View of the Gardens by the Bay located in Singapore.
There is a character in the film Pretty Woman who walks on the streets shouting “what’s your dream” at the start and end. From his shabby clothes, he doesn’t seem to have achieved his dreams towards the end, but Pretty Woman, played by Julia Roberts, goes on to bag a millionaire.
There is nothing wrong about dreaming. But dreams need hard work and tenacity in real life. They are at best an individual’s vision of what they hope for in life. Kenya has been dreaming through the Kenya Kwanza government, but it is dreaming other people and countries’ dreams.
Singapore being one of them. Imitation is said to be the best form of flattery. Kenya trying to imitate Singapore has, indeed, flattered Singapore. The leader of Singapore must be smiling from ear to ear seeing Kenya get its knickers in a twist as it tries to copy his country’s form of excellence governance.
Kenya has problems of corruption and poor governance. Without the elimination of these two, then becoming like Singapore will remain a pipe dream, for now. The rushed planting of flats on every patch of land is only adding to the desperation of the Kenya Kwanza government trying to force through development projects that ideally require years of planning.
Human rights violations
Because of the rush — human rights violations — in form of forced evictions, follow every affordable housing project. That is not the way to endear the public to you or take them on the journey of shared dreams. The resistance and shock that follows felling of trees, and bulldozing of houses and business structures to forcibly pave the way for affordable housing proves that the project is a political endeavour not one anchored on socio-economic goals.
The government needs to take a deep breath for now and have a rethink. The idea of being like Singapore shows lack of identity. The question we need to ask is; “Who are we as a country?” “What can we do to build the country around that identity?”
For now, Kenya is flapping between wanting to be Singaporeans, Chinese, Russians, Arabs, British, Americans, Muslims and Christians. Even getting a national dress became a problem because the country never forged a collective identity based on its people. The identities we have are a mishmash borrowed from here, there and everywhere.
Affordable housing is just a glimpse of how much we lack identity. The design of the houses shows zero aspect of Africanism. Our forefathers lived in what is now considered eco-friendly huts, but affordable housing borrowed no aspect of the African architecture to incorporate in the buildings.
The speed with which Africanism is being abandoned is evident in places like Mombasa where traditional Swahili houses are being torn down to be replaced by inhabitable, dingy, dark flats. There is little care about the culture of the Coastal people. The new flats in central Mombasa have not only destroyed the people’s culture, but also historical communal existence. Environmental problems are being created with every new quarry opened to build the affordable houses.
Listening to a Cabinet Secretary opposing African cultural nights in favour of purely religiously events — preferably Muslim nights — makes me wonder whether we truly understand who we are. Organised religion branded our African cultures backward and uncivilised, which is nothing short of colonialism. After all, colonialism came with both the Bible and the Quran in one hand, and the gun in the other. Our land was taken away in the name of civilisation.
African culture
To now suggest that Islam is more superior than our African culture, and hence not worth celebrating, is the highest form of low self-esteem. I believe we have every right to maintain our cultures to keep the core of who we are as African people. Religion should just be complimentary on how “to live a better African life”. If we don’t play our African music, dance to it and learn and share our language, we are as lost as the proverbial dodo.
Mixing cultures to have a hybrid lifestyle, if that is what one wants, is not a crime, but to suggest that one abandons their culture totally in favour of a new culture is not right.
Religion and politics are now the only place Kenya becomes unstuck. There are many aspects of our lives that need a relook to see whether we are coming or going.
If fact, had we followed the Ubuntu system of governance, where the community rather than an individual is supreme, we won’t have problems with poor governance or corruption as all worked to better the people and not a politician. The Singapore conversation is proof that Kenya is a little lost.
Let’s dream Kenyan dreams!
Have a happy and proud 2026 Kenyans!
Ms Guyo is a legal researcher, [email protected], @kdiguyo
