Dear fellow Kenyans,
Although it has been said so many times in so many ways and styles and different emotions, allow me to also wish you all a HAPPY NEW YEAR full of good health and Gods guidance in your aspirations for the new year. As Kenyans, this new year should be the year that we dream of joining the First World. Comrades, without a dream, no individual or country can develop. To develop, we must dare dream. Countries leap forward when they dream. They stagnate and die when they don’t. Our freedom fighters dreamt of independence. For it, many were killed, detained and tortured. In 1963 however, they hoisted our national flag. Then came one-party dictatorship. A second generation of freedom fighters dreamt of multiparty democracy. They too were persecuted, but eventually in 1992 we conducted our first multiparty democracy elections. We also dreamt of having a new constitution, after 20 years of struggle, we got a new Constitution in August 2010.
Despite these successes, we are not yet free. We are poor to be. To be truly free, we must also dream of moving our nation from Third to First World. We must dream of eliminating inequities and injustices that cause and perpetuate poverty for all. The dream Kenya needs is not the dream of individuals becoming rich and famous or of MPs, ministers, the president or ethnic communities capturing the presidency. It’s the collective dream of moving the nation from poverty to prosperity, stagnation to development and hell to heaven.
But can we succeed if we dream? Yes, we can – like Malaysia, Singapore, China and South Korea.
To succeed however, Kenyans must jump over certain hurdles. Although we have weakened it considerably, dictatorship is not dead, and no people can develop if they are oppressed by tyranny. Just remember what happened to us during the 2007 post election violence. We are enjoying the little democracy we have at the whims of certain individuals. And if we are not careful, we might be moving from Executive dictatorship to Parliamentary dictatorship. To develop we must be completely and absolutely free. To develop, our dream must come from within, not without. A dream dreamt for us like Vision 2030 will not take us to the First World because it comes to us dead and cold and sparks no fire and passion in us for action. To take us there, we must embrace the dream with the same passion we desired Uhuru (freedom).
On the tumultuous way to the First Word, we must hold hands. A country at war with itself cannot develop. To get to the First World is to punish corruption without mercy, not put thieves at the head of the match. To reach the First World, Kenyans must free themselves from cynicism and believe they can develop. Without faith in themselves, Kenyans will perish just where they are. Already our athletes have shown the way. The rugby team is also fast following suit. Through their kind of effort, hard work and determination, Kenya can be a First World country.
Before we set out however, let us consider a few more things.
First, the path to the First World will not be easy. We shall need to make ultimate effort and sacrifice and enjoy no picnics along the way. Two, we must have precise knowledge of who and where we are. We shall, otherwise, not comprehend just how far we lag behind others, and how badly poverty has compromised our survival. Three, visionary transformative leaders and champions of social justice must lead us to the First World. We are poor today because our leaders have limped. The current breed of leaders won’t deliver us to the Promised Land. Period!
And I need to give a story to illustrate my point. A greedy man and an envious man met the King. The King said to them, “one of you may ask something from me and I will give it to him, provided I give twice as much to the other person”.
The envious person did not want to ask first because he would be envious if his friend received twice as much. On his part, the greedy man did not want to ask first since he wanted everything. Finally, the greedy man pushed the envious one to make the request first. After much thought, the envious guy asked the King to pluck out one of his eyes. This meant that the King would have to pluck out two eyes from the greedy man. They both lost. The best our leaders can do, therefore, is to pluck out each other’s eyes and ruin the country. They will ensure that we are poorer so that some of us will go for their handouts during electioneering period. They will ensure that we are more illiterate so that we can become more gullible. They will ensure that we are unhealthier, so that we don’t gather the energy to challenge them.
But who will remove bad leaders – our dreams Achilles Heel – when voters are captives of their money and negative ethnicity? (Perhaps it’s time to entrench the culture of taking their money when they try to bribe us and at the same time not giving them our votes!) To reach the First World, the right leaders must execute land reforms to feed everybody. If a few Kenyans continue to own unused land, Kenyans can as well forget the First World forever.
It pains me to think that our acceptance of poverty emanates from a sterile religious faith that God in His own good time will take us to the First World. This we must abandon because God has given us the power and freedom to match to the First World or die in our self-made poverty. God suffers no lazy people gladly, however religious. To open doors to the First World, we must master technology, industrialize and do everything else to meet this end. We cannot develop by keeping our bad ways of doing things. For our safari to the First World, we must have new leadership, new work ethics, new education and new discipline.
For sure Kenyans, we have compelling reasons why we must join the First World. We have a right to its comforts. We must prove we are no lesser human beings. Depending on others for our survival is unacceptable. Kenya could make headway at whatever pace it opts for if, and only if, the requisite new transformative leadership class of third generation liberators are in place. Developing, uniting and whipping a country into shape to embark on the arduous journey of renewal and growth requires men and women of steel, self-discipline and purpose. The help-wanted sign for transformative leaders of these qualities has been hanging out there for a very long time. Unfortunately, only riffraff ones – the cream of the crap – have tended to apply and be hired. Why are we then surprised when they drive the country to the ground? Can the real leaders emerge by 2012?
Aggrey Willis
Dr. Aggrey Willis Otieno 
Nice move! Agreed 100% Keep it there there…hope though you could have given, or will one day write something about how to slice away that murk of cynicism that many of us are caught up in. Would this require more than an intellectual engagement ama would it encompass a spiritual renewing…what other tools would be available? I ask this because some really work hard but get slackened by slight whispers of cynics in the dark- if i should call them so! Thank you! happy new year!
Fred Mbogo
Indeed great piece Aggrey! I however beg to differ that our main aim should be to catch up with the First World! I think, in our own way, we need to find ways to live in our unique context which is different from the FW. We should instead be looking at how to tackle core issues affecting us…poverty, disease, inequality. After all, is the FW the ultimate? the Gold Standard?
Essendi
Good points Aggrey. But one thing (and I might come off as a cynic) I would like to point out is individual culpability in the mess we are in. Come to Nairobi for instance, and the mannerless driving, jumping of lights, driving on kerbs, ov…erlapping, road rage etc is the NORM. I use this as a perfect example of what ails us as Kenyans- we have no regard for any other person, and worse, not even for our own selves.
How can I have self-respect when I cannot follow simple road rules? When I mannerlessly throw a banana peel, used condoms, plastic bags, ugali-water etc smack in the middle of city centre streets, or worse, outside my own house? When I mercilessly mow down a pregnant woman with my matatu because she is walking too slowly and making me late for a ‘squad’? When I slaughter my kids because I suspect their father/mother is having an affair? When I carelessly and proudly have an affair with someone else’s spouse with no regard whatsoever for the wreck I am contributing to?
Our individual attitudes will determine if we get to the 1st World or not. Our individual attitudes will determine the kinds of leaders we elect, and how we put them to the test when they start launching stupid parliamentary debates, like detaching an entire country from the Rome Statute just because they have been adversely mentioned as possible criminals and merchants of death. It all starts with US.
Grt talk guys, 2 achieve dis massive improvement, it starts 4rm individuals effort infact it starts 4rm u & me.it rest on all on our ability 2 understand,appreciate, & accomodate, one another. Doing unto other what u will appreciate of them. Then getting de mass imformed & enlightened.de future is in our hands, lets SHAPE it.
Excellent!!! I just read your piece of writing about media & democracy, very interesting piece to read too