Our affinity for elite created 'two northern Kenyas'

Turkana women. Photo courtesy: Loito Titus.

There is every reason to doubt the tenacity of those spearheading the war on poverty in northern Kenya. That this process has been with us for ages yet the ground remains largely unchanged is for me, a clear indicator of its failure. It has failed to contain the rise of poverty - especially among the majority illiterate. 

One of the greatest challenges faced by the poor (in northern Kenya) is the fact that the narrative as to what constitutes anti-poverty moves derives its roots from a club of aficionados who have zero understanding about local poverty dynamics. Besides, these characters seem to cling to that old school way of doing things i.e. shout orders and listen not to the pleas of the populace. 

But I think I know a thing or two. This state of affairs soothes their feelings. It is their power bank.

This is the tipping point. Economically empowering populations has emerged as a new frontier of contestation between those who view the poor as a steady source of income and those whose actions are premised on "building a society that can stand on its own". This contestation is the oxygen behind the noises you hear about marginalization of northern Kenya. 

These elite power battles fall squarely into what scholar Tariq Ramadan describes in his many writings on politics and elitist manipulation of the masses as the dichotomy of alterity and likeness. Alterity and likeness imply a dichotomy based on power and/or interests which, whether in otherness (enabling the "aficionados" to define the general trajectory of the populace) or in likeness (trumpeting about imaginary gains and cashing in on the masses' gullibility to advance a predetermined narrative), can only favor one side, elite.

This dawned on me earlier this year when a highly-placed friend of mine whispered to me about the political math that keeps this enterprise of poverty alive in Turkana County. The guy declared that it is "better to steal and redistribute the loot within the locality than say, if an 'outsider' (euphemism for Kenyans from other regions) steals and goes with it to his 'home county'." 

In other words, it is politically correct to have localized theft than outsider-centric looting. Tragic.

This is despite the visible marks of social stagnation epitomized by hordes of jobless youth passing their time in village beer points.

No amount of violent crime christened as tribal raids or cattle rustling has succeeded to reconfigure the collective reasoning of these people towards the path of collective growth. 

The rhetoric is still the same - yesterday and today. The catch line remains the same. “Other people”, they say, are wholly to blame for the region’s stagnation. Local brains, again they posit, are as clean as angels. Lethal escapism.

Those of us who spend our time scribbling about northern Kenya know pretty well that this marginalization thing, though historically sound, is purely an art of appealing to the vulnerabilities of the people in order to herd them into one ideological corner. 

It is a political religion that only benefits the honcho atop the food chain.

Put another way, those potholed roads crisscrossing northern Kenya do not warrant a national consideration so long as powerful boys and girls from the region have their choppers ready to ship them to whichever destination they want. Those abandoned public schools in Garissa, Mandera and Wajir amount to nothing so long as it is only the children of the hoi polloi who get affected.

I fail to get a justification why a people who go to elections every five years, and participate in all civic exercises as demanded of any Kenyan citizen, can wallow in hopelessness. 

Why should a school child in Marsabit still be graded as "not at par" with her colleagues in other parts of Kenya? Does this mean the more than five decades of Kenya’s independence have not had visible marks on these parts of the nation?

The true northern Kenya that demands for support from the center has been pushed to the peripheries by an imaginary northern Kenya that resides in Nairobi, and pockets all goodies destined for the real northern Kenya.

I think it would be wise to extend the on-going war on graft to the many NGOs and half-governmental agencies operating in northern Kenya. I long for a people-centric tree shaker who will grasp the moral sense of confronting the elitist wastage that has reduced many hitherto life-saving agencies down there into money-minting shops.

Mark you; this is not a disease of the public sector alone. It is paramount to reiterate it here: wastage and theft cuts across the board.

It is time this narrative of ‘two northern Kenyas’ is crushed.

Lemukol Ng’asike is an architect. Twitter: @mlemukol.