The wheelbarrow president

Have you ever read a beautiful story with a tragic ending? A movie that ends with the main character commiting suicide. An end so painful that no one dares attend the wake? The family of the bereaved left seeking answers of what went wrong. When the rain started beating their budding cotton plants.

Kenyan politics need an urgent resuscitation. We have to save the nation if not the people. We are not a war torn country. We cannot survive on food stamps. Kenyans need real empowerment. Empowerment realised through well thought and executed policies.

The big four agenda was a beautiful and timely project. It had the capability of catapulting Kenya from a developing nation to a stable economy. There is no need to point fingers whom to blame for its collapse but if we need to survive as a nation it means we have to go back to the basics. We need to revisit the big four agenda and agree as a nation on how to make this work.

Giving out wheelbarrows is endearing Ruto to the masses. The photo ops that follow these donations are working the psychology of Kenyans. We are being presented with a presidential hopeful who cares. A man who resonates with the poor. It’s earning him brownie points and if he keeps the momentum, it might win him the top job.

What we need to understand is that, Kenya is not a socialist nation. The model Ruto is executing is not sustainable. Ruto should campaign with ideas and a plan. Tell Kenyans how he is going to jumpstart the economy. Tell us the beautiful plans he has for our national resources. How he will take care of our elderly and the long term plans he has for our youthful nation.

It’s not wrong to hand out wheelbarrows or ride on them. What’s wrong is that being all what you do. We do not want to go back to the days when people were being paid to go to dance for national leaders. Kibaki showed us a better alternative, goddamn us if we go back to the primitive past.