Machakos Senator Johnson Muthama had his trousers torn during
confrontations in the National Assembly on December 18, 2014 as MPs
debated the contentious security Bill. PHOTO | JEFF ANGOTE | NATION MEDI
In the past one week,
several incidents that have happened in this country have soiled our
image unnecessarily. First it was old men grabbing a 14-year-old girl
and claiming ownership of her as a wife, after paying dowry consisting
of cows, goats and camels.
Then an apartment block built on a wetland collapsed and killed people while those supposed to take responsibility made elaborate speeches blaming poor workmanship (whatever that is).
To cap it all off, our honourable legislators behaved dishonourably by fighting in the august House under the glare of cameras.
Anyone
trying to summarise these events would conclude this is evidence that
Kenya’s population consists of a people who are physically here in the
21st century, but their spirits remain somewhere in the 19th and 20th
centuries.
Our
challenge, therefore, is how we can get everybody’s mindset into the
21st century. We are at a crossroads, where the world is cheering us on
to break through the African stereotype and join the rest of the Newly
Industrialized Countries, but we are busy demonstrating how unprepared
we are.
Whilst
some 21st century Kenyans are busy trading shares on the New York Stock
Exchange, others are busy perfecting 19th century cultural practices,
and still others are in the religious mess of the 20th century.
It would therefore be futile to begin to deal with a concept like poverty reduction when each group has its own conceptualisation of
the same. If we were mindful of poor people, we would ensure that
housing built for the poor was up to standard, and not some rickety
building that would kill them and deepen poverty among their loved
ones.
LEARNING FROM SCOTLAND
If, God forbid, there were an earthquake measuring 3.0 on the Richter scale
in Kenya, we would lose a significant number of people living in the
type of rickety housing built by get-rich-quick Kenyans. Drive along
Outer Ring Road, Eastleigh, North Airport Road, Kariobangi and so on,
and you see many rickety, illegal buildings begging to collapse.
When
they collapse, as it has happened virtually every year, we’ll call it
an accident and make a few tough speeches, then wait for another one to
come down. Our good governor should not have formed a team to probe only the Makongeni mishap;
we need a comprehensive audit of housing in Nairobi and destruction of
all the illegal structures, with enforcement of minimum standards to
ensure safety.
On
Parliament, we always pride ourselves on following the Westminster
parliamentary system. If this were so, then we should have learnt how to
deal with extreme differences from the recent Scottish independence referendum.
The
referendum threatened to tear down the United Kingdom after 300 years,
but the process was conducted in the most civilised manner, and in the
end everybody accepted the verdict. Even though many got carried away
emotionally, there were no fist fights.
Instead,
each side made their case in the simplest way possible, for the people
to understand the pros and cons of the move to secede. In the end they
chose to remain part of the United Kingdom. Although about 45 per cent
felt that Scotland should be an independent country, they accepted the
verdict and moved on.
'HAD NOT READ' THE BILL
I
had wrongly expected our Legislature to break down the Bill and clearly
indicate the offensive clauses as they relate to the
Constitution. Instead, they were shouting at each other and tearing down
documents.
When
I bumped into one of the more vocal Members of Parliament and asked him
what the real problem was, he shocked me by telling me that he had not
read the controversial Bill, but he thought it must be bad. Perhaps more
had not read the Bill.
Up
to now no one has explained the bone of contention. Instead we are
failing to show the world that we are mature, and that we can handle our
differences in a civilised way. This is how you brand the country and
get to attract the much-needed Foreign Direct Investment necessary for
creating jobs.
When
we passionately make our point using the power of words, we carry along
supporters so that even if we lose, there is a point of reference from
where you can spring forward. One newspaper explained the legislators’
bad behaviour as a reflection of society. If this is true, it may
explain why most of our institutions have failed or are failing.
Institutions
fundamentally are not buildings but the behaviour of those people
leading the institutions. This is an area that has been extensively
studied, and theories of institutions have been developed. In any
institution what matters most is the innate qualities the leadership
has. This may include the values, policies and procedures, but it is not
common to pay attention to these factors in Kenya.
JUNGLE LAW
It
is for this reason that the makers of our Constitution recognized the
need for National values and principles of governance under Article 10
(2). These include:
a) patriotism, national unity, sharing and devolution of power, the rule of law, democracy and participation of the people;
b) human
dignity, equity, social justice, inclusiveness, equality, human rights,
non-discrimination and protection of the marginalised;
c) good governance, integrity, transparency and accountability; and
d) sustainable development.
If
you try to reconcile these national values and our actions this week,
you can see we are slowly destroying the document that was meant to
bring us together as a nation, as well as help reduce exclusivity and
possibly bring every Kenyan up to speed in the 21st century.
We
need not legislate these values, but each one of us has the
responsibility to ensure that we realise what we set to achieve in the
Constitution.
Failure
to adhere to a common value system will undermine our social, political
and economic development, leading to the practice of jungle laws that
we saw last Thursday in Parliament.
LACK OF FAITH
A
little trust amongst ourselves may help repair our approach to national
issues, but we keep on betraying our country and worsening any dint of
cohesion that may be building up.
From
my own experience, we have one serious deficiency – lack of faith – in
almost everything we do. Whether in business, where we enter into
agreements half-heartedly and set up parallel operations that undermine
the real enterprise, or in religion, where we go to church by day and
consult with people of questionable character by night.
Similarly,
we defend democracy at the national level then we deny it in our
internal party politics. Until we deal with these contradictions and
bring every Kenyan to the 21st century, many more young girls will
continue to be abused under 19th century cultural practices, many more
fights will erupt in Parliament, and many more people would die from
illegal, collapsing structures.
Lee
Strobel said, “So much of the world's suffering results from the sinful
action or inaction of ourselves and others. For example, people look at
a famine and wonder where God is, but the world produces enough food
for each person to have 3,000 calories a day. It's our own
irresponsibility and self-centeredness that prevents people from getting
fed.”
Bitange Ndemo is a
senior lecturer at the University of Nairobi's School of Business, Lower
Kabete campus. He is a former permanent secretary in the Ministry of
Information and Communication. Twitter: @bantigito.
No comments :
Post a Comment