Wiper Party leader Kalonzo Musyoka (left) and National Assembly Majority leader Kimani Ichung’wah during the resumption of the bipartisan talks at Bomas of Kenya in Nairobi on August 9. The big question is whether the on-going power-sharing talks will cure political cynicism in Kenya.
| File | Nation Media GroupOur Columnists
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Beware of cynics, like cancer they are out to destroy our nationhood
President William Ruto traveled to China for the Belt and Road Summit in Beijing on October 17. Upon returning home, he will lead Kenyans in marking the 60th Mashujaa Day on October 20 at a time a new dangerous wave of public cynicism— a pervasive beliefs that government policies and public officials are corrupt, inept, or out to take advantage of citizens— is haunting the government and eating into the social fabric like a malevolent cancer.
The big question is whether the on-going power sharing talks will cure the political cynicism that has divided the country along the polarities of hustlers and dynasties, shareholders and non-shareholders, haves and have-nots in the wake of rising cost of living, deepening poverty and declining middle class.
Globally, Kenya’s foreign policy is deeply steeped in deadly geopolitical cynicism fuelled by competition between two of the country’s top partners: China and the United States.
In the face of a new cynical citizen, the government’s foremost agenda is clear: To rebuild the trust of citizens at home and partners abroad.
Cynicism is as old as the rise of human civilisation. The Webster Dictionary defines a cynic as “one who believes that human conduct is motivated wholly by self-interest. A person who expects nothing but the worst of human conduct and motives.”
Cynicism is rooted in the Ancient Greek Philosophies. As a form of thought cynicism is traced to the philosopher Diogenes the Cynic, whose followers rejected the conventions of society, leading to many Greeks to characterise the Cynics as ‘stray dogs.’
After the optimism and hope of the early years of President Mwai Kibaki, Kenya had fallen into deep cynicism. We have entered the age of extreme cynicism, marked by a deep-seated distrust of the motives of others and a complete lack of faith in humanity, which undermine the sense of who we are.
On the public sphere, besides the obligation to respect, uphold and defend Kenya's sovereignty, every Kenyan citizen is expected to manifest six values: Patriotism, national unity, sharing and devolution of power, the rule of law, democracy and participation of the people.
Over the past one decade of Jubilee power, Kenya has witnessed the phenomenal rise of a cynical citizen. Simply put, this surge of cynicism has made Kenyan citizens unprecedentedly bitter, distrustful, doubtful, and pessimistic about their country, institutions and the motives of their government and leaders.
The cancer of extreme cynicism is attacking Kenya at three levels.
First is domestically where political cynicism has pervaded nearly every aspect our society. Kenya’s return to multiparty democracy in 1992, and the corresponding rise of electoral politics, gave impetus to public cynicism.
This has been fuelled by unkept promises or expectations by leaders, precipitating a feeling of disappointment and betrayal. As an example of public cynicism, many Kenyans have come to think of public officials as nothing but a bunch of greedy buffoons.
They carry a worryingly cynical attitude about politics as dirty. Kenya’s cynical generation has a bleak view about other citizens. Cynics in the ‘Hustler Government’ have pushed the country from fire to the frying pan. One Presidential adviser boldly declared that: “I don’t believe politicians, and I don’t trust government.”
Moreover, the “drill your own oil well” remark by a Cabinet Secretary in response to Kenyans complaining of oil prices spinning out of control exposed the underbelly of cynicism. The second cancer is geopolitical cynicism which entails a sophisticated campaign of misinformation, propaganda and lies. Cynicism and geopolitics have become Siamese Twins, dominating the foreign policies of governments.
The decline of American-led liberal international order has fuelled the rise of cynicism about the liberal rules-based international system and the search for an alternative multipolar world order— led mainly by powerful nations in the Global South. In this context, geopolitical cynicism reflects the uncertainty in our manifestly anarchic world.
The new geopolitical cynicism gave rise to the Trump phenomenon characterised by the global surge of populism. Cynicism has become a handmaiden of the worldwide surge of populism. Increase public scandals and corruption has alienated ordinary voters from traditional politics, reflecting the intense distrust of ‘political entrepreneurs’ and growing support for alternative politics of a populist type. But the populist style of leadership has stridently turned politics into soap-operas, eroding trust in political institutions in the liberal world.
Clearly, as a form of technology, the railroad has been drawn into the cynical geopolitics and competition that has characterised relations between the United States and China. The railway is at the heart of geopolitical competition. In Kenya, the target of geopolitical cynicism is the Kenyan standard gauge railway from Mombasa to Malaba, which has stalled in Naivasha. In Kenya, the new era of geopolitical cynicism started with the publication of new research satirising the colonial British-funded and built Kenya-Uganda Railway.
Propelling the geopolitical cynicism is the parallel rise of post-truth politics—a political culture in which facts are considered irrelevant and where politics have become almost entirely disconnected from policy.
- Prof Peter Kagwanja is Chief Executive at the Africa Institute
- Kagwanja is the author of the New Book, A Railway to Prosperity: The Geopolitics of Kenya’s Standard Gauge Railway, 2013-2023 (Nairobi: Tafiti Publishers, 2023).
