The poor you will always have with you

A woman came to worship Jesus. Her worship consisted mainly of tears with which she washed his feet. When she was done, she wiped his feet with her long tresses. She finished with an oblation of very, very expensive perfume. Jesus' disciples were indignant. The reason they gave: What a waste; the perfume could have been sold and the money given to the poor! Jesus answered, 'the poor you will always have with you...'

I think Jesus was asking them back: O yeah? And what have you done so far for the poor? I don't think he liked the poor being used as an argument to justify the sociopolitical hangups of the time.

The poor are in our face. The poor are in my face. Depending on who you are and where you are coming from, the poor are expendable. You can hire a nanny for next to nothing, and a watchman for not much more. 

The debate about Ferdinand Waititu versus Evans Kidero as the next Governor for Nairobi, and indeed any debate about the upcoming elections must of necessity be a debate about the poor.

Kidero has been accused of being elitist, about caring only for the small percentage of rich and middle class Kenyans. Ngwatilo Mawiyoo's poignant poem 'Boy' is elegant in its portrayal of the interaction between the rich and the poor. Stephen Derwent Partington has written a powerful indictment of the rich-poor divide.

Waititu, on the other hand, is perceived as being a man of the people, of advocating for the poor. I am deeply uncomfortable with the perception of the likes of Waititu and Gideon Mbuvi (aka Sonko) as men of the people, unless we are using that term to mean populist. Al Kags has posted an excellent blog about Sonko leadership style. Elitism is easy to see, and of course, inexcusable. The form of populist exploitation of the poor exhibited by Sonko and Waititu worries me. On the surface, their behaviour seems pro-poor. Go to court and stop that demolition; agitate the poor not to move from unsafe dwellings; obtain an injunction to stop a state corporation from moving slum dwellers from on top of the oil pipeline. No, I don't agree with the forceful removal of people, especially when there is nowhere for them to go. But where are the lasting solutions we so badly need? To my mind, these two gentlemen are as much part of status quo as the competition.

If I were to vote today I am pretty sure that would choose neither Wiatitu nor Kidero, or any of the contestants of the governor vacancy, based on their track record in dealing with the poor. I don't care about any of the aspirants' gatecrashing (literal or otherwise) or how clever and polished they are. 

Before I give you my vote, I need to know, what are you going to do about rural and urban poverty?