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Unconscious Kenya
written by Allison Cressy photography by Nicola Zolin
In the chaos of an unstable political situation, education is the only hope that could raise up the sort of Kenya, misguided for years by leaders not interested in the destiny of their people. Kenya is a classic case where the government does not fear the people. There is a very small literate, educated, and mostly urban elite which can actually read the national newspapers and can follow the major happenings in politics in Kenya. Of those, even fewer will actually understand, analyze, and take action on the corruption, lack of transparency, theft of government money, and even the post-election violence for which top government officials are responsible. Even if the whole literate and educated population of Kenya were to come together and demand well-informed and pro-people reforms, they would represent a tiny minority of the people; not nearly enough to demand change. What Kenya needs is a better educated population: One which is better informed about the government and the laws which govern them, one which feels a solidarity among the people and realizes their strength, one which is creative with peaceful ways to show the government that they must be adequately served. Kenya is not a poor country; they have extensive resources from agriculture to tourism to minerals, and they are not unimportant politcally for the region.
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They have enough resources and influence to raise the standard of living for its people, but it has been too convenient for the leaders of this country to give preference to business, tribal, and personal interests to consider how to actually improve the well-being of wananchi, the citizens. Add to that the incompetency which has been inherited through family lines since independence (the Kenyattas, the Odingas, and now the Kibakis), and spread through ministries (at least 5 senior ministers of Kenya have no college degree whatsoever, never mind an education in the fields they are directing), and it’s no wonder that Kenya is as mismanaged as it is. But the most grave problem is not the corruption, tribalism, and incompetency. It’s the inability of the people to understand it, to criticize it, and to demand something better. If wananchi can find a new and peaceful way to get the people involved and make the government listen, the rest can start to be repaired. They know something is wrong. They know they deserve better. And now we need a recipe for educating and engaging them in a way that brings positive results, instead of an outburst of misguided violence like what we saw in January 2009 after the Election. New, pro-poor, and pro-African ways of citizen participation in Kenya can be the catalyst which drives all of the changes that are needed in Kenya, in Africa, and through the Global South.
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