Kenyatta-era PS Macharia Kamau faces backlash online after complaining about 'Kenya's broken systems'

Ambassador Macharia Kamau, who served as the Principal Secretary to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs during Uhuru Kenyatta's reign, took to his official X (formerly Twitter) handle to blast our international airport's unappealing infrastructure, even terming it as 'depressing and chaotic'.

"Sometimes one arrives home from an international trip, say from Dubai, and one looks out the window of the plane at the depressing &chaotic urban sprawl and then get into the makeshift warehouse that is the terminal & one just wanna weep. It’s like we are still in the Stone Age!" Macharia tweeted.

His sentiments, which some deemed a little too searing and brash, failed to attract the kind of reaction he had hoped for with many people roundly berating him for having the audacity to complain about a system he was himself very intricately a part of not too long ago.

Majority of Kenyans reminded the former PS and current member of the UN peace building advisory team that during his time in office, he would have seized the opportunity to fix the systems and not wait until he was out of office to come lament online like the average voter.

X user @FarhiyaAbass fired the first salvo, saying, "Bravo on the missed opportunity to transform our 'Stone Age' existence when you had the chance. Now deal with the harsh reality like the rest of us!"

Another user @KiprotichLangat also joined in, saying, "The problem with you as leaders is when you get the opportunity you never make any meaningful change in the govt. You award tenders to friends and relatives who deliver shoddy work. You don't streamline public transport and plan cities and then you come complain like us citizens! "

On his part, renowned economist Mohamed Wehliye also failed to see the sense in Amb. Macharia's protestations, sarcastically telling him, 'Karibu Kenya!'

"Ambassador Macharia, Kenya's former Ambassador to UN and former  PS Foreign Affairs & whose 10 year admin "invested" trillions in infrastructure & put the country in debt distress in the process, has landed from the moon! Karibu Kenya balozi!" he wrote.

Steve Biko was a little more brutal with his rebuttal when he wrote: "You were in power for ten years. You were in significant life portfolios. You had the pulse of foreign policy under your ears. Instead Kenyan foreign policy returned corpses, eggs on the face,  eurobond  and kin. Find Shame in silence!"

The sorry state of the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) has hit the headlines over the last one month especially after a video showing embarrassing leakages at the terminals went viral online, even attracting derision from neighbouring countries.