FEATURED CONTRIBUTOR - Kenya’s post election conflict: a tipping point

by Dr. Alex Awiti

Like millions of Kenyans and many around the world, I am enraged by the thoughtlessness of the political elite, the lunacy and murderous violence of the police and ordinary citizens across the country following the outcome of the presidential vote.

For whatever motivation, some of us were willing to fudge the poll numbers. We chose the most feeble and dishonourable among us to manage our institutions. Under “pressure” the chairman of the electoral proclaimed the winner. A hooded Chief Justice came out at twilight. The police kept a watchful vigil. And shamelessly, one among us was sworn in as president.

The events of the past week will be etched in our hearts forever and engraved in our history for posterity as our encounter with the real us. Think about it as the day you met you, the treacherous kiss and the embrace of death. The day you came face to face with your dark, cold and cruel heart. The day when you encountered yourself prostituting your rights, defrauding yourself on the hill at twilight, dead on the streets; raped and maimed; homeless, hopeless and very afraid.

I can almost hear you swear you do not recognize this person. I have never met them, you quip. Who the hell is this? They remind me of someone. Their silhouette reminds me of Burundi, Sierra Leone, and Rwanda. You beamed. But we could tell it was you from a mile away. We always knew it was you.

Kenya, please quit fooling yourself. You are greedy, fraudulent, corrupt, dishonourable, treacherous, callous, violent and murderous. This is who you are. In bold and near hysterical affirmation, as if someone else would beat you to it, you confirmed it last week. You did it fast and furious.

This past week brought out the meanest, the lowest and the most unspeakable horrors we are so adeptly capable of. More importantly, Kenya is Africa’s new Poster Boy. Bravo Kenya!

While we burned our brothers and sisters in God’s own sanctuary and amidst murderous orgies on our streets and farmlands, politicians engaged in a contest akin to who’s is bigger?

Mr. Kibaki’s camp dug in. We won this election decisively” they said. They are waxing lyrical about legalese.

Mr. Odinga’s Pentagon asserts that there has been a civilian coup. “Mr. Kibaki must resign”, they say.

Who is right and who is wrong? Maybe this not even the right question to ask at this late hour of untold national shame.

But there is a side of us we do not want to confront. There were malpractices on both sides. The violence is ethnic and political.

Wanton plunder, murder, the police brutality, political posturing and brinkmanship will not resolve the political impasse. Even the boldest power sharing deal with Mr. Kibaki as the king/emperor and Mr. Odinga as prime minister/president will not resolve this deep and unfolding national crisis. We know this from 2002. And we also remember when Mr. Jaramogi Odinga boldly proclaimed “uhuru na Kenyatta”. Even the Vice President’s miracle will not make this go away.

Why is ours such a fragile, polarised society? We have to address the real causes of the problem. At the core the current crises are the fundamental issues of societal values/ideals and a dysfunctional constitutional order. We have for a constitution, an impotent, listless document that has woefully failed to deliver even on its modest promises.

Our constitution has made the presidency and government a theatre for ethnic intrigue and partisan absurdity. The current constitutional dispensation allows the president to emasculate critical institutions and makes the civil service prostrate in servitude to the presidency. Parliament is neutered. Remind me again, what do members of parliament really do?

The ethnicity of the president is a big deal. Kenyans have to confess to this decades old idolatry. And the supreme deity is the presidency. His/her tribal folk are saints and arch angels on chariots, utterly obnoxious in their hubris. Kwame Nkrumah succinctly said, “seek ye first the political kingdom and all else shall be added unto you”.

I submit that we must seek first a thoughtful and dispassionate constitutional order. This new constitutional order must deliver justice, equity, liberty, affirm and protect our diversity. The new constitution must assert the supreme authority of the people and our institutions over elected or appointed servants. The fundamental rights life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness must be enthroned.

More importantly, how do we structure a symbol of national sovereignty that is not polarizing but rather one that will call us to a higher purpose, a chief executive that will inspire us to a higher destiny? How can we model a presidency that serves a cause that is greater than ethnic or self-interest?

The events of the past week are a damning indictment of all of us. Not one among us is without blemish. Ultimately the vanguard of democracy is a responsible and vigilant citizenry, a citizenry that will not sell their soul and motherland for thirty pieces of silver. On this test we all fall short.

But there is a silver lining if we care to look. There is a cathartic streak about the post election violence. They are in a gruesome way, a kind of purging and cleansing, emptying of the bowels.

We must have a deep and honest conversation in our hearts and amongst ourselves. Do we share a set of common values and ideals as a people? Can we live as one nation, one people indivisible? Do we go our separate ways, each with each tribe as a sovereign? It is decision time.

These questions will most likely not be discussed when parties negotiate a “satisfactory solution”. A power sharing deal among the political elite and their henchmen will only be band-aid on a deep and gory wound. An end to the ethnic vitriol and bloodletting does not signify a new dawn of equity, tolerance, trust and social harmony. These are momentous days, a veritable tipping point.

We must turn a new page in the management of our politics, social and economic affairs. We must start a justice, truth and reconciliation process. We must talk openly and boldly about why we hate each other's guts. We must say why presidential politics are necessarily about victorious and vanquished tribes. This we must do or perish.

-------