The death of Moi has revealed why Kenyans are so pathetic when it comes to voting…
Most don’t really understand what constitutes a great leader or great policies or what progress is…
the people praising Moi’s 24 year rule are giving several achievements…
1. Peace and unity,
My take , Kenya was never peaceful or united, tribal crashes from Molo to Likoni etc, some sponsored by or with blessings of Moi himself to fight GEMA tribes…
2. Inclusive/less tribal govt, some people have this notion that Moi was less tribal, just because he appointed people from all tribes into his govt…
well, it depends from where you look at what constitutes “being non-tribal”,ask a 10 year old kid to speak like a cop today and tell me what tribe’s accent you will hear…
appointing 2 people from my tribe in some senior position to hoodwink the nation and then proceed to fill 10000 positions with members of one tribe while segregating certain tribes systematically is what tribalism actually is. But this depends also with what tribe you come from.
3. Some claim the Kenyan shilling was strong during Moi’s time.,
This depends at the time of Moi’s rule you remember, in the beginning it was true and that is what he had inherited from Kenyatta snr, to the 2nd half of his rule the shilling went to the dogs.
example in Jan 1991 the dollar was 24 shillings, when he was leaving in Dec 2002 it was est 77 shillings. and by the way it was not gradual, from around 1993 the dollar was trading at over 50 shillings…can you imagine such a scenario today…those years many Kenyans were reduced to paupers.
4.Some other idiots claim life was affordable, this one is debatable , depending from whether you were employed or not.
for the working class, they had more buying power, but this is purely because the masses were so poor that any employed person looked like a King.
a small number of employed people and a huge number of un-employed people bowing down to the few owners of capital.
5.Security, another bunch claim during Moi’s era Kenya was more secure, total bullshit, a city like Nairobi was a den of thugs , from carjackers to bank robbers and pick-pockets, you could not get your wallet out to pay for small goods in the streets.
Nairobi’s surrounding residential areas like Kiambu , Kikuyu, Rongai were criminals paradise, finding armed thugs at your gate was the norm rather than exception.
Moi was just very good in protecting his seat, and hunting political enemies… Citizens were left to their own devices…
6.Economy, looking at nations that we were at the same level of human development in 1978 when Moi took over power, and where they are now , Moi retarded our economy.
Comparing Kenya with Rwanda, Burundi , Tanzania , Uganda ,Ethiopia ,Somali and a list of other failed African nations and saying we were doing okay is mediocrity.
The systems and the potential we had in the 70s compared to other African states was immerse. If Kenya was ruled by a reasonable guy with minimal corruption, a guy who listened to experts on economic issues rather than political intuition calling himself a prof of politics, we would be at a true middle class economy.
My memory of life during Moi era was that of poverty and desperation that led to a huge number of people leaving the nation to seek for better opportunities when life became unbearable. Resulting in the huge diaspora population that we have now.
7.Leaving power peacefully in 2002.… this was actually an achievement if explored in isolation.
But thinking about it critically, was there an option??? the opposition finally united as opposed to 1992 and 1997…if he was not going to retire in peace after the 2 terms from 1992 as per the constitution, he would have probably spent the retirement in exile without his loot…it was actually a favor to him to retire in peace.he was the winner here not us Kenyans
8.Moi’s asked for forgiveness ,
If you listen to the clip well, Moi asked to be forgiven for things he had said that hurt others, not things he had done… because for his deeds even Satan will not excuse him.
9.Education , i give him some credit on this, he built more schools and expanded the public university access , though the numbers were still not good if you compare to today. The switch to 8.4.4 is still debatable , though he purely did it for political reasons.
In summary , Moi was a failure, considering the powers he had to influence the direction of public policy and implementation, but he let us down,
He instead used the powers to crack down on political rebels and amass wealth.
Before Moi is buried, I PERSONALLY DENOUNCE HIS LEGACY. just like Nikita Khrushchev denounced Josef Stalin
Moi’s death should be a time of reflection for his wasted 24-years …they should be called Kenya’s decades in the dark.
I cry not because he has died, but because he died without facing charges for his economic and human right crimes.
I cry because we have forgotten what an insecure crook can do to a young dynamic nation
I cry because we repeated the mistake in 2013 and some people want to repeat even worse mistakes in 2022.
I cry for my beloved nation Kenya