Revolting gesture or an act of kindness? You decide.

On May 30th President Mwai Kibaki of Kenya made a grand gesture. He donated one Million U.S. dollars to assist victims of the devastating earthquake and Tsunami that hit Japan in March this year.

Why is this an issue two weeks later? You may ask.

From the beginning, I admit that I thought that was about the dumbest, most insulting and revolting thing for Kibaki to do. Having only recently visited Kenya (I was watching the Japanese disaster unfold during a layover at Heathrow Airport), I know for a fact that there is so much more this money, approximately Kshs 82 million, could have done for Kenyans themselves.

President Mwai Kibaki presents a cheque of
one million US dollars to Japanese Ambassador
Photo Courtesy of Govedi Asutsa [The Standard Online]

I’ve also fished around amongst my friends and on the internet for opinion and comments regarding this donation. What do other people think?

There is minimal support for Kenya’s (read Kibaki’s) magnanimous gesture. When such support is expressed, it is in terms of pride, customs or religious belief. Pride that we Africans are for once giving instead of receiving aid, that we are generous peoples, and in biblical context, “blessed are those who give for they shall receive”.

But for majority whose opinion I sought, Kibaki’s giving away a million dollars; even in the name of post-quake support to victims is the biggest insult the president could have added to the citizenry’s injury. There is of course the obvious irony of such a poor, struggling third world nation donating to the world’s third-largest economy. While you are at it, compare this: Japan’s Gross National Income per capita at US $37,870 to Kenya’s meager US $770 (World Bank, 2009).

And for whatever reason, let's say Kibaki had to give out that money. Shouldn't he have at least done so closer to home – for example given an independence present to our neighbour South Sudan, Africa’s youngest nation?

But from what I observed in Kenya, I can only assume that Kibaki is afflicted by a condition for which I have coined the term Elite Syndrome or ES – whereby the country’s wealthy purposely live a completely isolated lifestyle. Hidden and incubated in their mansions & shopping malls by security guards and high fences, driven in tinted glass gas-guzzlers, they are immune (or at least pretend to be) to all the poverty, hunger, disease, and utter desperation outside their gates and in their backyards.

Take a look at some pictures I took referencing these areas of concern and tell me if there wouldn't have been a better/other way for Kibaki to spend a million bucks of poor taxpayers money!!