BEYOND THE SHELL

CHAPTER SIX: DYSFUNCTION IN RELATIONSHIPS

Towards the end of year 2017, just after the conclusion of the general elections, I attended a public lecture on elections which was facilitated by renowned lawyer and lecturer Elisha Ongoya. At the time the whole country was tense, no one was at ease, the future was uncertain. Media houses were on the stand by, waiting to report any occurrence that could take place. There were riots at some parts of the country and people feared violence would spread. Generally elections in Kenya are accompanied by tension and fear and in 2017 the presidential elections having been repeated as ordered by the Supreme Court and the opposition having boycotted the second round of elections, uncertainty was hanging in every house in the republic.

I was eager to hear the cure Ongoya would propose for the persistent disorderly general elections the country experiences. Apart from being a lawyer, Ongoya happens to have deep insight into human nature. In my mind though, I expected that he would recommend reforms in the election laws, but when he finally spoke he surprised me and many others.

He started by stating that the Kenyan problem on elections was not a legal one and could not be solved by enacting new laws. He categorically stated that the problem was spiritual and social which no law reform could cure. At end of the lecture he concluded with a statement that left me thinking. He told us that the day we would discover the reason why many citizens were so willing to die for politicians while it was obvious the same citizens benefited little from the politicians, would be the day the cure for the country would be found.

Later while I was reflecting on what he had said, I saw that the problem was not isolated in politics. People are always sacrificing too much for a cause that does not benefit them. It is not unheard of a person who seemed totally sane committing suicide because the sports team he supports was defeated. Many people have been killed throughout the ages because they did not subscribe to certain religions just like some sections of voters set upon one another, killing and destroying property because of politics. What breeds this kind of irrationality?

As argued earlier, it is a consistent goal of human beings, led by the dysfunctional mind, to stand out and appear important. Many times individuals realise their personal achievements will not give them the sense of importance. They then sub-consciously seek to achieve the sense of self-importance through attaching themselves to someone or something more prominent. Once an individual feels he is part of something great his lowly position is no longer an issue. It is common for a person who has nothing to show out of his existence to feel satisfied and important when the football club he supports wins a trophy, or his preferred candidate wins an election. The achievements of the team or the politician become his own. Such an individual, though he gets no material benefit from the club or the politician, draws his sense of importance from them and he would be willing to protect the club or the politician because to him, if the club fails he fails too and if the politician is defeated the defeat is felt on a personal level.

This tendency of drawing one's sense of importance or purpose from associating to popular people or organisations affects the economically challenged part of the society than those who are well off. Their sense of importance comes from the religion they subscribes to, their race, ethnicity, nationality and the perceived success of their family members or friends.

Politicians, cult leaders and warlords are aware of this human nature and they seek to exploit it. They know too well that their followers who derive a sense of importance and purpose from them or other affiliations can do anything to support and protect what they support. To charge the followers with passion all a politician or warlord needs to do is to tell the followers that their ethnic group is being side-lined, or their religion is under threat. In a society with people who seek a sense of importance by associating themselves to politicians or ethnicity the election campaigns are purely based on engineered statements on how the ethnic group or the political candidate is threatened. Development does not matter to such a society. People vote, fight, kill and get killed to protect their preferred candidate from real or imagined danger, unknown to them they are being used.