By Jerameel Kevins Owuor Odhiambo
“The trouble with Nigeria is simply and squarely a failure of leadership. There is nothing basically wrong with the Nigerian character. There is nothing wrong with the Nigerian land or climate or water or air or anything else.” — Chinua Achebe in The Trouble with Nigeria
Kenya’s political landscape has transformed into a lucrative enterprise where elected officials allocate themselves exorbitant benefits at the expense of public welfare, with the Parliamentary Service Commission approving Ksh 9.3 billion ($72 million) for lawmakers’ salaries and allowances in the 2023/2024 fiscal year, while an additional Ksh 1.8 billion was allocated for the purchase of luxury vehicles for members of parliament in 2022. Each of Kenya’s 416 legislators receives a monthly basic salary of Ksh 710,000 ($5,460), along with numerous allowances including a Ksh 5 million car grant, Ksh 20 million mortgage facility, and Ksh 7 million car loan, creating an annual compensation package that exceeds Ksh 14 million per legislator, which is over 100 times the minimum wage in Kenya. The political elite’s self-enrichment continues through procurement kickbacks, with reports suggesting that approximately 30% of Kenya’s annual budget (estimated at Ksh 3.7 trillion for 2024/2025) is lost to corruption, representing an astronomical Ksh 1.1 trillion that could otherwise fund vital public services in education, healthcare, and infrastructure. These financial incentives have transformed political positions into sought-after opportunities for wealth accumulation rather than platforms for public service, creating a system where elected officials primarily serve party interests and wealthy donors who finance their campaigns rather than addressing the pressing needs of their constituents.
The commodification of political power in Kenya parallels the situation depicted in Chinua Achebe’s satirical novel A Man of the People, where Chief Nanga epitomizes the corrupt politician who views public office as a vehicle for personal enrichment rather than a responsibility to serve, using his position to accumulate wealth and influence while the masses remain impoverished and disenfranchised. This literary portrayal resonates with Kenya’s current reality, where politicians frequently engage in theatrical performances of public service while simultaneously diverting public resources for personal gain, creating a disconnect between their lavish lifestyles and the harsh economic realities faced by ordinary citizens who struggle with rising costs of living, inadequate healthcare, and limited educational opportunities. The political class has effectively captured state institutions, enabling them to manipulate legislation and policies for self-benefit, with numerous instances where bills beneficial to corporate interests or wealthy individuals are expedited through parliament while those addressing social welfare languish in committee proceedings or face deliberate procedural delays. This phenomenon of “state capture” transforms democratic institutions into mechanisms for elite enrichment rather than vehicles for collective advancement, resulting in governance structures that primarily protect the interests of the political class rather than serving as platforms for addressing societal challenges or catalyzing national development.
The corrupting influence of money in Kenyan politics extends beyond individual greed to systematically undermine democratic processes, with political parties functioning more as vehicles for accessing power and resources than as ideological organizations committed to specific policy agendas or public service ideals. Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s seminal work Petals of Blood illustrates how post-independence African societies often replicate colonial exploitation patterns through indigenous elites who maintain systems of inequality and extraction, which parallels Kenya’s situation where political elites have replaced colonial administrators but maintained exploitative governance structures that concentrate wealth and power among the few while marginalizing the majority. Electoral processes have become increasingly expensive endeavors, with the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) reporting that candidates for various positions spent approximately Ksh 100 billion during the 2022 general elections, creating a system where only the wealthy or those with wealthy backers can meaningfully participate in politics and effectively excluding qualified individuals without financial means from leadership positions. This financial barrier to political participation ensures that elected officials often represent the interests of their financiers rather than their constituents, leading to policies that favor the wealthy and well-connected while neglecting the needs of ordinary citizens who lack the financial leverage to influence decision-making processes or hold their representatives accountable.
The luxurious benefits accorded to Kenyan politicians stand in stark contrast to the austerity measures frequently imposed on public services, with elected officials enjoying state-funded healthcare abroad while local hospitals lack essential medicines and equipment and access to quality medical care remains a privilege rather than a right for most citizens. In his dystopian novel Unburnable Carbon, Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor presents a future Kenya where environmental collapse coincides with extreme inequality, serving as a cautionary tale about the consequences of governance focused on short-term extraction rather than sustainable development, which mirrors the current political economy where immediate benefits for the ruling class take precedence over long-term national interests. Public funds that could address critical infrastructure needs, enhance educational facilities, or strengthen healthcare systems are instead diverted to maintain the opulent lifestyles of political elites, with the Auditor General’s reports consistently highlighting irregular expenditures, unaccounted funds, and outright embezzlement across government departments and agencies, suggesting systematic misappropriation rather than isolated incidents of corruption. The normalization of this extravagance reflects a troubling value system where public service has become synonymous with privilege and entitlement rather than responsibility and accountability, creating a perception that political positions are primarily pathways to wealth and status rather than opportunities to address societal challenges or contribute to national development.
The 2024 youth-led protests against tax hikes and government mismanagement represented a significant pushback against this entrenched system of political profiteering, with demonstrators specifically highlighting the disconnect between increased taxation and visible public benefits while demanding accountability for resources already collected. As depicted in Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o’s Wizard of the Crow, the theatricality of political power often serves to distract from substantive governance failures, with elaborate ceremonies, inflammatory rhetoric, and symbolic gestures substituting for meaningful policy implementation or structural reforms that would address systemic inequalities or enhance public welfare. The protesters’ demands extended beyond specific policy changes to call for fundamental shifts in how politics and governance function in Kenya, reflecting a growing awareness that the current system primarily serves elite interests rather than collective welfare and that cosmetic changes within existing structures would be insufficient to address the underlying dysfunctions that enable political profiteering and corruption. This movement represents a potential turning point in Kenya’s political consciousness, with citizens increasingly recognizing that meaningful change requires not only new faces in leadership positions but fundamentally different approaches to governance that prioritize public service over personal enrichment and collective prosperity over individual accumulation.
Making politics unprofitable requires structural reforms rather than merely appealing to individual morality, with changes needed in campaign financing, remuneration structures, accountability mechanisms, and civic education to reshape incentives and expectations surrounding political leadership. Kenya’s current political economy resembles the dystopian setting in Nuruddin Farah’s Maps, where truth becomes subordinate to power and identity is manipulated for political gain, creating a system where perception management takes precedence over substantive governance and where political discourse focuses more on symbolic victories than material improvements in citizens’ lives. Implementing strict caps on campaign spending would reduce the influence of wealthy donors and mitigate the expectation that political positions should generate returns on campaign “investments,” while transparent public financing of campaigns could democratize access to political participation and reduce the dependency of candidates on private interests that expect favors in return for financial support. These reforms would alter the calculus that currently makes politics attractive primarily to those seeking financial gain rather than those motivated by public service, potentially opening leadership positions to individuals with genuine commitment to national development rather than personal enrichment.
Eliminating luxury perks and aligning political compensation with realistic public service standards would fundamentally alter who seeks political positions and how they approach their responsibilities, transforming politics from a wealth-acquisition strategy to a genuine platform for public service and national development. The protagonist in Binyavanga Wainaina’s memoir One Day I Will Write About This Place navigates the complex interplay between personal identity and national politics, illustrating how political dysfunction affects individual lives and how meaningful change requires both structural reforms and shifts in collective consciousness about governance and leadership. Replacing the current system of unlimited allowances, luxurious accommodations, and expensive vehicles with modest stipends sufficient for comfortable but reasonable living would eliminate the financial attractions that currently draw opportunists to political positions while still ensuring that economic considerations don’t exclude qualified individuals from public service. Politicians’ compensation should reflect their role as public servants rather than elevated rulers, with benefits comparable to those of other professional civil servants and directly tied to performance metrics and constituency satisfaction rather than automatically accorded as entitlements of office regardless of effectiveness or impact.
Strengthening accountability mechanisms would ensure that political positions cannot be exploited for personal gain, with enhanced oversight institutions, protected whistleblower channels, and transparent audit processes creating environments where corruption carries significant risks rather than minimal consequences. In Changes: A Love Story by Ama Ata Aidoo, characters navigate evolving social expectations while confronting established power structures, much like Kenyan citizens must navigate the tension between traditional deference to authority and emerging demands for accountability from political leaders who have historically operated with impunity. Independent ethics commissions with genuine investigative and prosecutorial powers could enforce strict conflict-of-interest provisions, requiring politicians to divest from businesses that might benefit from government contracts or regulatory decisions and prohibiting the revolving door between political positions and lucrative private sector appointments that often function as delayed compensation for favorable treatment during tenure in office. Technology platforms that enable real-time tracking of public expenditures, comprehensive asset declarations by public officials, and transparent procurement processes would reduce opportunities for corruption while increasing the likelihood of detection, creating an environment where political positions are less attractive as avenues for illicit enrichment.
Civic education represents a crucial component of transforming politics from a profiteering venture to a service-oriented calling, with informed citizens more likely to demand accountability, reject clientelism, and evaluate politicians based on performance rather than patronage. The narrative in Zakes Mda’s Heart of Redness explores how historical trauma shapes contemporary politics and how breaking destructive cycles requires new visions of leadership and community, which parallels Kenya’s need to reimagine political leadership as service rather than extraction after decades of exploitation by political elites. Educational initiatives should emphasize citizens’ rights and politicians’ responsibilities, shifting public expectations from personal favors and handouts to effective policy implementation and accountable governance, which would fundamentally alter the relationships between elected officials and constituents. This shift would transform the current patron-client dynamic where politicians “gift” communities with infrastructure or services that should be standard government provisions, instead creating an environment where citizens understand these developments as their rightful entitlements rather than personal generosity from politicians that warrants political loyalty or electoral support.
The youth-led movements for political accountability demonstrate growing recognition that Kenya’s challenges stem not from resource scarcity but from resource misallocation and extraction by political elites who prioritize personal accumulation over public welfare. Mlango wa Navatu’s poem The Parliament of Vultures uses powerful imagery to depict political institutions as predatory rather than protective, consuming the resources meant for public benefit while leaving citizens to survive on scraps, which resonates with many Kenyans’ perceptions of their political system as extractive rather than supportive. The protestors’ demands for fiscal responsibility and transparent governance reflect emerging values that prioritize collective welfare over individual enrichment, suggesting potential for transformative change if these movements can maintain momentum and translate street demonstrations into sustained political pressure or institutional reforms. This growing civic consciousness represents a significant threat to the established political economy that has enabled generations of politicians to convert public office into private wealth, potentially creating conditions where political positions become less attractive to those seeking enrichment and more appealing to individuals genuinely committed to public service and national development.
International examples demonstrate that making politics service-oriented rather than profit-driven is possible, with countries like Norway, Finland, and New Zealand implementing models where political positions carry modest compensation, strict accountability mechanisms, and cultural expectations of ethical conduct rather than entitlement or extravagance. Wole Soyinka’s play Death and the King’s Horseman explores how social roles carry responsibilities that transcend personal desires, which parallels the ideal of political leadership as duty rather than privilege and service rather than extraction, suggesting alternative political cultures where power is understood as responsibility rather than opportunity. These models feature transparent campaign financing, reasonable compensation structures, robust anti-corruption mechanisms, and cultural norms that stigmatize rather than normalize political profiteering, creating environments where those seeking wealth pursue business or professional careers while those entering politics do so primarily from commitment to public service. Adopting similar approaches in Kenya would require significant cultural and structural changes but could transform politics from a competition for extraction rights to a platform for addressing societal challenges and advancing collective welfare rather than individual interests.
The path to making Kenyan politics more about service than profit necessarily involves confronting entrenched interests that benefit from the status quo, with existing political elites likely to resist reforms that would diminish their access to wealth and privilege or subject them to genuine accountability. In Half of a Yellow Sun, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie explores how self-interest often masquerades as principle during political conflicts, which parallels the rhetoric often employed by Kenyan politicians who present their opposition to reforms as concern for institutional independence or constitutional principles rather than protection of personal benefits and privileges. Despite these challenges, the growing public consciousness about political extraction and the emerging movements for accountability suggest potential for meaningful change if civil society organizations, reform-minded politicians, and engaged citizens maintain pressure for constitutional amendments, legislative reforms, and cultural shifts that would transform politics from a wealth-acquisition strategy to a genuine platform for public service. This transformation would not only enhance governance outcomes by attracting individuals motivated by service rather than profit but would also restore public trust in political institutions by demonstrating that leadership positions exist to advance collective welfare rather than enable individual extraction, potentially healing the cynicism and disengagement that currently characterize many citizens’ relationships with political processes and institutions.
The writer is a legal scrivener
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