Hi, my novice and short opinion. Please feel free to correct as necessary :-) Is kenya a failed state ? : look around you, see how kenyans live. Mud shacks and polythene homes, water shortages for many years, power cuts, insecurity, food shortages, industry collapse, power games etc and short cut solutions to issues. I cannot say we have completely failed but have somehow managed to survive. What are kenya's problems ? : the main are corruption, poverty, greed and impunity as other have mentioned. It has nothing to do with govt. It is a culture that has been acceptable for too long, passing on generation to generation. A simple example : Observe how matatu operators ( ordinary kenyans, not top govt officials ) drive around, complete abuse of any law that would govern sanity. The road belongs to them. I can remember this as far as the early 1970's, nothing much has changed. Corruption claims were rife also then as now. Where does kenya's problem lie ? In its colonial past and the world stage. We inherited a strange thinking system from the colonial era. At this time and the next 35 years or so , the world itself was going through some strange periods i.e cold war which produced certain corruption, dictator mentalities and thuggish approaches. ( Look at some eastern European countries, they are worse off then kenya ). read about Mobutu seseseko, the first ever to try and build a nuclear station in congo, somewhere near his rural home palace. What is kenya's solution ? : The first and foremost has to be a change in culture of how things are done. Kenya needs a complete overhaul of its thinking and where it wants to go. without this, no matter how many govts we change, it will make little or no difference. Part of this problem lies in centralised control of resources, governance. If you just drive 60kms from nairobi, you are in rural kenya. Who will help kenya attain Uhuru from itself, break away from all that has slowed it down, change its thinking ? The generations that are in school now but going by Daily Nation's headline today, it maybe a long wait. The answers are there. The leaders are there. Unfortunately there are no short term answers or quick fixes.