Beauty vs. Brains – The Kenyan Situation

Most men will say that they prefer to date intelligent women as opposed to just beautiful ones. However, it turns out that men actually prefer beauty to brains. What they say is only meant to establish political correctness; it does not in any way imply what they intend to do. As far as dating is concerned in Kenya, beauty is way ahead of intelligence in the criteria for choosing possible mates (Gospel according to the Layman).

According to my dictionary, the word intelligence has two meanings. The first one is the ability to acquire and apply knowledge and skills. The second is the collection of information of military or political value with synonyms such as information gathering, reconnaissance, spying, espionage, infiltration surveillance, and observation.

Back in the days when I worked, first as a taxi driver, and later as a driver in an NGO, I always strived to be entertaining to my passengers. I discovered early that the best way to break the ice with a passenger was to gather intelligence on them. In this way, it was possible to find information about a person that was close to their hearts. Particularly the time I was at the NGO, it was possible to get detailed information about someone. I would then use what I knew to start a conversation with my passengers.

 I learnt then that if you knew something about someone before you met, you had a definite edge on any future interaction you had with the person. This technique worked well for me on all occasions apart from one. We got a new director and I was assigned the responsibility of driving him around. As was my habit, I read through his bio so as to get a background on him. On paper, at least, his life appeared boring and I could not think of what we could discuss about. He had majored in Medieval History in University! Needless to say, we didn’t hit it off with him.

I know that the Kenyan government is loaded with intelligence of all forms. The first form is there since some of the most educated and knowledgeable people in the country work for government. The second form is also most certainly there because there is a whole department charged with gathering intelligence. It is this department that gathers all information relating to security threats from both within and outside the country. It then passes this information upward to the executive for action.

Being the layman that I am, I do not have a thorough understanding of how the spies work. However, I know they have both the technical know-how and functional requirements to carry out their unenviable work. I also know that they have been doing their work if the reports we hear in the media are anything to go by.

I was saddened to hear that there had been intelligence shared with the government on the recent Garissa terror attack. The same had been said of West Gate. My source of information, like that of many other laymen, is the media. We have no way of verifying what we hear on the news. There has been no denial from the government however and so we can assume that there is some truth in the claims. I have been wondering why the government would ignore such reports, even if they were just hunches.

The government has of late appeared to be rather obsessed with image. It is an obvious case of beauty taking precedence over brains (intelligence). This would lead to it allowing attacks to happen and then come all out to fire-fight. I guess one comes out as more of a hero posing with the bodies of slain terrorists than if he quietly quells a planned terror attack. There is no heroism in killing somebody who was ready to die after he has done all the killing he planned to do. There is heroism in stopping the deaths of people you swore to protect even if it happens away from the cameras.

Don’t mind me and my grumblings. I know you will not hate the president if I point out his shortcomings. I also know you will not love him if you didn’t love him before. If you support him, it is not because you thought he would perform, it is because he is from your tribe or because your tribal kingpin supports him. If you hate him, it is not because he stole your family land; it is because your community and his community are sworn enemies. Kenya is a land of beauty, not brains!

P.S. If one who supported the new constitution (and swore to protect it) claims it is hindering him from protecting us, doesn’t he make the one who had opposed it all along to come out as a hero?