The Bitter Fruit of Dereliction: How Kenyans Reap What They Sow

“The hand ill nurtured, gnarled and feeble, shakes in the wind withering like a prematurely plucked blossom” – Okot p’Bitek, Song of Lawino

By Jerameel Kevins Owuor Odhiambo

Worth Noting:

• As the late Kenyan scholar Micere Mugo lamented in her resonant play The Crucible, the oppressed of the land are “broken in flesh and spirit” while the contemptible ruling cabal focuses solely on “fattening personal coffer with the sweat of the masses.” Never has this rang truer than today when Kenyans find themselves under a Sisyphean burden of ever-increasing taxation amid a crumbling economy and non-existent public services.
• This rapacity is not merely a moral aberration, but a criminal undertaking as highlighted by Prof. PLO Lumumba: “The ruling elites have effectively turned the institutions of state into rapacious instruments of extracting maximum personal wealth by plundering national coffers and mortgaging the future for present pecuniary gratification.”

This scathing indictment from the great Acholi poet mirrors the condition of the Kenyan nation today. A land of immense potential and an indomitable people have been laid asunder by the avaricious machinations of a kakistocracy – a government formed of the worst, least qualified and most self-serving dregs foisted upon the populace. From the soaring heights envisioned by the nation’s founders, we have plunged into an abyss of despondency, destitution and despair wrought by the greed, criminality and dereliction of duty by those entrusted to steer the ship of state.

The lofty ideals and aspirations of the nationalist movements that birthed this republic have been trampled and profaned in the self-aggrandizing stampede of the ruling class. The spirit of Harambee and the promise of an equitable society lie in shards at the feet of the plunderers, the despoilers and the venal vendors of the national interest. This cadre of inept bunglers and avaricious hyenas have put petty self-interest and egomania above the welfare of the 50 million Kenyans subsisting in perpetual penury.

As the late Kenyan scholar Micere Mugo lamented in her resonant play The Crucible, the oppressed of the land are “broken in flesh and spirit” while the contemptible ruling cabal focuses solely on “fattening personal coffer with the sweat of the masses.” Never has this rang truer than today when Kenyans find themselves under a Sisyphean burden of ever-increasing taxation amid a crumbling economy and non-existent public services.

This rapacity is not merely a moral aberration, but a criminal undertaking as highlighted by Prof. PLO Lumumba: “The ruling elites have effectively turned the institutions of state into rapacious instruments of extracting maximum personal wealth by plundering national coffers and mortgaging the future for present pecuniary gratification.”

This systemic and endemic malfeasance has reached such absurd proportions that critical national infrastructure like healthcare and education perpetually teeter on the brink of collapse. Prof. Macharia Munene captures it thus: “The pitiful state of public facilities across all sectors is a haunting indictment of the depravity of those who view public office not as a solemn charge of stewardship but a chance to wildly enrich themselves at the expense of the masses.”

Kenyans have had to contend with dilapidated schools, hospitals without supplies, decaying road networks and non-existent public amenities as the leeches fixate on stripping the nation to the bone. Auditor General reports year after year have laid bare the sheer scale of financial hemorrhaging – where the equivalent of entire county budgets is embezzled and squandered in brazen heists on public coffers. Yet the architects of this economic genocide remain untouched and unchallenged.

As the ravages of corruption and plunder increasingly bite, the silent majorities can no longer remain mute spectators. The empty platitudes, sycophancy and crocodile tears of the rapacious rulers grate harshly against the existential anguish of the masses. Prof. PLO Lumumba’s blistering critique rings resolute: “Those in the palaces of imperial presidency remain grotesquely out of touch with the quotidian Calvary of the people they continually oppress and impoverish through their untrammeled voracity.”

The nation lies prostrate, a shadow of the promise held at independence. Ngugi wa Thiong’o captured the tragic disillusionment best in his seminal work A Grain of Wheat where he portrayed the ideals of the nationalist struggle being steadily eroded and betrayed as “the pockets of the revolutionaries became hollowed by the worms of individual greed.”  This is the bitter harvest we reap when we let the insatiable and unprincipled feast unchecked at the trough.

Kenyans must take stock of the path they have allowed the nation to tread and chart a new trajectory. We stand at a critical juncture where the untrammeled mendacity and avarice of the ruling clique risks submerging us into irreversible ruination. The authors of this calamity continue to flaunt their depravity in the face of a long-suffering people.

Veteran satirist Wahome Mutahi’s withering barbs lay bare the farce: “Our ruling has mutated into a grand theatre of the obscene with shameless grafters clowning and strutting like court jesters on a sambaza of pillage and profligacy obliterating the dreams of generations of Kenyans.” The people can no longer remain mute supplicants at the altar of incompetence and graft.

The people’s dreams of a prosperous, equitable and dignified existence within the tenets of the constitution are being steadily obliterated by the gluttony of the political aristocracy. The choice lies with the beleaguered masses – to either acquiesce into permanent peonage or rise in defiance of the criminal machinations eviscerating the nation. Inertia and complicity will only ensure a bleak future devoured by the hyenas in bespoke suits.

Mugo’s stirring call in The Crucible serves as a potent rallying cry: “Those who have carried the yoke of oppression on their bent backs must seize the hour to restore their dignity and humanity. The struggle to overthrow the enemies within must be unrelenting, vigilant and ceaseless.”

The hour beckons. The resilient spirit that saw Kenya through colonialism and oppression must resonate anew. The descendants of the nation’s founders cannot stand impotent as their inheritance is desecrated upon the altars of greed and perfidy. Let the new dawning be of a people emboldened to reclaim their sovereignty from the talons of the insatiable hawks circling over the national carcass.

Past is the age of docile supplication to unconscionable edicts from unbridled basilisks. This must be the era where civic muscle flexes to restore the vision of an equitable, corruption-free Kenya upholding the principles enshrined in the constitution. A renaissance can be birthed from the cinders and ashes of the plunder – but only if the masses find their voice and resolve to extirpate the scourge afflicting the land.

No longer can we mutely wring our hands as our children’s futures are auctioned away by the depraved money-lenders holding the republic’s purse-strings. It is a time for radical and decisive action to defend the dreams for which our forefathers shed blood, sweat and tears. The rapacious phantoms entrenched in public office must be exorcised and consigned to the dunghills from whence they manifested. 

The writer is a legal researcher and lawyer.