Stop defining Hustler Nation if you don’t identify with it.

Kelvin Nyamache Nyakeriga is a brilliant young man and definitely an example for many young people to emulate. There’s no gainsaying the fact that he is what many of his age mates can only dream to be. I respect that.

However, the young man is the purest, most undiluted among the Ruto-hating species. A near fanatic of Ruto’s political nemesis, Raila Odinga. In one of his many criticisms against the deputy president, Kelvin attempted to define for the hustler nation what, in his view the true meaning of a hustler president should be. And in his attempt, he pulled out a really fitting example, apt for his rant, in Jose Mujica, the former Uruguay president.

Kelvin seems to suggest that a true hustler president should choose to live like president Mujica and no other way. To him, Hustler means simply living like a poor man or ordinary life. Needless to say, Mujica chose that life because it’s the life he lived before he became president. He simply elected not to change his lifestyle or switch residences upon his election as president.

The word Hustler even in the dictionary can be interchangeably used with the word hard worker. How Nyakeriga ends up with the meaning akin to Catholicism’s OPUS DEI beats my imagination. Reading his article, I felt like he was deeply at pains to give a new meaning to the hustler nation. Living an ordinary life is a faith base choice and Mujica was an example of what being in love with ordinary life is. It had nothing to do with being a hustler or hard worker so to speak.

Let’s begin from the very basic fact that the young man doesn’t and has never identified with the Hustler movement. On that basis alone, it can be safely argued that he has never had interest in finding out the foundation upon which it’s built. Consequently, he should be the least expected to attempt to explain its meaning or assign traits to the should be adherents thereof. Considering, his political inclination, he would be least expected to understand the true meaning of the movement but in the very least he is expected not to attempt to lie about its meaning. Here’s hoping that he truly doesn’t understand it and the errors in his write up are genuinely out of sheer lack of understanding and not a deliberate attempt at misleading.

Much as I hold the young man in high esteem, it’s my considered advice that he avoids the politics of ANYTHING GOES. That’s what we are all trying to depart from. As a young man, you should abhor the principle of END JUSTIFYING THE MEANS. The means we use must remain as pure as the ends we seek. Focus not on stopping someone from ascending to power but on making sure those who do, use the right means. The survival of out democracy hinges on our ability to hold to account both the process and conduct of the players. Like athletics detests doping, so should our politics despise the use of BY FIRE BY FORCE.

Sir Fred Allan.