By David Maillu
Published September 11, 2023

Former Chief Justice of Kenya, Willy Mutunga, described Kenya as a bandit
economy. Why? Because a lot of what happens up in the sleeves of leadership
and engineering economy, is dominated by banditry exercises. The story of
who is who in the processes of becoming wealthy, where all the rules of
constitutional law are broken with impunity. Where Presidents and Cabinet
Ministers can steal public funds at daylight and yet get reelected next
time. Government of economic rustlers.

Colonial government had cultured Kenyans to forsake thinking and let the
government think for them. The unwritten law was, “Don’t question the
government. The government will do everything good for you as long as you
follow the law.” That was the mood in which the new nation received the
independence. The administrators put shoes of the colonials and demanded
silence, threatening it with dire consequences which have characterized
the employment of the rod over citizens in the past regimes.

Since independence time there has not been any simple initiation to make
people feel responsible for the progress and security of the country. The
culture of don’t think and keep quiet continued up to this day. On
election day, you vote for the person you think the government wants but
not the one you think should be voted for. Today’s problem is not about
the corrupt leadership. The problem is that it is the mass who votes in
the bad and corrupt leader, even when they know he is bad person. So
easily, he buys his way back to the seat of power through corruption.

Obvious, what is missing is public education regarding people’s
responsibility and the value of the citizens’ brains. Even the ordinary
Kenyan sees what is wrong but keeps quiet. It is as if the citizen has got
used to being manipulated, poor and without good hope for tomorrow.
Absence of creative thinking has developed Kenya into a service nation. A
nation of mitumba. Mitumba thinking, mitumba development, mitumba culture
and mitumba future. A mitumba nation that even imports toothpicks. A
mitumba nation with highly educated people who don’t think creatively.

For instance, go to big schools, prisons and institutions and find men
still fighting gravely with their muscles to make ugali for people at a
time when an ugali machine ought to have been manufactured ages ago. We
import nearly every industrial product from Europe. China made. Japan
Made. Taiwan made. We imported hair from Eastern countries for the Kenyan
salon.

I was buying public speaking equipment one day when the Indian selling a
Indian manufactured equipment told me, “I don’t think you black people
will get anywhere because you are still engaged in trying to invent the
wheel. Let me tell you the super innovation of the founder of the company
behind his public speaking equipment. He was a simple electrician who once
bought a European made amplifier. He dismantled it and played with the
materials for nearly a year when he finally assembled his home-made
sample; of course with altered parts. He patented his sample and went for
manufacturing it. Today he is the biggest supplier of the equipment in
India, exporting his technology to every part of the world.” That is what
is happening in the world of technology. Remember the term espionages?
Folks, wake up!”