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Current crisis has given birth
to timely patriotic ideas
NATION
Story by CABRAL PINTO
Publication Date: 2/2/2008
Crises, tragic as their consequences may be, are always
accompanied by lessons that have to be learnt. The current chaos
means that Kenya will not be the same again, for it has brought
into sharp focus illnesses that afflict the nation.
The country cannot move forward without urgently addressing the
fragile State institutions, gender inequality, ethnicity, class,
corruption, politics of winner-takes-all, constitution review,
need for political change and a new democratic order that will
undertake fundamental reforms, top among them the
demarginalisation of the youth.
Kenya has a unique opportunity to emerge from the crisis stronger.
The winner-takes-all policy was rejected by the people when Narc
came to power in 2002. If Mr Mwai Kibaki had implemented the
memorandum of understanding the National Alliance Party of Kenya
(NAK) signed with the Rainbow Coalition of the Liberal Democratic
Party, sharing of political power would have become part of the
political culture.
If a new constitution had been enacted, providing for the sharing
of the Executive power, the devolution of political power and
equitable distribution of resources, Kenya would have made the
first critical steps in building a nation out of its 42
communities.
It is sad to see that in the negotiations to end the current
political crisis the emphasis by President Kibaki and ODM’s Mr
Raila Odinga reflects deep-seated loyalty to presidential
authoritarianism and the winner-takes-all mentality. The President
should know that his message to Kenyans is that four communities
can politically lord it over the other 38 and that Central and
Eastern provinces have the right to rule the rest of the six
provinces.
Mr Odinga, on his part, should know that as one of the authors of
the 2002 MoU, he embraced the principle of power sharing of
political power. He should, therefore, not dismiss out of hand the
sharing of the Executive power. Kenya’s sharing of political power
and building coalitions are patriotic ideas whose time has come.
This is the time for the MPs to enshrine these patriotic ideas in
the Constitution. Kenyans should not accept a rerun of the
presidential election before this is done.
Assuming that Mr Kibaki got 4.5 million votes and Mr Odinga 4.2
votes as announced by the Electoral Commission, why is it
difficult for the political leaders to see that power sharing is
an option?
The current status quo cannot be maintained and must be changed.
Gender inequality, landlessness, extreme poverty, youth
unemployment, the marginalisation of some communities, stark class
inequities that have resulted in extreme wealth in the midst of
extreme poverty and misery, the promotion of foreign military and
economic interests by Kenya’s corrupt, despotic and an unpatriotic
political elite that is callous when it comes to the promotion of
lives and livelihoods of other Kenyans, and politics of divide and
rule all are stark examples of dangerous hallmarks of a status quo
that has resulted in the political crisis.
In the event of a rerun, Kenyans should reject the status quo by
voting in a leader other than Mr Kibaki, Mr Odinga or ODM Kenya’s
Mr Kalonzo Musyoka. The birth of an alternative political
leadership that can midwife radical democracy in Kenya is a
patriotic idea whose time has come.
Looking through the obituary newspaper pages after the current
deaths, an interesting pattern emerges about the nature of
ethnicity. Although some of those killed came from specific
communities as identified by their names, their marital,
linguistic and other relationships cut across ethnic boundaries.
Should Kenyans not stop to think about these inter-community
relationships? Should we not have a census on how our ethnic
identities have changed?
If the statistics are right that Kenyans under 31 constitute 89
per cent of the population, how sure are we that the youth are
fighting to protect ethnic interests and not out of sheer
desperation because of poverty, hopelessness and marginalisation?
The idea of confronting ethnicity head on is a patriotic idea that
should be addressed implemented at once.
The crisis has also laid bare the lack of leadership among the
women. Nobel laureate Wangari Maathai could have been a great
leader if she had not engaged in the politics of running with the
hare and hunting with the hounds. Her party, Mazingira, could have
been the home of alternative politics. But instead of building it,
she wasted useful time supporting President Kibaki and his Party
of National Unity, hoping to keep her Tetu seat.
The other women political leaders; they have all been masculinised.
No wonder, the Kikuyu elite call Justice minister Martha Karua
njamba (hero).
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