The past two months have seen our country slide into the
kind of anarchy we somewhat foolishly assumed was not ours, we were above it,
and two months after it all begun, we seem as distant from a resolution as
ever.
The loss of life and property, the unbridled eagerness to
stoke hatred between Kenyan ethnicities that have co-existed in harmony for
more than 45 years, shameless political rhetoric of the kind that damages long
into the future, the extensive damage to the country's opportunities for
growing its economy and its dignity among the nations of the world, the list of
shames goes on and its consequences threaten to last a long time into the
future.
Faced with so compelling a nightmare, it is a mystery that
it is taking so long for the political class to act decisively to bring the
crisis to an end. As time passes, and animosity is built up, Kenya
it seems is digging herself deeper into a mess, one from which extraction
promises to be infinitely more difficult. So low have we sunk that it is
probable that even as you begin to read this article you are pondering, huyu
muandishi ni wa kabila gan?,' so that you can prejudge the views presented
here. That is itself central to our
present crisis, the fact that we give so much weight to what is mere historical
happenstance, that over which we have no control, all the time neglecting the
countless relationships and experiences we have enjoyed that should make us see
ourselves as one people, perhaps with competing interests and histories, but
essentially joined up in the effort of making a success of Kenya.
We were not always like this, but political freedom it seems
has changed us. 1991 and the repeal of the notorious section 2A of the
constitution brought much hope for progress and prosperity. All around the country was great relief; here
at last was the end of tyranny, we celebrated.
Those expectations were, however, short lived and the
country continues to writhe in the agonies of the birth of pluralism. There are
many factors that have fuelled our fall, the failure of elective politics to
improve the state of our country; but two of them stand out most: the extremely
partisan nature of our politics and the prominent position of ethnicity in
national discourse.
Our partisan politics have frustrated any hopes Kenya's
citizens had for the empowerment of the citizen, for better representation of
the electorate's needs and for more responsible and inclusive governance. The
scramble for power that ensued after the 1991 reforms has led merely to more
ruthless competition among the political class while delivering very little in
tangible benefits to the people. There seem to be few real goals to our
politics other than a mad rush for power and the accrual of personal wealth.
There are not many values the politicians can be said to be really passionate
about and very little either that opinion in parliament coalesces about. One
can almost predict with certainty that no matter how benign or foul a proposal
is, there will be parties ranged on either side to viciously protect or oppose
it.
Perhaps it was set-up from the beginning to be this way. As
the fruits of power politics were dangled low, competition grew fierce among
the political class, and with egos and financial realities standing in the way
of ambition, recourse was made to ethnicity as the surest means of collecting
support around a political banner.
So powerful and entrenched have these two influences,
extreme partisanship and ethnicity, become on our politics that all the major
parties regardless of size and the resources they can marshal, are guilty of
using them to define and impassion their constituencies. And it is not just the political class.
Ethnicity and partisan politics have become us. The printed media has in the
months preceding the elections made many references to ‘tribal mathematics'
especially in the context of the presidential elections. Pundits compute the
likelihood of electoral success not on the strength of policies and ideas, but
on the divination of ethnic probabilities. Media companies have taken sides in
the political debate and pay very little attention to the issues. Even the most
unexacting research is avoided and the most profound issues refracted through
the prism of the political side the company has chosen to support, with scant
regard for sacred fact.
Unlike what prevails in the more established/advanced
democracies where political parties are historical organisations shaped around
ideology and value systems, in Kenya,
personalities, personal alliances, egos, the threat of violence and the ability
to raise a large enough coalition of ethnic supremos is the preferred political
stratagem for political success. Almost every last Kenyan political party finds
itself built on exactly these influences, thriving on nothing but the most colourful,
if inane, promises.
So it is that for the majority of the politicians in Kenya
today, the reality is that political parties are mere temporary vehicles, aimed
at getting political power and the opulence that comes with it. There is nothing
in political passion that represents a zeal for service or any real ideas. The
elected leaders know it and most citizens surely know it. One only needs to
review the party switching habits of many of the more seasoned elected
officials, or examine the kind of coalitions they have formed. Most
politicians have shifted between parties, some, many times over, they have
formed alliances with those they would have in the previous days considered
their arch-foes and started defending positions they were cursing as heretical
only a few days prior.
And it is this fluidity that Kenyans would have expected to
come to the fore at this election. Pictures of apparent foes high-fiving each
other and throwing their heads back in laughter indicate the possibility of
compromise and the potential for a leadership that can steer Kenya
back into clearer waters. The future of Kenya
depends on its citizens thinking and acting as one nation, taking pride in
their heterogeneity, and maximizing on the strengths that this diversity
brings. The political class and Kenyans at every level must also open their
eyes to the damage wrought by partisan politics, the missed opportunities and
the fact that the present state is beneficial to no one. Partisanship precludes
an understanding that part of our oneness is a shared tragedy of loss and want,
poverty and a lack of opportunity, envy and hatred. We must soon realise that
only in coming together do we find solutions.
This is the trend across the world. For instance the
European Union has been growing towards greater integration even as we speak
greater deeper cooperation and mutual assistance is delivering for its
citizens. Every other country where sectarianism has been promoted is
characterized by strife. It is imperative, especially in this period of
great anguish, that Kenya
take a leaf from its Southern neighbour.
Mwalimu Julius Nyerere surely got it right with Undugu. If
nothing else, what he achieved with this in terms of strengthening nationalism
has surely set Tanzania
well for continued integration and prosperity. Kenya
will be left wallowing in the mud if current leaders are allowed to continue
fomenting divisive politics by building tribal fiefdoms. We are all of us in a
leaking boat and no one can afford to be restrained about the urgent need to be
bailing and fixing those leaks. Divided we will surely sink.
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