With all due respect to former Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka, former Prime Minister Raila Odinga and even Deputy President William Ruto, the disclosure concerning their wasteful outings is dishonourable and ludicrous.
The whole episode merely reinforces the perception that our leaders have misplaced priorities and no commitment for public good.
They are not undertaking to provide specific services and bring about efficiency and discipline in return for tax revenue.
Theirs is a sort of little greedy caste, avid and voracious, with the mind of a huckster.
Agent of change
The psychology of these bourgeoisie is that of a predator, not that of a captain of industry and an agent of change.
Good governance is the effective exercise of power and authority by Government in a manner that serves to improve the quality of life of the citizens.
This includes using State power to create a society in which the full development of individuals and of their capacity to control their lives is possible.
A ruling class that sees the State solely as a means of expropriating the nation’s limited resources is simply incapable of good governance.
More specifically, such a class will by its character and mission abuse power.
Africa’s tragedy is not that its nations are poor. The tragedy is that it lacks ruling classes committed to overcoming the challenge of abject poverty.
The observation of the assassinated South African writer Ruth First in her book The Barrel of a Gun published in 1970 remains valid today. “There has been eloquent, inexhaustible talk in Africa about politics, side by side with the gaping poverty of political thought.
Down there on the ground in Africa, you can smother in the small talk of politics. Mostly it is about politicking [and greed], rarely about policies.
Politicians are men who compete with each other for power, not men who use power to confront their country’s problems.”
Building reputation
We cannot afford to continue building reputation for a country whose politics is guided by self-interest, over-indulgence and misuse of public resources to buy personal privileges.
We must condemn such abuse and misuse of power and authority by our leaders. The two leaders owe the taxpayers a public apology. It is only fair.
Evans Nyesi, Via Email
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