You will pay tax. And then you will get shot.

The Executive Branch enjoys two powers which it is loath to delegate or share: the power to levy taxes and the power to wage war. The Executive Branch, the implementing arm of the government, has entered into an implicit and explicit contract with the people of Kenya that of the monies it raises in various taxes, charges, levies, duties and what not, none shall be wasted or spent on political vanity projects aimed at assuaging the feelings of a person, a group of persons or a class of persons. The record of the Government of Kenya over the past forty-seven years, all three Branches of them, has been abysmal when it comes to the collection and management of revenue. The chickens of this mismanagement are coming home to roost on the back of one of the most progressive Constitutions in the world. The recent industrial actions by university staff and medical workers at East Africa's largest referral hospital point to the fact that Presidents Kenyatta, Moi and Kibaki have used the public purse to pursue projects that at best had symbolic value and at worst were downright criminal.

There are certain public goods that can be provided only by the State, especially through the Executive Branch: healthcare, basic education, national security and defence, diplomacy, clean water, etc. When Kenya gained self-rule in 1963, President Kenyatta declared the national policy to eradicate ignorance, disease and poverty. When President Moi was sworn in as Kenya's president three months after President Kenyatta's death, he swore to follow in his predecessor's footsteps. When President Kibaki brought to an end forty years of KANU hegemony, he promised Kenyans a better life under his administration. All three were failures. Significant numbers of Kenyans have no access to basic healthcare, let alone specialised healthcare; have access to basic education but only of the most rudimentary kind; and still live well below the nationally-measured poverty line, subsisting on less that two dollars a day. It is not uncommon to witness hospital-bound patients sleeping two to a bed in our public hospitals (when beds can be found) or of doctors and nurses going on strike to demand better terms and conditions of service. It is heartbreaking to witness thousands upon thousands of young boys and girls taking their education under trees or in buildings with no doors, no windows, not blackboards, no desks or chairs, sometimes in environmental conditions so dire that the children are in constant war with their environment rather than concentrating on their lessons. But it is in the persistence of the number of Kenyans living in poverty that the Government of Kenya has demonstrated consistency. Since 1963, the proportion of Kenyans living in poverty has never fallen below forty per cent, and in some periods over the past forty-seven years, has risen to nearly 60%. It is this poverty that has contributed significantly to the political and socio-cultural challenges experienced over the past twenty-five years, demonstrated starkly in the post-election violence of 2007 and 2008.

Martha Karua, Peter Kenneth, Eugene Wamalwa, William Ruto, Kalonzo Musyoka, Bifwoli Wakoli, Raphael Tuju, and Raila Odinga have all declared that they will stand for the presidency in 2012. In one form or the other, all these men and woman have been involved at the highest levels of the Executive over the past decade. Indeed, some of them have served in the Executive in both the Mwai Kibaki and Daniel Moi governments. What they all have in common is that they are capable of making high-sounding promises without actually following up on them. It is a story that can be traced to every single politician ever to serve in the Executive Branch since Independence. When President Kenyatta exhorted his Ministers, Assistant Ministers and Civil Servants to 'eat' where they served, he could not have predicted that this what they would do to the complete exclusion of everything else. Today, the Executive Branch and its agencies are more prone to exercising its coercive power to enforce unfair rules and regulations that punish the weak and poor.

All the putative candidates in next year's presidential election have failed to explain how they will be different from the presidents that have gone before them. They have failed to publish what laws they intend to enact and what programmes they intend to initiate to fulfill the promises that were made at Independence. They have, instead, consistently and viscerally accused each other of the same offences over and over again that it is near impossible to listen to the news without flinching (if you are new to these parts) or rolling your eyes in derision (if your not). Until these people concentrate their, and our, minds on the real challenges that face us, and propose viable solutions to address them, we should continue to ignore them whenever they open their mouths.