I was watching news the other day when the biography of one of our politicians was skimmed through. What stood out for me was that this guy, who does not look nor act the part at all studied at Harvard University, apprently a classmate of Obama. But then I start paying attention to some of the things I had read throughout my adult life. Kenya’s and Africa’s leaders, pathetic as they have been have always studied in the best Universities in the world, Mugabe being one of the most learned, with over seven degrees, most if not all, well earned, and others honorary. Their CV’s read Harvard, Oxford, Cambridge, Princeton among many other first tier Universities that most of us still dream of saving enough to afford our masters courses there. Our leaders who are otherwise very bright people are a strnge phenemenon because even with such education levels, they manage to drown us in murkiest of waters, in the name of leadership.
This reminds me of a renowned clergy figure who wondered aloud how our members of parliameent would be, on paper and during campaigns represent the brightest of our ilk but then, miraculously loose it all the moment they get into office. I hear these MP’s talking as do most Kenyans, and I can only fear the repercussions of their words which are usually taken up and put into action by the least educated and idle people who make up the largest portion of our population. I have gone to a University which is ranked no. 5000 plus wordwide and I understand what generational leadership is and what it would mean for my Kids and my Kid’s kids. I know that there can be no satisfacction in our lives if we cannot in the least make the lives of others better, and that is what a call to public service means, with politics being the best platform to do so. Unfortunately, the brand of politicians that Africa has attracted are the one’s with means, which implies that they could study in the best Universities in the world, and who as a result do not understand the basic struggles of an ordinary Kenyan. Their ventuing into politics have been to consolidate their hold on the politics and the economy, while creating lee way for their sons and daughters to come into play and succeed them. There is no genuine care in their hearts.
Obama is personally poorer than most of our MP’s and this is what makes him the ideal candidate that he is. He didi not use his personal wealth to campaign the way our politicians do. He relied on the people who had modest means to contribute the little that they had to drive his campaign. Even as we rallied behind Obama, praying for his win, we should all understand that our politicians have less in common with Obama and more in common with the repblican ideology that McCain represented. A few rich old men who ran the country by playing on peoples fears, and playing people against each other, there by race, relogion, etc. and here by ethnicity and historical injustices. I can swear to you that those who are born into affluence will never understand what the basic struggles of a poor man are, nor will they comprehend how deep their ignorance goes.
And may be that is the undoing of their Western Education. They may have been taught the fancy theories that apply to the Developed countries that they were studying in, and forgot the holes in which their home countries were in and needed to climb out of. Some will say that they came from similar backgrounds but beat the odds and got where they are now, on top of the country. But that should have meant that, by understanding these struggles, they would be best positioned to make the rise for others less steep, either in policy or in aid. They have done neither. They lost touch with the struggles of a common Kenyan man and woman who did back breaking works for meagre wages that he needed to divide among food for his family, rent for his house, bills, and in the rarest of occasions, saving for a stormy day, for to them, it is always raining.
There are a few exceptions, but generally, those who have benefitted under this kind of Western Educated leaders are their classmates while abroad, the high echelon business personalities who do not know how sleeping without food feels like, their western business counterparts to which they have mortagaged our countries resources and their sons and daughters who are being readied to take over once their parents tire of public offices, at 70 years of age.
That is why Obama was the One. He understood.
