How the younger generation of leaders betrayed Kenya

THERE WAS A BRIEF moment during Mr William Ruto’s speech at the pre-election ODM rally at Kasarani in 2007 that I felt the former Moi protégé had finally seen the light.

Unlike Moi, the man was eloquent and inspiring and seemed to genuinely care about Kenya. Seeing him among the youthful group known as “the Pentagon” up on stage gave me hope for the future.

But now “the Pentagon” has morphed into the KKK alliance. (Are members of this alliance aware that KKK is short for the Klu Klux Klan, the much-loathed separatist and racist organisation in the United States?), and the so-called youth of the Pentagon are turning out to be more of a liability than an asset?

What makes me really sad is that many of the Pentagon members and advocates of the KKK-alliance are my age-mates.

Now in our 40s, we all belong to the generation that spent its childhood under the Kenyatta regime and most of its young adulthood under Moi.

This makes us unique in several ways. One, because we did not experience colonialism first-hand, we do not carry the baggage our parents did.

We were the first generation to enter integrated multiracial schools, which made us much more relaxed around other races and ethnic groups than our parents.

We all escaped the 8-4-4 system of education, which, in retrospect, was probably a blessing. We went to university in the days when university education was free and when students were even entitled to “boom”.

Those of us who went abroad to study always came back home and never thought of emigrating (though the temptation to emigrate heightened during the repressive 1980s when many of our colleagues and friends ended up in jail or were tortured or killed).

Many of us went on to achieve great things and become trail-blazers in our professions.

But all of us paid the price of Moi-ism in one way or another; we bore the brunt of Goldenberg-instigated inflation and collapsing services. We were among the first to witness the country being destroyed by a clique of powerful men.

Being a product of Moi, Ruto benefited enormously from his proximity to the man in State House. It is said that Moi would take the young Ruto with him to trips abroad, the first one to Indonesia, when Ruto was a university student and leader of what was known as the University Christian Union Choir.

MOI’S FONDNESS FOR RUTO GAVE the latter access to lucrative business ventures. It was probably during this time that Ruto began having presidential aspirations.

In 1992, the youthful Ruto became part of Youth for Kanu ’92, a notorious gang of youths that was formed to ensure that Moi retained power under multipartyism, and which was known to dish out money to Kanu supporters.

YK ’92 was not just an ordinary youth group; its members enjoyed big money, and enormous power.

Like the dreaded Special Branch, its members seemed to be in every nook and cranny of the country and operated with impunity.

YK ’92 became the launching pad for many political aspirants, including our minister for Agriculture.

There are many things I expected of my generation. I thought we would lead this country out of its reactionary, short-sighted politics into a new world order where every Kenyan would feel a sense of pride in his or her country.

But my generation let this country down like no other. We sat back and did nothing while the Treasury was being looted. We did not make noise when land was illegally grabbed. Those of us who got tired of fighting the system retreated into little worlds we created to feel safe.

Some of us joined the church, others sought comfort in bars. Many of us even decided that if we could not beat them, we would join them. So my generation produced some of the most shrewd, aggressive, competitive, arrogant, selfish, greedy, insensitive and myopic businesspeople and politicians this country has ever seen.

They are the people running the country: they chair board meetings, head parastatals and NGOs, run multimillion shilling companies, set government policy and represent the country at international meetings.

We like to believe that the country is being run by a bunch of old men, but the truth is, decisions all over the country are being made by people of my generation.

From the look of things, many of these decisions are not just wrong for the country but for future generations as well.

A wise man once told me, “Beware of a young man in a hurry”. William Kipchirchir Samoei arap Ruto’s pace should worry us all.

rasna.warah@gmail.com

Daily Nation