The Luhya nation’s political intelligentsia, more so the elected and non-elected politicians are running, helter-skelter over their pet political topic of the so-called elusive Luhyia Unity. They know they are political lightweights in Kenya’s national political scene without presenting the Luhya nation’s votes in one basket.
The paradox is that despite knowing the Achilles heel of the Luhya nation’s political state of affairs, of lacking the ingredients that can coagulate the Luhya votes into one political juggernaut, these political leaders continue to lament over the lack of unity as if by so doing it will be achieved through magic and persistent talk.
If the problem is a lack of unity, then the solution to fix that problem is to come up with strategies and concrete programmes that will have to be tested by June 2020, in the socio-economic and political aspects. It is childish for the elected and non-elected political leaders to tire and bore the Luhya electorate with the same talk of seeking Luhya Unity ad infinitum without a road map or any concrete progress.
Is it any wonder that the failure to find a solution to the problem has clearly manifested in the community’s social, economic and political landscape? Isn’t it self evident that as a community we have perfected the art of indecision and a refusal to take responsibility for the things that matter the most in shaping our own destiny?
No one else is supposed to give direction and work towards the Luhya prosperity other than ourselves. How many times are we pointing fingers to historical injustice, the national government, this or that community, yet we cannot arrange our own economics? Despite the fact that the community makes up a large population, big enough to catalyze an economic revolution to benefit the region.
We should ask ourselves what candid discussion and evaluation we are deliberately engaged in orient our social organization and norms to better serve us economically and politically. Are we not in a cauldron where progressive social mores are being smothered by retrogressive practices that may be stifling our ability to achieve optimum education for our children and that creates fear which makes our ability to embrace risk, that is a key factor in economic advancement, to be stymied.
What infrastructure that harnesses our common cultural, religious, historical heritage have we actively constructed, that can deliver a unitary political engagement with Kenya.
The people cannot year in year out elect leaders who are always mounting political platforms to lament about the same problems instead of providing solutions. The electorate must become smarter and demand their elected and non-elected leaders be given an audience only to give information on solutions they have including overcoming poverty, diseases, political disunity among others.
It cannot be that we can hope to progress if the electorate articulate problems and the elected leaders also cry about problems. The elected leaders must be problem solvers for the electorate period. They must be stopped from also turning around after being elected to cry about problems. That is the only way we will transform our homeland.