Most of today’s youths are pre-occupied with discussing English – and to a smaller extent European – football on one hand and wish to leave Kenya for Majuu (abroad) for aspired greener pastures.

When he was the secretary-general of the Confederation of East and Central Africa Federations Association (CECAFA), former journalist Nicholas Musonye is famously remembered for chastising Kenyans for spending so much of their weekend afternoons in bars “drinking a lot of bears and watching Manchester United and Arsenal” instead of flocking stadiums to support the national soccer team Harambee Stars and local football sides play.

However, though he was right Musonye did not attempt to give reasons as to why Kenyans keep off the stadia on local match days.

Truth is that for more than two decades now, Kenyans – whether educated or not – have steadily been growing a sense of disdain for their motherland.

Out of dissolusion, a considerable percentage of them have developed a misguided belief that anything foreign is far much better than anything Kenyan.

This has led to the desire by youngsters to hanker for exiting Kenya to head to Majuu regardless of the life – mostly miserable – they meet out there.

That preference for Majuu has witnessed tens of Kenyan domestic workers lose their lives in various countries in the Middle East.

The more educated ones elect to travel to Europe, Canada, United States and Australia where they too hope for greener pastures but eventually end up doing manual jobs.

The same applies to Musonye’s football fans who too believe that Kenya has nothing to offer in terms of soccer: thus the crave for English and other European teams and leagues.

Today’s Kenyan football fan can probably name all the first eleven and substitute players on any of the 20 English Premier League players than they can their national team or the country’s elite clubs.

How did we reach here? Kenya’s leadership has been and remains the problem.

Ranging from the political class to the religious or academic leadership, a seed has been planted among Kenyans that foreign is better than Kenyan.

Kenya’s elites take their children to foreign schools, their sick family members to foreign hospitals, buy their food, clothes and beddings from foreign firms and seek for foreign business partners.

That is the bane of our nationalism. That attitude has contributed to the false belief that Kenya is a bad place to leave.

That belief has not been helped in any way by the ceaseless bickering among our political leaders, corruption, employment, poor healthcare, poor infrastructure, shaky ever-changing education system, etcetera, etcetera.

Kenya’s clergy, President William Ruto, Oposition leader Raila Odinga and all other persons occupying leadership spaces must take the charge.

Kenya needs to change its attitude towards it’s own youths. This change must come from our national leaders. It is imperative.

That is the only way we shall stop Kenyans from “trinking pia” on weekend afternoons discussing English football and also convince our youths that Majuu is not necessarily better than Kenya.

— The writer is the Revise Editor, People Daily.
Email: [email protected]