The Force We Forgot: Why Only Love Can Save Our Nation
By Gitile Naituli
In one of the most profound and touching letters ever attributed to Albert Einstein — a letter he allegedly wrote to his daughter Lieserl — the famed physicist abandoned his usual equations and theories to reflect on something far deeper than relativity or quantum mechanics.
He called it the most powerful force in the universe. Not gravity. Not nuclear power. Not light. But love.
Einstein wrote that love “is the universal force,” a hidden energy that explains everything — the reason we live, die, forgive, heal, and hope. He lamented that humanity, in its pursuit of knowledge and domination, had ignored this force for too long. Perhaps no society today needs to hear this more than ours. Here in Kenya — as in much of the world — we are not suffering from a lack of intelligence, resources, or innovation. We are suffering from a lack of love. What else explains the unrelenting greed that has hollowed out our institutions? What else explains why leaders seek personal aggrandisement even as millions go without food, medicine, or clean water? What else explains a political culture that rewards self-interest over service, and deception over decency?
It is not ignorance that drives corruption. It is a lack of compassion.
It is not incompetence that fuels oppression. It is the absence of empathy. We have mastered how to build wealth, but forgotten how to share it. We know how to win elections, but have failed to serve the people. In Einstein’s words, we have controlled the forces of the universe — yet we have not learned to drive the one energy that could truly save us: love.
What would governance look like if driven by love? It would mean choosing people over power. It would mean healing over hatred. It would mean rejecting tribalism, greed, and arrogance in favor of equity, humility, and justice. It would mean leaders who act not for glory, but from care. Because love, when applied to public life, becomes justice.
Love becomes transparency in government.
Love becomes access to education, health, and housing.
Love becomes integrity.
Love becomes restraint. As Einstein wrote, perhaps we are not yet ready to build a bomb of love — something so powerful it could destroy all hatred, selfishness, and greed. But we can become its quiet carriers. Each of us holds a small but mighty generator of this energy. And when we choose to act from it — even in the smallest ways — we become revolutionaries in a world tired of lies and looting. This is not sentimentalism. This is strategy. Because only love can do what brute force and clever politics cannot: it can change hearts.
So let us write a new formula for our time:
E = Lc²
Energy = Love multiplied by the speed of light squared. If we dare to believe this — if we dare to live this — we will find that the greatest power we have is not the ballot, not the budget, not the bully pulpit — but the capacity to love deeply, lead justly, and live truthfully. Love, after all, is the quintessence of life. And it is the only force that can end the reign of greed and restore dignity to our shared future.
Gitile Naituli is a Professor of Mgt & Leadership at Multimedia University and a fellow of Kenya National Academy of Sciences and former commissioner (NCIC)
