time remaining dependent on aid? How can we get even a glimpse of Vision 2030 when we can hardly do anything or make serious decisions with regard to health, education, housing - name whatever sector, without mentioning the word 'donor'. We leave the begging out of the equation when it comes to politics and lavish spending, and I think mostly because we are almost assured of aid for anything. And maybe that's why we can afford not to worry about governance and policy making that has been characterised by contradictions. The concerns for our leaders do not seem to be addressing the three key 'enemies' that were identified at independence; poverty, disease and ignorance. Rather, it is the exploitation of the 3 to remain in power and what we have got as a result is that a large proportion of the Kenyan population is burdened with them. And it doesn't seem to be a good idea for politicians to eradicate these. At least, there is no reflection in the way we are governed that there is commitment to doing anything about it. I am sure I won't have veered off too far from the truth if I think that even the Vision 2030 is dependent on what we have come to accept as 'Development Partners'.

As I have mentioned in a earlier blog, our leadership's focus is the 3 'Us', Ukubwa, Ulavi na Ubinafsi. And as long as these are the guiding principles, forget about visions. We might as we well talk about nightmares as we experienced in 2007/2008. The challenge is, unless we really address the contradictions and work on our dependency mentality we won't go very far. We could lose the vision.