Some time back, Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame, in an interview with Kenyan journalist Julie Gichuru, remarked on a culture that seems to afflict us — having low expectations of ourselves. Even when African teams lose at the World Cup, said Kagame, they seem almost grateful.

Paul Kagame has rationalised the Rwandan bureaucracy, making it one of the most efficient in Africa. His policies have significantly reduced the country’s poverty levels. Rwanda today buzzes with economic activity. Kigali is one of the cleanest cities in Africa.

Kagame’s leadership has engendered a vibrant national optimism in country that had in 1994 regressed to ground zero.

But his greatest legacy, the one that will catapult Rwanda into a rich country in a few years, will be the revolution of the mind, a radical transformation of the way Rwandans define themselves and what they expect of themselves — a nation of highly disciplined people committed to a national purpose, and people who expect nothing but the very best of themselves.

It is a lesson other African countries have to learn or perish, for the crisis of underdevelopment in Africa is underpinned by a fatalistic mental attitude. Consider, as evidence of this affliction, two events in Kenya: The terrorist attack in Garissa and the heavy rains that have been pounding Nairobi and the country.

In Garissa, for long deadly hours, the special unit trained to respond to these kinds of emergencies remained holed up in Nairobi. Inexplicably, the minister in charge of security and the Inspector-General of Police hopped onto a helicopter to Garissa, leaving the commandos behind.

One story from that tragic day will remain indelibly branded in the Kenyan national psyche, and will always remind us of the deadly consequences of our fatalistic mental attitude. It is the story of the girl in hiding, on the phone for hours with her helpless loved ones, pleading for rescue. She was shot while still on the phone.

It is difficult to prevent a terrorist attack from happening anywhere in the country all the time. But surely, there are questions that beg for answers. After the attacks at Westgate and in Mpeketoni, shouldn’t common sense have dictated, as a bare minimum of preparedness, the formation of highly mobile response units able to get to any corner of the country within minutes of a terror attack?

Did we learn any lessons from the earlier attacks in terms of prevention, response, rescue and how to manage the aftermath of death and trauma? (After Garissa, relatives had to wade through dead bodies in a crowded mortuary in search of their loved ones!)

Why, whether the emergency is a terrorist attack, famine, buildings collapsing or fires, do we keep repeating the same mistakes over and over again?

This brings me to the rains in Nairobi that have left death and destruction in their wake. Every time it rains, Nairobi is flooded because the natural pathways of the raging waters have been grabbed and built on by well-connected thieves, and also because the city still operates a sewer system built for a much smaller population.

And just as the Garissa rescue efforts were characterised by inefficiency or, as the tragic story of the girl shows, hopelessness, so too were efforts to rescue those trapped in the floods.

Nation writer Jaindi Kisero narrated a harrowing tale of how he and other parents stood helplessly on the sidelines, watching a bus with their children on board trapped in raging waters (Daily Nation, May 14).

After many agonising hours waiting in vain for official help, a private rescue team organised by a Nairobi politician was able to rescue the children. Kisero’s ordeal was, no doubt, replicated elsewhere with no happy endings.

In conclusion to his story, Kisero writes ominously: “Folks, we are sleepwalking into a national security crisis. In this era, it is not acceptable to present terrible acts of nature as manifestations of God’s divine will. We must improve our ability to deal with whatever nature throws at us.”

True. But for that to happen, we need a Kagame-style cultural revolution.

Tee Ngugi is a political and social commentator based in Nairobi.