A legislative action can create a country but certainly not a nation . A constitution can regulate the running of a country but it cannot create patriotism . Since you cannot obtain allegiance by fiat a new type of leader will be required .
In the challenge of trying to create a whole from fragments and putting in place a plan with the requisite building blocks that envisages the next generation , we find that democracy has actually contributed to the problems Kenya finds itself in .
Let ’ s begin at the beginning , Kenya is a brand albeit an artificial one that was created with a totally different purpose to what she is today . During the colonial times Kenya was a paradise rivaling South Africa and Rhodesia as a hotspot for colonial settlement in Africa .
The country had no soul as it was simply a beautiful , lush and vast expanse of land that was ripe for settlement since at that time the indigenous population did not count as people but only as an abundant supply of cheap labor , that was then a compelling selling point .
Kenya was not conceived as a multi-ethnic country occupied by a diverse group of people , it was simply a white settlement in Africa with allegiance to the colonial British empire in the same vein as what happened in America or Australia . Unlike the United States of America , where the settlers are the ones that rose up against their sponsors , in Kenya it was mainly the Kikuyu , who had borne the brunt of colonial displacement who spearheaded the agitation against colonial rule .
There was never really a national uprising against the British in Kenya and the educated few among some ethnic groups spontaneously joined in the Kikuyu revolt as they quickly saw it as a quick avenue to be rid of the British yoke within their communities .
All indications are that independence came too fast for Kenya hence the country did not have time to become a cohesive entity with a common agenda but whomever wants to effectively govern Kenya needs to address this important lacuna .
Many ethnic groups in Kenya were pleasantly surprised at independence to hear that their common oppressor had left but were dismayed to discover that life was not going to revert to what they considered normal but they now owed allegiance to an entity called Kenya .
The administrative machinery that was put in place by the British was a divide and rule model that was designed to ensure that the ethnic groups within the Kenyan borders would not operate in concert and challenge the colonial authority .
In fact , the British became experts at pitting one group against the other as a way to maintain overall control . The new leaders inherited the same divisive ethnic based administrative framework which dispersed rather than united .
The Kenyan colony was ruled by decree by the British aristocracy and they ruled in perpetuity at the pleasure of the reigning King or Queen . As representatives of the sovereign their word was law and all his majesty ’ s servants obeyed without question .
These aristocrats at independence handed over the instruments of power to a new local elite who were required to adopt a democratic system of government and agree to seek fresh mandate from people who had never voted before , every five years .
The new political class could not understand why they should share power with other Kenyans since they are the ones that fought for independence and they soon started to scheme on ways to defeat the democratic ideals .
The various parties that were in existence at independence , mainly representing ethnic interests were collapsed into one powerful party , making Kenya a de facto one-party state and the party apparatchiks set themselves up to rule the country in perpetuity .
They also soon realized just how powerful the colonial administrative machinery was at keeping the country in check and they opted to adopt the system wholesale , totally negating the very reason they had fought for independence , exclusion .
Democracy had another unfortunate outcome for Kenya because democracy is really a game of numbers and the party officials soon realized that the top five ethnic groups by population numbers could determine the country leadership .
Kenya has over forty ethnic groups and for a mere five to determine the leadership of the country hardly sounds democratic at all . It is not accidental that the presidency in Kenya has oscillated between just two ethnic groups since independence .
Politicians took advantage of low literacy levels to manipulate the democratic process , by withholding information about how it functions by limiting civic education which would clarify matters and implemented a vote buying and intimidation system instead .
Most Kenyans still have no clue what democracy is about and have never understood that the power that the politicians wield emanates from them or even why the administration is called civil servants since in the Kenyan reality they are the masters .
Deliberate withholding of information to manipulate the masses is not a new strategy in Kenya since the colonialist did the same with Christianity . Those who Kenyans believed to be their saviors were in reality their oppressors .
The colonists managed to convince Kenyans that leadership and power was god given and they as the bringers of light were ordained by god to lead the African from darkness and the oppressed actually believed they were blessed and favored .
The Kenyan politician was quick to pick this ruse and even today it is amazing to see the number of unscrupulous conmen that have climbed the political ladder by seeking religious endorsement to their cunning machinations of duping the voter .
What really happened at independence is that the colonist relinquished leadership not power . Britain had invested too heavily in Kenya to let go so they connived with a local educated elite to keep the status quo by placing colonial puppets in leadership .
Britain incorporated the new Kenyan elite to head their investment interests and allowed them into their privileged cycles and as they became suddenly fabulously rich , they also became ardent defenders of democracy .
Kenyan ’ s political system is an extractive system and it was so designed by the colonist to transfer wealth from the periphery back to Britain . That system is still in place as then adopted and it still extracts wealth to benefit a few and not the many .
Given the above scenario it starts to be clear that the real reason why Kenya has and continues to make such slow progress in development can be attributed to the fact that the political system in place actually militates against development . Our version of democracy , which as we have seen is mockery of the what the Greeks had in mind , has become a tool of keeping the masses away from power by pretending
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