Kenyans have always arrogantly held claim as the torch bearers of East African progress. Our southern neighbour Tanzania was a nation that we berated for institutionalised lethargy, until, overnight, TZ got magufulified.
Hardly a month after his election, the new president John Pombe Magufuli has emerged out of oblivion to global prominence with a simple message, “Hapa Kazi Tu”. Kenyans have been left puzzled. How now? Concerned citizens had pondered the question of our self-sanctioned state of underdevelopment for a long time.
Analysts had all claimed that corruption was the ‘cancer’ devastating the country. I submit that corruption is merely the symptom. What really ails our beloved nation is our absolute and total dedication to the art of idleness.
We are a nation of professional idlers. Idleness is a leadership character flaw that permeates the entire populace. A national leader will spend a five-year term busy at everything else but the work he was elected to do.
A public servant given of a 100-day ultimatum to work on a project will go silent to re-emerge on the 102th day with a well-bound report, crafted after five intense hours on a Sunday night detailing the necessity of a committee of experts to deliberate and correct the defective structures that prevented any work from getting done.
A Kenyan worker will avoid a deadline by finding something else that is more pressing to do because you either have time or a deadline but you cannot have both.
Kenyans are talented in idleness, which must not be mistaken for laziness. It is not possible to embrace idleness unless one has plenty of work to do.
To laze around requires no talent. We are not a nation of bums who loiter about aimlessly, kicking up dust, with our hands thrust deep into our pockets. To the average outsider, Kenyans appear incredibly busy.
SERIOUS THOUGHT
We confuse appearing busy with getting work done. We do not merely waste time because any person can do that without much effort. What makes idleness a special endowment is our ability to craft elaborate schemes, which require serious thought and planning to side-step all necessary work.
Corruption is merely a convoluted way of evading elected work to take care of other priorities.
When one requests the governor to fill a pothole, the easy way would be to send off a lorry with bitumen to seal the hole. But a Kenyan governor would start with a seminar of stakeholders to deliberate on the issue where a joint feasibility study and investor conference would be proposed.
This after a fact finding mission that takes his delegation on a round tour through Asia, Europe and America to return with a bound proposal that reads: “The solution to potholes, is an underground rail system and several investors have expressed interest”.
As a man of letters, I can speak at great length about idleness for it defines a great part of my ‘contemplation hours’. Doing other menial work to avoid creative work is an acquired skill many an artist typify. If I could write as often as I thought, planned and talked about writing, my career would have have panned out differently.
But idling is an incredibly enjoyable and fulfilling pursuit when one has plenty of work to do. Nothing epitomises idleness better than an overpaid elected official who embarks on a strenuous campaign schedule pleading with voters to give them an opportunity to work for them only to spend the next five years avoiding getting any meaningful work done.
When Pope Francis visited our country, the debate was not over the Pontiff’s ability to cajole the country’s leadership towards correctness. The burning issue over the Pope’s visit was whether a public holiday would be declared, presenting a perfect opportunity to exercise our god given talent for idleness.
Like smokers who never miss an opportunity “to step out for a quick puff”, Kenyans can be incredibly creative in the art of wasting time. The Internet is an idlers’ workshop and there is no greater incentive for appearing busy than a Google search box or a social media notification.
In offices, Facebooking has evolved into a distraction where gifted idlers congregate to avoid making any effort at real work. The other idling zone is traffic jams, where Kenyans derive absolute pleasure admiring stationary vehicles.
Instead of taxing our minds with endless debates on how to rid the country of corruption, appearing busy pondering over a problem we have intention of solving, we should stop the fretting, take a deep breath and ask,
“What Would Magufuli Do?”
