Ethos or just what do you stand for?

I have been asking myself, in these days where the general global rhetoric is one of exclusion, intolerance and hatred, what is really lacking in people? Closer home in Kenya, i see the high cost of injustice, primarily perpetuated by a government that has repeatedly shown it cares little for the citizenry. 

Modern-day Kenya is built on a fragile national identity, around an elusive concept of unity, rather kin loyalties, conveniently manipulated by the political class. More lethal is the attitude of most Kenyan politicians; that they are not in office to serve but to be served. They enjoy all the trappings of power and wealth, funded by an overburdened taxpayer, yet they are not sated. They demand for billions more they have not even worked for. This sense of entitlement is compounded by a majority of the population that defends them in a warped logic of religious misinterpretation and only what i can call distorted cognition - continuous exposure to injustice over a long duration - to the extent that it becomes a pervasive national expression. A tragic acceptance of state terror, almost proudly excused, often vocalised in phrases like "At least he left us bones to lick…Elections have to be stolen…He has to appeal to the young electorate". All these lame arguments in tyrannical contexts of impunity, extra-judicial killings, contempt for the rule of law, corruption, failed systems, health care crisis, drought and a host of other internal and external threats. But somehow the enemy is the other Kenyan, not of 'our' tribe.

The only enemy we face is disenfranchisement. There is no justification for the poverty, uncontrolled disease, violence, insecurity and gross mismanagement of national resources, by a largely selfish political class, that ordinary Kenyans endure every day. 

Why can't this enemy be seen? Zero ethos. 

Few Kenyans have a set of values or benchmark by which they measure and assess the government. It gets worse with ivory tower existence where there is no empathy for those in less privileged situations and no collective determination to stand with the voiceless against injustice. Going by the vitriol spewed on the e-streets of social media and offline spaces, there is less constructive debate substantiated by facts and more ethnic bashing. In the end, the sycophants are the losers too. The plunderers go scot-free, laughing loudest in their frivolous tax-free lives, as Kenyans fail again to hold them accountable. 

It is glaringly clear that there is a lack of impartial understanding of what governance and leadership entails. There is a very narrow vision of the fundamental values that bring citizens together to examine a government's performance, beyond the election event which is just the tip of the iceberg. Citizen consciousness has to be a consistent expression that stems from a purposeful and lived conviction which is not swayed by the politics of the day. It is being able to identify, with no confusion, if a government has a clear development agenda and is implementing it in a well-planned manner with prudent fiscal management and a prioritisation of equal national projects, not selectively in ethnic strongholds.

Because most do not stand for the common good, they participate in the persecution of the poor, the sick, the refuge seeker, the unemployed, the minorities… They treat injustice with apathy because it is not their reality. We need not wait to experience indignity in order to say "this is unjust and unacceptable". Some rights are not negotiable. Even if one cannot claim them, they are due simply by being a human being. However, as is painfully obvious in today's world, people are less humane. Inhumanity thrives when people fail to stand up for humanity. Unless we stand for something, we will fall for anything.

Uke

There are books i like to reread. I never had the patience to do so in the past but now i do, i need to. I have realised that the magic potion of timeless female wisdom is life fuel.

I reread Wangari Maathai's memoir Unbowed: One Woman's Story and i pause to reflect on her words, as she agitated for equal pay:

"…sometimes you have to hold on to what you believe in because not everybody wishes you well or will give you what you deserve - not even your fellow women. Indeed, I found myself wanting to be more than the equal of some of the men i knew. I had higher aspirations and did not want to be compared with men of lesser ability and capacity. I wanted to be me". p. 117

When a friend recently asked me: Who is the Wangari Maathai of our generation? I hmm'd and ee'd and came up blank. It is not to say that there are no passionate women environmentalists out there. Rather, it is the scale of Wangari Maathai's commitment that defines her powerful legacy. She did the legwork. She made huge sacrifices. She did not stand around hoping that someone else would be brave enough to rally to the call. She stepped up and did her little thing with a big heart!

She was relentless in her vision of environmental protection and upholding justice to the point of harassment and humiliation by the State and ridicule from fellow citizen. She never gave up. She stayed true to what she believed was right. Her spirit was formidable even as many schemed to saw her down. She stood firm, like the trees she valiantly defended.

She breathed and lived her philosophy. Even her house, that we went by during our primary school days, was all green! Everyone knew her home was the one covered in foliage. Then we saw her speaking boldly against the oppressive regime, protesting with mothers of detained sons, even as brutal police beat her and pulled out her braids, being jailed…and everyone said she was crazy.

In classic female persecution, attacks against her had little respect for her person or cause. Her private life was dissected in public in the misguided belief that it would break her. They forgot she was the buried seed that would sprout, and continue to do so in many generations after her. She bore the marks of a great visionary: leading in service and inspiration.

"I knew that the government was using me as a mirror in which other women would look at themselves. They were being asked to decide if that image was who they would like to be. Because i couldn't go into the women's hearts and tell them, "It's alright. I haven't done anything wrong. It's them, not me". It was okay for me to be called crazy and told i had insects in my head: That is the way people using their own mirror saw me. But i offered women a different mirror - my own. What is important, indeed necessary, is to hold up your own mirror to see yourself as you really are". p. 197

Wangari Maathai was a patriot whose life every Kenyan should be proud to refer to. She remains a remarkable example for girls and women on breaking away from the societal lie of female subjugation: that a "good woman" is one who does not rock the patriarchal boat and is not "bad-mannered" enough to dare speak up against injustice!

History never remembers good women. Nanjala Nyabola aptly reminds us of this in her article: Wangari Maathai was not a good woman. Kenya needs more of them.

The real country

I just got back from Hargeysa. Like with every trip i make, i return with a sense of wonder of all that i have seen, revelled in and eaten;-)

One thing that struck me about Somalilanders is their patriotism. Now some of us understand patriotism differently. That it is an action summarised in that jersey worn, that drink raised and that win at the olympics. Then the following day, the tearing down of your neighbour. In these times where national identities and loyalties are so fluid, it is refreshing to be reminded of the real meaning of patriotism. Somaliland renewed my belief in uzalendo in what i observed. A deep pride for country and the added zeal to making it a place where fellow country woman and man thrives.

As i was mulling over this, i saw a piece of news from home, a border away, that moved me to silence. His nickname draws you - Jadudi but his reality even more. Jadudi, a young Kenyan man who has undergone brain surgery three times already, and is due for a fourth in coming days was at his end. Financially he was drained due to the high cost of treating the cancer. Naturally this has taken a toll on him and his family in all other ways. In a dark moment, he reached out to his country folk. He asked his kin to help him fight this battle. The will was there but the way…Biko Zulu heard his brother's call and he told the village.

In under two days, Kenyans rose magnificently as one and responded in a resounding way to Jadudi's appeal to raise one million Kenya shillings for his fourth surgery. The hundreds and hundreds of thousands of shillings flooded in totalling to just over six million shillings. The power of humanity was proven yet again. Put aside all other fickle matters and the results are stupendous! Kenyans remembered. I salute you. As African wisdom goes, "cross the river in a crowd and the crocodile won’t eat you".