The Big Man Syndrome

We seem to live in a society that is seriously afflicted by low self-esteem disorder; in fact we seem to be suffering from self worth big man hemorrhage, from the bullies in our schools and work places to our public life. It is like one of those moments that someone steps on your cleanly polished shoes in the matatu as you are headed to down town Nairobi, covering them with a thick coat of clay mud, don’t make a mistake of raising up your head as if to say “excuse me boss you stepping on me” unless you expect a stare from mean looking eyes, with the guy gathering the audacity to look you directly in the eyes with that suspicious look like you supposed to apologize instead – hello! Dude you just stepped on me? There is nowhere that this reality is magnified than in our political system. Now that the National Assemble asserted itself as the senior house their counterparts in the Senate now have to lay claim in the County Development matters by appointing themselves the Development Board Chairmen – really? Like seriously? What role does the Senate really play? At first we thought they were supposed to be the custodians of devolution. The governors who have perceived themselves as the small presidents, I take that back, they are their “Excellences” just short of Court of Arms and the National flag, they have let us down in no more than numerous ways, but still for the Senators to devolve their patronage and corruption to the grassroots (mashinani) is still not what we anticipated when we worked hard to give ourselves a Constitution. Without fear of contradiction this menace of the big man syndrome in our public life need to be nipped in the bud before we self-destruct. In deed, in order to save ourselves from ourselves we need to support the Cord’s call for a referendum, we should petition them among the many questions they are consulting with the Supreme Court- sorry Mutunga and the IEBC be included in the referendum, the scrapping of the Senate and the reduction of the Constituencies to not more than 42 thus ensuring equality in representation with each tribe contributing one honorable member of the August House.