a dependency syndrome and those we
depend on are now also ailing.
In a lockdown the government would be
asking Wanjiku whether she wants to die
of corona or of starvation. Matters will
come to a head if Wanjiku also gets sick
and she heads to our non-existent health
facilities with no equipment or medicine
not mentioning qualified personnel.
Our leaders have so identified with the
west that when they have a running
stomach they board a plane to seek
specialized treatment abroad. Their
children do not know Kenya even though
their expensive lifestyles are financed by
the overburdened tax payer.
In a lockdown the rich cannot escape
to their usual playgrounds as they are
not wanted there nor are their children.
Suddenly the stack reality of our poorly
developed health sector is facing us. If
the facilities are overwhelmed how do we
cope?
Kenya did not seem to find it ironical that
we would import doctors from Cuba, a
third world, while our very own doctors
are perennially on strike demanding fair
working conditions and remuneration.
The time of reckoning is nigh as we turn
to the same people that we have trashed
in the past.
The tokenism of taking a pay cut during
a disaster is actually insulting as it misses
the point that the underlying structures
for a sound economy are missing. A robust
economy and a functioning healthcare
system should not be optional. Kenyans
work hard and they deserve better.
The reduction of tax rates, which are still
too high, is not an emergency response but
an economic stimulus effort whose effect
will be felt sometimes in the future. What
Kenyans need at the moment is cash in
their hands in the event of a lockdown.
Kenyans have had no problems paying
taxes, however unfair they are, the problem
has always been with what is done with
the collected funds. We fund a bloated
government, allow its functionaries to
steal the money with impunity and neglect
basic services to Wanjiku.
And no, divine intervention is not how we
will run this country; we cannot be calling
in the times of need to the same God that
we transgress against daily. We lie and
steal as a matter of course and somehow
think we can hoodwink God since we
manage to hoodwink his people every day.
We need sincerity and integrity and a
basic love for our motherland so that we
can create a practical social safety net for
not only our citizens but all those who
reside within our borders. Surely, after
fifty years of independence can’t we at the
very least look after ourselves?
This is our umpteenth wakeup call and
unless we love being victims of fate we had
better take control of our lives. Everyone
is looking after their own; we too should
be looking after our own before Kenya
becomes the next failed banana republic
while our money is hidden in the first
world vaults.
Where is all that money that has been
flying around in harambees, political
meetings, and churches now that we have
a real crisis at hand that requires cash
resources? Has reggae stopped with all
the money that was splashed to run it? If
reggae has stopped, corona hasn’t, we need
to get real and act!
This crisis will pass, at what cost we don’t
yet know. Unfortunately reggae will restart
and unless we are simply a cursed nation
the agenda for the BBI had better be
about how to create a sustainable welfare
state where we face national emergencies
with confidence not despair.
What is certain is that whether or not we
have a powerful prime minister with ten
deputies will not put ugali on Wanjiku’s
plate and if Wanjiku wishes to continue
on that nonsensical dance of stupidity it is
a choice she has made...