Tano Tena

Today, allow me to go political, a few months ago “we” passed a bill to add ourselves taxes then we were angry, increasing taxes was to save Kenyans from falling into a debt abyss. So let me begin with an Italian proverb “The forest was shrinking but the trees kept voting for the axe as its handle was made of wood and they thought it was one of them”. I say we passed the bill ourselves since we made the choice to elect leaders and they represent our interests. The country has a high appetite for investments but the drivers who are to get us there have no clear vision on how to do that. In the recent past, we have been lured into thinking we are together with the high-end citizens. The allure of good life has made us fail in even asking prudent questions like “why is government failing to collect taxes when they say only 50% of Kenyan employers pay tax?” That should be the bigger picture!

When expenses or debts increase in your household, you don’t go blackmailing or forcing your employer to increase your salary, you minimize your spending, cut off unnecessary costs. The easiest and most appealing resolution would have been to dissolve some cabinets, call a referendum, merge some parastatals, and work with a lean government. My Grandma’s way of teaching us to cook Ugali was different; we had to cook for dogs before we were allowed to cook for human beings. To her, if you can’t produce any good stuff for her dogs you won’t be given the challenge to cook for the family. I see now why she did so, our government year in year out has not been using our taxes well, I really doubt the additional taxes will be put to good use.

Well, my convictions on the state of the nation;
When we complain of the high cost of living, I look around and see the several praises that our economy is growing, the political class shoving in our faces reports from research institutions that we are doing well. Media mentions on how Kenya has been awarded global awards on stuff that even ourselves fail to understand how the ratings were done. The question we don’t ask ourselves is whether these are just sponsored recognitions. Well, you will argue with me that most EU awards, appointments and accolades are given in good faith. Now, this is my thought!

The more I play the game of chess, the more I see a pattern in all these. When the boy child is bent to win a slay queen’s affection, he will invest a lot, create time to visit, underline that I will show you how, send flower girls to reiterate his love, award her several gifts with the hope she will reconsider etc. The current era has seen us move further south, signing trading pacts with China, our bigger brothers are now worried to lose us, our President has moved most African countries along with him, I must say he has done well for himself, we as African nations were for a long time afraid of making this move. Now, in an effort to retract this fading relationship, we are being lured. The mentions, awards, appointments and then the visits. Explain why someone would call you a shithole country but still make a visit or invite you to his home, to do what exactly… then a few months later his flower girl “the wife” checks back on you!

Truth be told, as a country, we are at the edge, we need leaders who can be cognizant to the fact that some projects are not sustainable and allocation of resources to such projects is a waste. We need leaders who will put the people’s interest first rather than creating dynasties. The current political scene is “take” philosophy. It’s been preached to all of us that even the society is considering this a norm. It hurts when my peers tell me, “no one will give you leadership, you have to take it” As patriots, we hold that ultimate power to “give” but we have little knowledge on how to use it and even that little knowledge we got, we don’t know it very well. Haha!

Succession politics is at center play, there is no development agenda discussed in fact the only development I see is in churches, the clergies have failed to stand by the truth, receiving cash from corrupt officials and still have the guts to defend their decisions on national television. As a country, we will always play catch up on matters family values, corruption, teenage pregnancies as long as we credit people based on their social status or political owing.

Allow me to attend to my family’s big four agenda.

© Sabwa John Milton, 2018

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