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iblically, in
the Book of 1st Samuel the people of Israel grew restless and asked
Samuel to appoint over them a King to lead them. Samuel was a prophet of the
Lord who presided over the entire multitude and was so favoured as to have one
on one communication with the Lord. As a far-sighted person who knew the
consequences, he steamed in anger but did not let the lid blow off. He prayed
to the Lord over the matter and the Lord in no uncertain terms disclosed that
he felt the people had not disapproved of Samuel but instead he, the Lord
creator of Heaven and Earth. Samuel came back and warned them about the
aftermath of anointing a King. He will start off as humble but will grow haughty
and claim what belongs to them as rightfully his. He will take their sons and
make them serve ahead of his chariots and horses to run like headless chicken
in front of the same. He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and
order you to plough those same fields and glean the harvest for his table. From
what you are left with, he will levy a charge of ten percent of your grain,
vintage and flocks. He will take your daughters to be his cooks, attendants, chamber-maids,
perfumers, servants, concubines and bakers. None of them will even deserve to
be his royal wife; the queen as they, by no consequence of their own have no
noble blood hence deemed unworthy. For wives, he will tap from the neighbouring
heathen women to ostensibly build a semblance of familial unity with those in
the proximity! This will occur in absolute disregard of God’s statutes on who
to marry and who not. Other sons will develop weapons of war for the big man.
He will with ruthless abandon, take your best servants to be his own not to
forget the best cattle & donkeys. Ultimately, you will become his slaves
and serve at his pleasure only for the crumbs that will fall from his table. On
that day you will cry unto the Lord in supplication and gnash your teeth. The
Lord will be unbowed as he watches he who sets traps eventually get ensnared by
the same. Of course, the human being is oft deemed intelligent yet belligerent enough
to accuse the donkey of being stubborn while it is he who is at fault. They
said an emphatic “No!” Who was to lead ahead of them in battle like the other
nations? When they peddled this frivolity before the Lord he assented and told
them albeit in rebuke to get one. Many years later King Ahab; a leader of God’s
chosen people, found himself in headlong flight in battle against the Arameans
(Syrians) disguised as just an ordinary soldier. Where was the brave king who
was supposed to lead men into battle? But I digress.
In Kenya we have
been exposed to this unsightly and festering monstrosity that is the
proliferation of the big man syndrome. We eternally assume that we must fight
tooth and nail to have a person known to us in the seat of power. This brooks
from the fact that a dearth of meritocracy and objectivity has resulted in
success at any field even merely seeking employment to be a matter decided
based on not what you know, your excellence and professional acumen, rather who
you know and in worst case scenario, which big boss’ hotel room you have had
the misfortune to share! Professionalism has gone to the dogs and instead has
been replaced with something not even remotely decent. Recently, the president
named the ladies and gentlemen ostensibly tasked with the responsibility of
executing his agenda as Cabinet Secretaries. History has dictated that the
Minister of yore who used to wear the hats of both a politician and technocrat
was an ill fit for the job from any angle you look be it project, will or
agenda implementation. After many years of toil and watching illiterate fellows
stumble through ministries we had decided to bequeath upon ourselves a constitution
that was to ideally have technocrats in the various fields as the substantive
Cabinet Secretary assisted by equally academically and technically endowed
Principle Secretary. But now, all that is in abasement as we watch the return
of appointees merely for being sycophants, political financiers and
golf-buddies to the appointing authority. This is in the various tiers of
government both county and national. Some will argue that I am
harsh as to denigrate the great virtue of loyalty, but what is loyalty? A good
leader is only supposed to be loyal to the best interest of his subjects and
fulfilment of his mandate.
In this very
publication, I am on record in no uncertain terms castigating the originator of
the term ‘strongman’ to mean a despotic and intolerant leader. In reality a strong leader is one who
accommodates many interests, is kind, never engages in spousal-battery, gives
reasoned opinions not attempting to arm-twist anyone, surrounds himself with
people more gifted than he is on many aspects, is God-fearing, never gives in
to selfish interest, always prides in the truth and justice, is ready to forego
his personal comfort for the greater good of the nation and is willing to
peacefully handover power in case of electoral defeat or at the end of his
term. Not the effeminate, tantrum-throwing, egoistical, mediocre, media-freedom
curtailing and petty demagogues we see around rewarding sycophancy and utterly
disregard innovative smart work and enterprise.
So who are these
people I have dubbed the big men? These are characters who are actually
physically hefty in body size having enjoyed the trappings and largesse of
state powers. These are characters who are well connected in the upper echelons
of state as to be able to do business with the government. They are people who
win in whichever tender they bid for as they are able to influence its award.
These are the leaders we the proletariat apotheosize, converting them into
demigods even though they possess no special abilities. When they say, “charge”
then we like wildebeests run helter-skelter, plunging headlong into whatever
quagmire is laid ahead. They have conditioned us so that like dogs we are able
to obey their every command. At their inception, we could even be turned
against our brothers or neighbours, just for financial gain. They have a sound
mastery of the button that can convert us into beast mode.
These ethnic
chiefs blind us to the fact that in the real sense there exists but two tribes,
the haves and the have-nots. They will lie to you, “if I get this position then
it is to the benefit of our entire community.” When caught in corruption
scandals, with fingers firmly in the cookie jar they will call in a press
briefing. They will assemble a multi-sectoral panel consisting of politicians
from the same ethnic extraction, professionals, business leaders, women groups,
people with disability, a religious leader, and a few young men with unkempt
appearances – in derision dubbed the tribe’s business community. They will then
speak with the most sonorous voice of melancholy expressing the lie that the
entire community is being pushed to extinction to evince ethnic pride and
sympathies. Afterwards, in a shambolic act to hoodwink the entire nation, they
go around town in a nihilistic and self-effacing demonstration to defend the
indefensible. One question we fail to ask is: Does my kid study at Hillcrest
like the guy shedding crocodile tears purportedly for the community?
The problem with
this syndrome is that it defeats the very tenets of democracy that we have
pain-stakingly tried to build over time. The big men have organized themselves
into some sort of community mafia preferably to defend the interest of their
tribe. They fundraise to ensure they prop up the tribal leader of their choice.
To them lawlessness and impunity is the staple as they deem themselves above
the law because they have a deity-like influence on who becomes president.
Though enshrined in our gleefully promulgated new constitution, just one word
from them and the general interest of the nation will be pilfered to ashes. Woe
on you if you are not a member of that community. You can be popular all you
want. You can be flamboyant, with the best manifesto, be most patriotic, ooze
the most confidence in your campaign, have the best interest of the electorate
at heart, be most patriotic, be oratorically gifted as to virtually wax
lyrical. You could the actual instrument of peace prayed about in the prayer of
St. Francis of Assisi. However, if you are adjudged as not able to do the
bidding for that particular tribal mafia, then you are ‘toast’ politically.
Propaganda will be birthed against you. This will be spread by the network of
social media experts and Search Engine Optimization gurus with intellectual
acumen so rarefied some of us could never imagine it. A massive smear campaign
will be launched against you of the scale never thought possible. The
retribution from whatever backlash you get for your transgression will be so
wild you could actually collapse into anaphylactic shock and perish. Drums of
war will be beat and you will be styled an ‘arch-nemesis’. Every noble venture
you ever engaged in will be considered an endeavour for personal gain and
falsified evidence will be fabricated against you in that regard. Even trumped
up legal challenges will crop up, to if not for any other reason deflate the
wind out of your sails. The weak-willed will fold up their campaign and go to
tend their goats in the foreseeable future. The seasoned will go to the end and
face the inevitable electoral defeat. Why should we allow such a small number
of people to stand in the way of our greater good?
These big men
are a heartless, corrupt, conceited, diabolically-malicious and singularly
profit-motivated bunch. They are the authentic personification of capitalism
without a human face. These are guys who can trade their own mothers for a PlayStation
let alone some stranger called ‘the ordinary Kenyan.’ In some places they have
been termed ‘evil-geniuses’ because of the level of chokehold influence they
wield on almost all facets of our lives. They are the warlords who finance
tribal militia and proscribed entities
to wreak havoc on the opposition oft co-opted into the nation’s security
tapestry on a need basis but abandoned to their devices afterwards. When NASA
leaders called for a boycott of some companies, they wanted to cause a tremor
on this sinister groupings who like a malevolent wind are blowing our very
destiny away from its due course. These big men who form cartels to protect
their every interest have wrought against our polity nothing short of pain,
grief, thieving, mediocrity, impunity that is widening of the gap between the
wealthy and those dabbling in penury, raiding the exchequer and reinvesting
those funds in foreign climes by the truckloads. These are the same characters
that engage in deplorable acts like drug-peddling, then proceed to launder the
attendant proceeds into legitimate enterprises which artificially purport to
exist in the profitable range all the while being propped up. Talk about doped-up
economics. These are the same guys that threaten us that our economy will
crumble into the sea and the stock market experience a perpetual bear-run if we
dare elect someone from a region exterior to theirs. It is the subversion of
the will of the majority that will crumble a nation’s economy and kill foreign
investment. But don’t mind me as I have no academic grounding on matters
economics.
Sometimes I sit in
meditation and ask myself these questions. Do we eternally elect Members of the
County Assembly to do nothing else other than engage in cock and bull fights in
their august county assemblies? Are we in need of the gladiators of ages past?
Whose interests are they fighting for? As I am yet to get a sufficient answer
to any of these queries, I just give myself consolation that maybe their wrath
is like the passion-laced jealousy of an amorous boyfriend towards other males trying
to make moves on his jewel. On many occasions I would have preferred the
mythical action character ‘Optimus-Prime’ as my MCA. He was a hefty gorilla who
due to his intellectual superiority found himself as the undisputed leader of a
rowdy gang of animal superheroes who he whips into an efficient military force
which is tactically astute. Not a single time did he resort to chest thumping
or asserting his physicality on any member of his team but I think I passed my
point. My opinion is that the raising of the academic bar to Degree level could
instil some aura of professionalism to how service delivery is effected at this
level. Snobbish as it may seem, I personally think it will have some benefits
in the future. But am also aware that leadership is not taught in school and
confidence is key in this endeavour, I can only submit that slightly more
education will polish the rough edges off this gems in our midst.
What is
happening in Kenya is not unique. Let me present an anecdotal example. Our
minds float across the oceans and we land on Easter Island in the South Eastern
Pacific Ocean. This is the tragic tale of how people who took great pride on
the illusion of grandeur over all else built monumental statues each to his
honour. The landscape dotted with statues which are now a sight to behold.
These men and women also cut down the dense forests they were endowed with just
to gain more land for the statue building and the accompanying colossal
structures of domicile. In fact the principle objective was surreal as to
boggle your mind – To create pathways for the Statues’ conveyance by means of
rollers. Environmental degradation consequent to these activities led to them
losing their agriculturally potent and verdant land. They also lost the trees
that would have been valuable to make canoes for their escape from that
wasteland. Cornered they turned on each other, engaging in out-of this world
macabre competitions and rituals just to stay alive. They equally turned on the
same idyllic statues they carved out themselves. Today that land is unsuitable
for habitation and UNESCO named it a heritage site, to chronicle what havoc the
unfettered love for primitive accumulation and infantile destruction of
resource can wreak on a nation.
All this said,
my message to Kenya is that, we now have an onerous task to perform.
Opportunity is ripe. Let us take back our power from the power-brokers; the big
men, and back into our more than capable hands because these men will never
have any other interest in their hearts other than their own financial gain. We
must rebel against our unpatriotic elites and their unsightly neo-colonialist
foreign backers. As we put it in this publication, ‘No one should ever purport
to love you more than yourself!’
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