Why Laikipia needs more than Kagwanja`s philosopher King in the senate

An ever enthusiastic Professor Kagwanja recently spilled his litany of envy and admiration praising veteran politician G.G. Kariuki on achieving his Doctor of philosophy from the University of Nairobi. In the article titled, “Why Kenya needs a Philosopher King”, Kagwanja referred to Plato`s monumental work, the Republic   and equated Senator Kariuki with Plato`s philosopher Kings who were fit to govern based on their rich knowledge background. Further, he went on to narrate proudly how Kariuki has been a dominant figure since the Lancaster conference of 1960 and how he has served the four post-independence regimes beginning with Kenyatta, Moi, Kibaki and now Kenyatta. Honestly, Senator Kariuki deserves a pat on the shoulder for his effort at his age. That is not a mean achievement especially for professionals in his line of duty in service to the Kenyan citizenry.

It would be mean not to praise Professor Kagwanja for his choice of decorative diction in his comparison of G.G. Kariuki to a philosopher King. What professor Kagwanja deliberately ignored is the intangible legacy that Senator Kariuki has firmly built in his more-than-fifty years of perceived heroic public service. In issues of development, Senator Kariuki has indeed been a real philosopher whose philosophical wisdom remains trapped under his shoes since he spilled it. His knowledge has not been of much benefit to the people of Laikipia especially the West where he served as an MP. Laikipia West is the highly underdeveloped backyard that Dr. G.G. Kariuki calls home. Kariuki did little to change the dry, dusty face of Nyahururu town that greets you coldly on arrival. Cobwebs crowd his legacy as you move to the interior parts of Laikipia West. Here, most of the areas are yet to be connected to piped water and dirt roads which are impassable during rainy seasons are a common feature. Even with his perceived influence, his access to government resources and his long-serving experience, Kariuki has no record of a youth project he started to address the ever-rising unemployment in the suburbs of Laikipia.  His legacy is his vast arable lands which range in thousands where he plants maize and hay. Why would a wise man elegantly paint the outside of his mansion with a smiley magenta gloss and then stock rotten carrions perforated by scathing, slimy worms for his interior decoration?  To appease the taxpayer, like his bed-fellows in the legislature during his time, Kariuki would occasionally send an excavator to align the road surfaces and of course he has contributed immensely in various harambees to keep his chin afloat.

What exactly should a philosopher King be? Today’s philosopher King should be able to translate knowledge into practice and development. In Kenya we have aged political elites who have done nothing more than amass immeasurable volumes of wealth.  A philosopher King represents the golden class that is poor in wealth but rich in knowledge. The philosopher king allows the silver class of the citizenry to rise gradually into leadership. How can one be a philosopher King and still hold onto the reins of power and mantles of political leadership for over fifty years? How comes the elderly philosopher kings who can barely walk for a kilometer without propping their armpits with a walking stick and who claim to possess solomonic wisdom do not know when it’s time to pass on the sword and spear to  a younger, vigorous and more enthusiastic generation? It is unforgivable for professor Kagwanja to associate or equate such individuals whose prints in development are only theoretical to Plato`s philosopher King. Laikipians should not be misled to remain in the shadows of darkness even in this age. Of what use is a philosopher king whose foothold is a rubble-hill from which poverty oozes and streams down , yet he rests smiling comfortably at its apex?

The Political Intricacies of Africa: Why the individual and not the government is the u...

The Political Intricacies of Africa: Why the individual and not the government is the u...:  The most common feature in theories of state formation expounded by political philosophers such as Thomas Hobbes in his works Leviathan , ...

Why the individual and not the government is the ultimate guardian of human dignity

 The most common feature in theories of state formation expounded by political philosophers such as Thomas Hobbes in his works Leviathan, John Locke in his two Treatises on government and Jean Jacques Rousseau in The social Contract, is the concept of human nature & law of nature. The three theorists begin from a point in the state of nature where relations were governed majorly by law of nature rooted in human nature. For Hobbes, human nature is characterized by selfishness, greed, lust for power and lack of empathy and as such, it is a state of anarchy. Here, “every man is an enemy to every man” Man seeks to dominate others and there is no morality. To bring societal order, man created a government to which he submitted his sovereign rights to self-preservation in absoluteness. On the other hand, for Locke, the state of nature is one where man is naturally free and where human beings are not enemies of their own kind. It is a state of true liberty though not of license. Locke posits two contracts, the first being between the people themselves culminating into the creation of a society and the second one being between the people as a body politic and the rulers. Locke’s second contract creates a government limited by a constitution and founded on the people’s sovereign authority. Three things were lacking in Locke’s state of nature; a judge, a written code of laws and an enforcer of the law. Individuals are however conscious of the law of nature and as such they relate in a harmonious way guided by that law with the exception of a few deviants. The need for government arose to suffice the desire to install a system of law and justice. The formation of a government is a secondary transaction and its dissolution doesn’t lead to destruction of society. Rousseau claims that men are naturally equal, self-sufficient and contented. It is due to inequalities that arose following the emergence of private property and the subsequent division of labor that necessitated government formation. Government therefore for him is a necessary evil whose existence is only warranted by the existence of inequalities which in essence are a creation of human beings. The contract is between the individuals in their personal capacity and the individuals in a corporate capacity and as such individuals pool their particular interests into the general will which is executed by governments. 

Building on the above, one can argue that recognition and acknowledgement of human dignity emanates from inward morality that exists in each individual. Further, it is only when individuals have values such as compassion and empathy that human dignity can be contextualized and be realized. The individual has a duty to his kind, to protect their lives and to ensure he coexists in peace and harmony with them. It is the individual and not the government that can distinguish between right and evil and as such, the individual is the ultimate judge in matters of injustice and justice. Government is only necessary due to the existence of deviants who defy their conscience and seek to pursue selfish interests without putting into consideration the rights and privileges of the rest of humanity. 

 Further, it is beyond doubt that the individual should know his/her rights so as to preserve his/her dignity. Without knowing that he/she is the sovereign authority and not the government, that he alone with the support of others should form the general will representing the good of all which the government must execute, the individual will live in servitude and he will know no dignity. The government should be accountable to the body politic that formed it and therefore has no ultimate authority to inflict harm on humanity or demean law-abiding citizenry. If a government doesn’t create a platform for expansion of human dignity and civil liberty, then that government deserves to be replaced with one that holds close to its heart the interests of its citizenry. The individual must therefore seek to safeguard and expand his/her dignity by contributing to the policy making process , being part of the civil society, presenting individual-sponsored bills and joining policy debates which in a nut shell instill and expand the ethos of civil libertarianism. The citizenry are responsible for their economic and socio-political well-being and it is critical that they elect into office a government that expresses the society`s general will which aims at achieving the greater good for all.