Kenya: Going Forward

A clean heart breeds good intent and this furthers the drive into action in becoming the change we’d like to see. 

My country Kenya is at a point where such a situation is playing out. The leadership of this wonderful nation under God is I would like to believe is bent on creating a Kenya that is fit for each and every one of its citizens and conducive also for foreign investors despite what some may say; unless they are bent to self-destruct. 

At the helm, are our leaders who want to create systems and programs that channel this country into the second world in the prescribed period of time that they have been constitutionally assigned but what they must be aware of is that every good intention has to be accompanied by hard resolve for opposition is imminent and is the yin that creates the milieu for greatness. 

As it was for the biblical Nehemiah so it will be for this leadership. Our leaders may have good and well-drawn plans on how to build this country, they may even have started embarking on the rebuilding of the broken walls but they also need hard resolve as was Nehemiah who chose to build and defend his efforts despite the negativity of the Sanballat’s and Tobiah’s of his generation who are still abound in our time and would do anything to show that the work being done is inconsequential and portray it as being detrimental to the nation. That’s the work of the political opposition. 

This new ‘young’ leadership has got to the helm under a new constitution thus they may still be learning the ropes on how to manoeuvre but we must not forget that elevation to leadership comes with great expectation and responsibility.  

I would like to believe that no external force compelled our leaders to feel that they were the one’s capable of propelling this nation into prosperity when they offered themselves for office other than the yearning for a better Kenya and if there was, then there should be the understanding that now being at the helm, whatever compulsion that was doesn’t matter, what really matters is delivery; to meet the expectations of those who believed in what they marketed. 

The call to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem (which means the vision of peace), meant that Jerusalem was insecure. When we passed the new constitution our walls lay down broken and whatever segments that stood had to be brought down low for we needed a fresh start. The role of this new leadership is to build a new Kenya. The stones may be the same but no stone will be positioned in its former place and the calls for change of guard in the different faculties of governance comes from this notion. A stone that was at the top may find itself bearing all the weight at the bottom and as such reshuffling is inescapable, retirement is unavoidable and sackings are requisite.

Remember, when Sanballat and Tobiah challenged the call of Nehemiah, he resolved and assured them of his forecasted success but because they scorned and despised him they were to have no place and no memorial in the rebuilding of Jerusalem.  (Nehemiah 2:19-20)

The opposition in this country should tread with this knowledge, otherwise the country will move on and they will be left lamenting that they were not given space to offer their services. Those who want to offer their services are known by their willingness to submit to the new authority, not with harsh ultimatums but with humility and If they believe that there are things that are not going well, let them be diplomatic and address those issues as people who care for the lives of all Kenyans. 

It’s time we modelled our country as a country which resolves its issues diplomatically and not as country of hecklers. 

The issues facing the new Kenya are different from the former Kenya under the old constitution. We are now facing issues like terrorism, a highly educated youth population with no equal or matching work opportunities and from a spiritual view point, lack of ethics leading to a people who have no respect for others and who’ll do anything for money. Our weapons in addressing these issues have to be different and so are the players’ mind-sets. 

Under Nehemiah, the High priest Eliashib (which means God of conversion) and the priests under him were the first to start rebuilding and they rebuild the Sheep Gate and sanctified it.

Similarly, the foundation of every nation has to be God and if we as Kenya do not start with the spiritual foundations then whatever else we build will be on shifting sand. The challenge is therefore to every spiritual leader to embark on teachings that will lay the ground for us to receive fresh blessings. 

The current tribal annotations that are rampant in social media platforms and on the lips of our politicians are vices inherited from the old Kenya and should be fought hard starting from the pulpit. The tribal youth is a pointer to the magnitude of work that is set out for all leaders starting with the spiritual followed by the political into galvanizing all Kenyans into oneness. 

We are all people and no one people are better than others. We all have weaknesses and differences which should make us stronger, complimenting one another and not fighting each other.

Not everyone is and will be happy with the unity of the Kenyan people and that is why we have so many divisive voices which try to create cracks wherever there are signs of unity.   

Other nations, particularly ones that have benefited from our naivetés in the old Kenya  do not ascribe to this gospel of peace,  so let us be careful as a nation as with whom we associate ourselves with and who we name as allies for some governments have benefitted from our disunity and this is true for the greater Africa. We need to believe in ourselves as a people that are able to solve our own problems. 

We should be able to manage our own resources and to live within our means and to work hard to attain our dreams for no one has true good will for us except ourselves.  We cannot continue to run to our ‘friends’ so as to sort our internal problems, it’s time we showed the world that we have become of age and that we are able to build our own walls.