Kenya’s Burning Bush: Why As Voters Must Stop Behaving Like Our Parents If We Ever Want To Escape Bad Leadership

A chameleon that wants to escape a burning bush must first abandon the walking style of its ancestors. This proverb carries a brutal truth about Kenya and its politics. For decades, we have inherited the same walking style — the same thinking, same voting patterns, same blind loyalty to tribes, and same appetite for short-term promises. Yet we act surprised when we burn again and again in the same political fire.

Every election, Kenyans line up with excitement, chanting songs for their tribal kingpins as if these men were gods. We forget that the same politicians who impoverished our parents now wear new slogans and ask for our votes. The chameleon cannot escape the flames if it insists on crawling with the rhythm of the past. We, too, cannot escape corruption, poverty, and misrule if we keep imitating the voting habits of our ancestors.

Our fathers voted with their hearts. Our grandfathers voted with fear. Now we vote with hunger. We trade votes for handouts, maize flour, and false hope — and then complain when hospitals lack medicine, when schools rot, when jobs disappear. A burning bush doesn’t care for excuses. Either you move differently or you perish in the smoke.

Kenyans must learn to think beyond tribe, beyond slogans, beyond the sweet-talking faces that appear every five years. We must question, verify, and demand proof of performance. Leadership is not about who shouts “hustler” or “dynasty” louder; it’s about who delivers results, who builds systems that outlive their ego, who serves and not steals.

We cannot continue walking like our ancestors — worshipping thieves because they speak our language. The chameleon must change its gait to survive. We must change our mindset to thrive. If our politicians are corrupt, it’s because we normalize it. If our systems are broken, it’s because we accept them.

Every Kenyan has a duty to stop clapping for the same people who light the fire and then pretend to help us escape it. Change begins when citizens demand more than promises — when we reward integrity, when we shame mediocrity, when we refuse to be bought.

The bush is burning — our economy, our justice system, our hospitals, our schools. But the chameleon still struts slowly, proud of its heritage of suffering. Until we drop that ancestral walking style — the complacency, the silence, the tribal loyalty — we will keep burning in the same political flames.

If we truly want better leaders, we must first become better voters. We must walk differently, think differently, and demand differently. Because no chameleon ever escaped a fire by walking in circles.

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