In the elegant physics of angular momentum, a focused system spins faster when its mass hugs the axis. Kenya’s three arms of government have chosen the opposite: they are spinning like overloaded matatus en route to Rongai with doors flapping, music blaring, touts hanging out, luggage tied to the roof with sisal rope, swerving wildly while the tout shouts “Tuma pesa kwa pochi!”
The result is not speed or progress, but dangerous wobbling, screeching tyres and passengers wondering if they will reach their destination or end up in a ditch.
Right now, ordinary Kenyans are not demanding miracles. They want affordable unga, fuel that does not come at the cost of a kidney, an end to mysterious abductions and goon theatre, courts that work and leaders who remember they were elected to serve rather than star in endless ribbon-cutting ceremonies. Instead, the arms of government have flung themselves outward in a spectacular display of centrifugal governance.
The Executive leads the circus. Rather than tightening the bolts on corruption, debt servicing,and the cost of living that is squeezing blood from stones, it has become a mobile development carnival. Cabinet secretaries descend on constituencies like rains after drought, cutting ribbons, dishing out mattresses and launching projects with the fervour of a new church opening.
Debt piles higher while another road is being flagged off somewhere. Fighting graft is nowhere near their diary, that would require uncomfortable mirrors. Austerity is reserved strictly for the boda boda rider and the mama mboga. The citizen demanding relief is called to a podium and handed a selfie opportunity.
Parliament, that august house of accountability, has perfected the art of looking busy while achieving little. It churns out fresh Bills like a miraa seller on a Friday night while toxic ones sail through with minimal scrutiny. Parliament would rather sit on pins than hold the Executive to account; it might disturb the broad-based honey-pot and the insatiable thirst for pawa.
Public participation is dutifully performed: citizens show up, speak their minds and watch their concerns vanish faster than masked goons after an opposition public rally. The Legislature’s moment of inertia is now so enormous that actual oversight has slowed to the pace of mama pima at closing time.
The Judiciary spins with particular elegance. It proudly announces case clearance rates and disposal statistics while a Senior Counsel drops uncomfortable truths about judges warming benches for barely 54 days a year. Backlogs shrink on PowerPoint; public confidence evaporates in real life. “JurisPESA” is no longer a joke but a boycott trigger. The average Kenyan seeking justice is told to admire the numbers while the system rotates majestically around self-preservation.
The recent Ol Kalou by-election was peak satirical theatre. Cabinet secretaries and principal secretaries descended like a biblical plague, bearing billions in projects, title deeds and goodies. State resources were mobilised with military precision for what was supposed to be a simple parliamentary vacancy. The axis of service was completely forsaken.
The verdict was a resounding loss for the ruling side. Even the masked goons who are occasionally deployed to keep proceedings lively received stern presidential condemnation followed by the usual bureaucratic slow dance of investigations. Talk about pouring cold thickened porridge from a flask.
This is governance by centrifugal force. Everything flies outward; money, official directives, promises of investigations and development, among others, while the centre cannot hold. The constitution designed three arms providing mutual torque. What we have is a three-legged race where each leg is trying to trip the others for the best opinion poll ranking.
Kenyans have endured enough. The matatu of state is careening, the driver is on his phone trying to negotiate another squad and the touts are still collecting fare for a destination that keeps changing. Our governance systems can borrow from Physics: systems that stray too far from the axis eventually lose control.
The remedy is brutally simple: pull everything back to the core; the derivative mandate of each arm of government. Fight corruption like your re-election depends on it. Deliver justice without excuses. Balance budgets instead of books of excuses. Govern as if the suffering mama mboga matters more than the next headline.
Until that happens, Kenya will continue its expensive, noisy, and increasingly comical wobble of unfulfilled political promises, tokenistic development, unending corruption exposés and the unconstitutional covert capture of state institutions, while the citizens hold on tight and pray. The axis is waiting.
Social impact advisor, social consciousness theorist, trainer and speaker, an agronomist consultant for golf courses and sportsfields and author of 'The Gigantomachy of Samaismela' and 'The Trouble with Kenya: McKenzian Blueprint'
