put in place political structures that enabled the country to chart a very different course from the ones that most African countries followed and build a firm foundation for the country ’ s stability .
This is one of the few heroes that did not disappoint although it was difficult at the beginning to figure out what his vision was . It is truly a great and selfless man that can fashion a vision and relentlessly pursue the ideal even when all around you are laughing and jeering .
Over time so many crimes have been committed in the name of Christianity and Islam , just because some maverick took it upon themselves to interpret an otherwise simple message and give it a twist to align with what they wished to achieve .
Kenya unfortunately got one of those independence heroes that had been indoctrinated and immersed into the British way of life . The type of hero that was more concerned in being as close to the oppressor as possible since he actually believed in the superiority of the oppressor .
Our independence hero was a collaborator and was simply handed over the country as a caretaker but was shrewd enough to enrich himself and his cronies in the process . Kenyatta sidelined the true freedom fighters who soon realized that they had been duped .
In an attempt to safeguard his illgotten wealth Kenyatta had a massive fallout with his deputy president Jaramogi who was of the Nyerere ilk and actually believed that Kenyatta had the charisma and oratory powers to forge a nation out of Kenya .
Kenyatta did not take long to resort to the same tactics of divide and rule and actually did not even envisage a succession plan that would have created a stable political environment to help Kenya operate as a single political and economic entity .
His dubious political machinations resulted in Kenya becoming a de facto one-party state and subsequently landing itself into an abyss of economic regression . His successor , fearing ouster became a paranoid dictator who drove Kenya into further economic decline .
When a leader is occupied by survival politics it is extremely hard for the leader to focus of any national agenda and during Moi ’ s era the country was balkanized into tribal enclaves who then used their numerical numbers to institute the infamous tyranny of numbers .
The current president who had the making of a hero , young and energetic unfortunately cut his political teeth under the mentorship of Moi and that is where he learnt that every individual has a price and one can buy his way into power .
He also learnt from the same leader that Kenyans pride themselves as Christian and he created a carefully orchestrated façade of a God-fearing leader while he detained his opponents without trial and detractors either vanished , were assassinated or had fatal accidents .
The trick was how to acquire the vast amount of money that would be needed to buy anyone posing a threat to his power . The natural answer is to raid the national coffers and he has been so successful in doing so that there is literary no money to run the country .
His attempt to fill the gapping financial gap saw him attempt to raising taxes to ridiculous levels which eventually resulted in the Gen-Z uprising which was only quelled by the intervention of another hero turned rogue . As stated most African politicians are in it for the money .
Ruto turned to the church to buy his legitimacy and did it spectacularly in the runup to the elections but apparently having achieved his goal he did not see a need to continue paying homage to institutions that he is skeptical about . Not a clever move but he is known to be an impatient man .
But it is the fall of Raila from rarefied height of a national hero that has been very disillusioning to many Kenyans . Here is a man who has opposed oppression as an inheritance from his father and was the beacon of hope against the excesses of all rogue governments .
It is a curious observation that in all countries where Islam and Christianity are in a growth mode , there is political instability . Throughout history the spread
of these two religions have not augured well for the political environment of the landing countries .
Tucked in the inside pages of the same magazine we referred to initially was an interview of a Nigerian female celebrity who states that the first decision she ever made as an independent adult was to stop going to church , perhaps she knows something .
Perhaps what we need are new heroes , those who are capable of effecting a clean break with the manipulative former colonizers and are patriotic enough to start fashioning African solutions to African problems . Africans who are willing to roll up their sleeves and throw away the begging bowl .
Africans who actually love their motherland and are aware that we cannot continue to be poor and global basket cases yet we are the ones with the resources . Those that realize that our strength lies in the African collective and intra-Africa trade . We have the resources to back an African currency .
The future is in our hands and names like Kagame , Traore , Chakwera , Faye , Akufo- Addo , Masisi are beginning to reverberate and send out a clear message that perhaps the African renaissance we have dreamt about will be realized when we begin to look inwards and be very wary of the foreign - Viva Africa !
August 2024 Marketing Africa Magazine Cover Story was assembled and weaved together by the Marketing Africa editorial crew . For feedback or any more discourse please drop us a line at : Info @ marketingafrica . co . ke .