For most of us, 2010s were more of ‘Ten-sions’ than ‘One-ders’

I’ve been following with idle amusement the debate on what to call the just-ended 10 years — that space between January 1, 2010 and December 31, 2019. We called the 1990s the ‘Noughties’; what do we call the 2010s?

Melissa Mohr, writing in the Christian Science Monitor, proposed two ideas that resonated with me: the period was the “Ten-sions” or the “One-ders” depending on which end of the stick you ended up with.

If it was a season of breakthrough — tenders, bulging bank accounts and a mistress in every apartment block — you are justified in bidding a fond farewell to the One-ders.

But if, like the rest of us, you are looking at business collapse, a smoking economy and a bleak future for your children, the other name jumps to mind.

For Kenyans, the Sixties were a period of great optimism and excitement — naturally.

But it was also, in retrospect, a decade of mistakes, where the folks with the education, brains and opportunity laid the foundation for an independent nation in public, but sowed the seeds of unimaginable corruption, tribalism and classism at night.

SELFISH ELITES

Our people were largely illiterate and too trusting of the political elite, much of which had spent the struggle years collaborating with the colonial state and only assumed struggle credentials when the white man was safely on the plane back to Europe.

Kenyans did not ask the tough questions: how exactly did you fight for independence by spending your evenings at the Bwana’s drawing room with a whisky in your paw?

To this day, we still can’t ask our leaders where they got all the money they are throwing around; we still think it is OK for a governor with little education, no profession, no trade and no formal business to thug around in designer clothes costing hundreds of thousands of shillings.

I don’t mean to whine and depress the reader; this is just a minor reality check as we start yet another decade, so that we can avoid the mistakes of the past and build on our successes.

Neither will I dwell on the Seventies. Just to note that, through the smoke of assassinations, vicious political fights and ethnic mobilisation, the two clashing strands of our national character became manifest.

GOOD LEADERSHIP

On the one hand is a generous people, enterprising and capable of incredible hard work, quite innovative and at times able to unite and change their destiny; on the other is a politically naive, unbelievably tribal race given to thieving.

The Eighties and Noughties brought out in stark relief these competing qualities with the bad half given free rein.

Inevitably, the country stopped growing and rebellion wasn’t too far off.

I’ll give credit to retired President Moi: he did not rig the 2002 election and he handed over power peacefully to the opposition.

The Narc era showed us what we were truly capable of: if we collected the taxes, with good planning and not stealing too much, we could be truly and finally free, do our thing and build a strong society for our children.

Retired President Mwai Kibaki liberated us from the tyranny of the so-called donors and gave us a large degree of autonomy over our economy.

JUBILEE LEGACY

No longer would we tremble every time the IMF sent a mission to the country.

He gave space for civil society, most of which was great for democracy and a little bit of which may have been abused.

On the dump side, he is accused of stealing an election and being politically incompetent, risking the burning of the country.

Which brings me, finally, to the last 10 years. On the good side, Jubilee truly had grand ambitions to transform the country through infrastructure, big projects like Galana Kulalu and free laptops for every child.

It had potential to mobilise Kenya’s greatest resource: the youth.

It would be premature to condemn Jubilee before its term is done. It is still possible that it will snatch victory from the jaws of defeat and President Kenyatta will leave a legacy. But time is tight and politics change fast.

The 2010s will be remembered as the period when we started learning to protect ourselves, especially against al-Shabaab.

But it is also a decade of military blunders, when Kenyan troops were slaughtered in large numbers by a ragtag enemy.

GLOBAL DIPLOMACY

In terms of diplomacy, my personal sense is that Kenya continues to punch way below its weight.

For their longevity, experience and international networks, regional strongmen have the upper hand.

It will take time for the Kenyan bureaucracy to take up the slack and be the effective driver of our diplomacy.

I think the Jubilee years will be remembered as the period when Kenyan democracy fractured.

Its vibrant and noisy civil society, without which Moi would still be in power, is all but gone. The unions are on drip.

And the media, one of the freest and Africa’s best, is on its deathbed, partly because of digital disruption, but largely due to economic sabotage.

EDUCATION REFORMS

And this is the period when corruption went nova.

It’s not all gloom and gloom. The clean-up of the rotten exam scene and the ongoing war on corruption show what a few resolute people can achieve in a relatively short time.

But whichever way you look at it, sadly, for most of us, the 2010s were more of the “Ten-sions” than “One-ders”.

[email protected].