If you’re always short of bundles, you and MP Moses Kuria are in the same WhatsApp group of Basic Needs!

By Mbatia wa Njambi
Visiting Thinker
You must have heard of a dude called Abraham Maslow. This psychologist is credited with Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs-with self-actualization as the highest level in the five tier pyramid. Are there Kenyans who have attained self-actualization? Just start counting. You might scratch your head for names beyond industrialists Manu Chandaria. Or former Presidential contender Kenneth Matiba.
Everything Matiba touched turned into gold: Kenya Breweries, Kenya Football Federation, forays into hospitality, large-scale agriculture, education…a millionaire in real coin by 40. Then politics; MP, high achieving Minister before presidential ambitions became his Waterloo.
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs comprise; basic, safety, love, esteem and self-actualization. Hierarchy of Needs best explains human motivation and the majority slave their butts off to accomplish them.
Some of Kenya’s richest have gone beyond basic and safety needs, but lack a loving family, have few genuine friends

If your needs are zoned around food, clothing and shelter then you are still scrubbing at the bottom of the barrel. Kenya is a Hustler Nation where 70 percent live in fear of hunger, the menacing landlord and are thus in the Basic Needs category.
This includes some people considered well-off-like Gatundu South MP Moses Kuria- who was facing auctioning auctioneers over rent arrears. Bundles are now part of basic needs in Kenya. So, if they are always in short supply, then you and Moses Kuria are in the same WhatsApp group of Basic Needs!
Some politicians have cried ‘my life is in danger despite being glued to their bodyguards inside bullet proof cars

Safety needs revolve around security. The desire to experience law and order, predictability, control, social stability, freedom from fear. Some politicians, think Mohammed Ali, Alice Wahome, Cleophas Malala and Ekuru Aukot, have cried ‘my life is in danger’ despite being glued to their bodyguards, being chauffeured in bullet proof fuel guzzlers and living in houses that resemble embassies. Safety Needs also include emotional, financial and medical security. Manu Chandaria’s Muthaiga home was recently invaded by thugs meaning he’s as unsafe as his neighbours across Thika Road in Mathare Valley slums!
If parliament provided accommodation, most MPS would sleep there and never venture out

Love and belonging are the Social Needs centred on family, the capacity for intimacy and genuine friends. So are affiliations in clubs, chamas and church which foster a sense of being part of a community.
Some of Kenya’s richest might have gone beyond basic and safety needs, but lack a loving family and have few genuine friends meaning they are stuck in the third category. Former Information PS Dr Bitange Ndemo lamented how his phone stopped ringing when he was left out of the new government in 2013. He would check whether he had accidentally put it off. Multi-millionaire lawyer and insurance magnate Karanja Kabage succumbed to a heart attack along the Southern Bypass in Nairobi. He was driving home to himself in Karen, Nairobi. His family had long left. Billionaire businessman Chris Kirubi also confessed he missed family having divorced early and has very few friends. Former Attorney General Charles Njonjo was asked to name his friends and stopped at Dr Richard Leakey!
Baba has thrown everyone under the bus to achieve self-actualization

The fourth tier is Psychological Needs; self-esteem and that feeling of accomplishment, respect from your peers, status and prestige. The desire for reputation. If and when Ngugi wa Thiong’o bags the Nobel Prize for Literature will have scaled this tier. So do scholars when they earn their PhD-the highest level of educational achievement. Or an athlete winning an Olympic gold medal, a national soccer team winning the Fifa World Cup.
Bottlenecks like divorce, job loss, business failure and baggage of the extended family might slow self-actualization

The late Prof Wangari Maathai could have reached self-actualization after winning the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize for her contribution to sustainable development, democracy and peace.’
But she blew the status via still nursing political ambition. Yet the Sh100 million prize money was enough cushion for her environmental pursuits as a Nobel Laureate whose lofty perch she lowered with her appointment as Assistant Minister for Environment!
You also need to live a long life otherwise premature death means the end of the road

The fifth level is self-actualization, the hardest to achieve. Here, you meet your full potential in your given area of specialization. Like eminent psychiatrist Dr David M Ndetei’s Doctor of Science was a feather in his academic cap few scholars achieve in their lives-after their PhDs.
You could have so much financial freedom for artistic pursuits. Here, you also start giving away your wealth: Manu Chandaria has donated to Nairobi, USIU and Kenyatta Universities where centres are named after him. Self-actualization is not pegged on money, but also full exploitation of one’s talents and capabilities.
Every person is capable of attaining self-actualization, but bottlenecks like divorce, job loss, business failure and baggage of the extended family might cause one to oscillate between the tiers-mostly lower ones. You also need to live a long life otherwise premature death means the end of the road. So, are there Kenyans who have attained self-actualization?