The outpouring of harsh criticism by the Catholic bishops followed by the Anglican bishops, was merely the latest challenge to present itself to the administration of President William Ruto.
Right from the moment that he was sworn in back in 2022, his government has faced one crisis after another.
For example, we now see the veteran opposition leader Raila Odinga and President William Ruto, apparently the best of friends and seemingly reading from the same script.
But as recently as March 2023, the same Raila Odinga had called out his many supporters to engage in “mass action” in what was clearly a campaign to delegitimise the Ruto presidency.
Then earlier this year, the epic ‘Gen Z’ street demonstrations proved to be an even greater challenge to the Ruto presidency, ending up in what even Raila’s fabled prowess at mobilising for street protests had been unable to achieve: the dismissal of the entire Ruto Cabinet, followed by its reconstitution which involved taking on board a significant number of opposition leaders.
As I said: it has been one crisis after another.
So much so that, with so many fires to put out, there has barely been time for the top leadership to focus on long-term visions of what they hope Kenya will evolve into.
But there is no real need to expound on this.
If you go back to the Daniel Moi presidency in the 1980s and ’90s, as well as the Mwai Kibaki presidency, all the way to the more recent Uhuru Kenyatta presidency, what all the ‘visions’ they have all tried to articulate amount to is this: that Kenya should steadily evolve in terms of political stability; the upholding of human rights and economic prosperity, to one day be a local version of the Northern European welfare states.
When discussing potential scenarios for Kenya’s future, a lot of talk tends to focus more on Singapore, Taiwan, Malaysia and other East Asian nations which have moved from relative poverty to upper-middle income status (or even developed nation status) in just a couple of generations.
But that is just the first stage of a much grander scheme – you might almost say that this is just the halfway mark in a much longer national journey.
Indeed, I don’t see how any leader who aspired to anything less than the kind of welfare states that Northern Europe is famous for, would claim to have much of a vision for his or her nation.
And just in case any reader is wondering just exactly which Northern European states I am referring to, let me list them: Norway, Sweden, Finland, Iceland and Denmark, all of which are judged to follow the ‘Nordic Model’ for comprehensive welfare benefits for all citizens.
And whether you consider universal healthcare; or free education or economic opportunity for all; in all these the most admired practical examples, are to be found in Northern Europe.
And I believe that to a large extent, the Nordic Model aligns more with our African values, given the traditional African focus on communal uplift, as opposed to the individualism inherent in the raw capitalism typically practised in the US, for example.
I should add here that I believe those who insist on crafting their own “African solutions to African problems” are often misguided in holding this belief.
There is nothing to be ashamed of in imitating the models created by those who already have what we yet merely aspire to.
Indeed, much of the world’s progress is made through just such imitation.
Kenyan small-scale farmers will often copy their more successful neighbours, in deciding what to grow on their small parcel of land, and which fertilisers to apply.
Parents who have yet to see one of their children gain admission to university, will diligently consult their relatives whose children seem to – one after the other – head straight to university upon completion of their secondary school education.
Nothing is more normal than to follow in the footsteps of those who have already attained what you yet aspire to.
So, if the goal is clear, the question then arises: by what path can we hope to arrive at the earthly paradise that all this suggests?
This is the topic for next week.
