Kenya is not facing a crisis of leadership, we are facing a crisis of courage and a failure of imagination.
Those who fought for our independence, despite being hopelessly outgunned by the colonial forces, summoned up the courage to take them on in a blatantly unequal contest in order to proclaim from the mountaintops that Africans were not the children of a lesser god. And in spite of little exposure and formal education, they had the imagination to dream of a new Kenya they had never seen before. A Kenya where all would be treated equally and have a fair shot at a successful life regardless of the colour of their skin, and a society defined by the abiding values of democracy, social justice and freedom for all.
What about us?
We have allowed ourselves to be defined by the avarice and decadence of politicians who cannot see beyond their noses to imagine what our country could truly become. We have cut down our dreams to fit the size of the cloth they have thrown at us, a rag that barely covers our nakedness.
We hear about the gallant struggle of our freedom fighters and shrug and think, well what can I do? I cannot be a Mekatilili wa Menza, or a Waiyaki wa Hinga, or a Muthoni Nyanjiru or a Markam Singh or a Dedan Kimathi or one of the Kapenguria Six.
But God will not ask me to account for not being like them or not accomplishing what they did. He will ask me what I did to take forward the dream of the Kenya that they fought and died for and to hand over to my children the Kenya that they sacrificed for.
I woke up this morning feeling paralysed by this weight of history, and rebuking myself at thinking that I could measure up to any of these giants of our glorious past. God knew my struggle, for He gently led me to Alfred, Lord Tennyson's famous poem, Ulysses:
'Tho' much is taken, much abides; and tho'
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.'
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.'
May all those who come behind us find us faithful in having preserved the Kenya of our fathers' and mothers' dreams.
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