Swiss-American psychiatrist and author of ‘On Death and Dying’ Elisabeth Kübler-Ross said, “The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths.
"These persons have an appreciation, sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people do not just happen.”
No one could have probably defined the late Professor Wangari Maathai better than Elisabeth Kübler-Ross.
However, it took the peace Nobel Prize for Kenyans to appreciate the stature and worth of the late Professor Wangari Maathai – an astute scholar, conservationist and indefatigable human rights defender.
Even then, we never fully benefited from the great potential of our very own. In fact, Wangari Maathai spent the last part of her life working with the Japanese on an environmental program, as we allowed private developers encroach on riparian land with greed and insulting impunity!
We could only afford her a short-lived assistant minister's position under former President Mwai Kibaki.
Her independent mindedness rattled the status quo. In the most certain words, I believe we are the people who lost out not her.
In her book, ‘The Challenge for Africa’, Wangari Maathai was explicit on the ‘Wrong Bus Syndrome' and how Africa has reluctantly refused to disembark from this bus.
Like travelers who have boarded the wrong bus, many people and communities are heading in the wrong direction or traveling on the wrong path, while allowing others (often our leaders) to lead them further from their desired destination.
Factually, she exuded that nobody knows the solution to every problem. Despite oozing wisdom that Japan harvested for their good, Wangari Maathai is long forgotten.
Now to the ‘Sunday school teacher’, Raila Amolo Odinga as Deputy President William Ruto cunningly branded him; he is not your ordinary politician; baba is a respectable statesman and also as a professional.
This has been confirmed by his recent appointment by the AU Chairperson, Moussa Faki Mahat in a communiqué dated October 20, 2018, to spearhead Africa's infrastructural development and connectivity.
He will be the first occupant at the newly created position. So, if Africa needs Raila, don't you people think that we Kenyans need him more?
The history of this country attests that we have either killed or frustrated our very best. Is it any wonder then that we were left behind by the Asian Tigers?
I strongly believe that it's to our disadvantage that we were never governed by T.J Mboya, Jaramogi Odinga and Kenneth Matiba. It's to our disadvantage that we have not allowed Raila Odinga to lead us.
After the successful completion of Thika Super Highway and the rollout of Free Primary Education (FPE) by Mwai Kibaki, Kenyans wondered where this country could be had Kibaki become the president in his first attempt, 1992.
Even the proverbial ‘bird’ proves wiser than us, ‘it never prays for feathers, it prays for a long life, for as long as it lives, feathers will grow. However, in our typical aloofness as Kenyans, we pray for feathers!
That’s why ‘Mt Kenya Brokers’ aka Tanga Tanga is busy auctioning the region, praying for feathers instead of a long life.
Although Raila’s appointment as the AU High Commissioner for Infrastructure Development has political implications, it is unrealistic for Ruto and his surrogates to call him off the local political scene.
Any serious political analyst of Kenya's politics can attest that no one can hold a candle to him? Unfortunately, Kenyans have a tendency of been distracted by the dancing squirrel and then losing sight of the fatter antelope.
Kenyans must get serious with the future of their children and stop splitting hairs over nothing.
Raila could make a better president than you all know who! Just like a ‘beautiful person’ Raila has known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and has found his way out of the depths.
Mwangi X Muthiora is a political commentator, a blogger and a poet.