In whose interest do Kenyan politicians speak for?

By Ngusale Imali

The presidency in Kenya continues to be the most coveted political position in the country, and, in its earnest, the socio-political atmosphere in Kenya is charged and gagged in equal measure. The media has also not been left behind! It’s packed with verified gossip, slanders, and politically driven covenants all compounding on the road to the 2022 August polls.

Metaphorically, the Kenyan political scene is a forest, and its actors are kingpins who know it all. They are full of artificial commitments that can seduce the mind to think that the truth cannot be a casualty in a political race. Some of these kingpins have simply rebirthed promises that are publicly declared but privately ensnared. Others have yielded to the ethnopolitics of “It’s our turn to eat,” reliving Michela Wrong’s right opinion about Kenya.

Notably, where there is a bankruptcy of ideas, old enemies become new friends, and each friend is interested in maintaining superficial fraternities that are characterized by media-sponsored handshaking and camera-friendly smiles. But it is the artificial smiles that tell a tale of frenemies that have intentionally postponed quarrels. Quarrels reveal that politics is a- convoluted ethnically sired dance performed by traditional politicians who want power at all costs.

And since power is crucial, the postponement of quarrels will for now be silenced by the committed race to the State House. A house that is supposedly owned by the State but not the State citizenry. A house cordoned off from the masses and lesser respected citizens who pay taxes that fund the wallets of the political kingpins.

Unfortunately, the political kingpins who have it all and want it all use the masses as disposal units of transaction. Once they attain their career goals and are accorded the glamour of political seats, they quickly forget to remember that their role was not to be the master but the servant. They sustain the current of antagonizing their adversaries instead of organizing the welfare of the masses. They legitimize greed as a weapon of defense by sustaining the ideology of being tax exempted. But why criticize the political kingpins when they are performing their theatrical calling for the Kenyan citizenry? Shouldn’t blame the citizens who allow the political kingpins to be glorified as a higher deity?

For if we look closely at the lower echelons of the Kenyan masses, we will excavate a belief of half-truths and whole lies that shape the interest of Kenyan politicians and what they speak for. And this leaves me baffled as a philosophical wanderer, and so I ask again, in whose interest do Kenyan politicians speak for?

Imali Ngusale is a prolific African writer passionate about amplifying Pan-African stories on Socio-Economic Justice, Climate Change, and Politics. You can access more of her publications via her her blog at http://ngusaleimali.blogspot.co.ke.