Dear Kenyan, are you being served?

From: Mary Kimani
Date: Tue, 15 Jan 2008 12:48:20 -0500

We have often and repeatedly been told and reminded that the whole business of democracy is that we elect leaders to serve us and see to our interests, which are why I really have to ask- "Are you being served?"

When a government whose legitimacy has been questioned, sits by patiently waiting for violence to abate, and issues statements saying they have no interest and have not invited anyone to mediate the current conflict, how are you being served?

When the angry opposition, bitterly protests the unfairness of the situation and equally says, intransigently, that they will not give up the seat they won, how are you getting served?

If everyone of these elected leaders is so eager to serve you, wouldn't they quickly decided that they need to get to a clear picture of what happened quickly, wouldn't they have said, lets explore whether it is worth it to repeat an election? Wouldn't they have said if it is too expensive and divisive to hold a new election, let's find a way in which both sides can work together?

But no, instead both sides are SO determined to serve you my dear Kenyan, so sure that they are the right people to serve you, so sure that you have given them the mandate to serve you, that they will willingly burn down the country, make you and your family move into refugee camps, bring the economy down to ground, just so that they can serve you.

These men and women (a sprinkling as usual) are so eager to serve you that they will go and recruit young men without jobs, and tell them that your right to have them serve you has been taken away, and that they should stand up for that right.

They are so eager to serve you that, as their respective gangs (Mungiki, Sabaot militia et al) square off in the slums and in the rift valley, they will point to the anger and tell international media that this is your face, you the voter, and you are burning and looting from other people because you are angry at the fact that they were not allowed to serve you.

And when you are displaced, instead of reaching out and seeing the best way to serve you to each other, they will issue statements saying why no assistance is needed, they will say everything is back to normal, and the economy will continue growing in the burning hot rate it has, and that you, dear voter, are actually being served.

That is why I asked, are you being served? Because I, sure as hell, am not.

But then we were told we are electing them to serve us, so… why on earth don't I feel served? Well, that is the little problem with democracy.

You see, when the Greeks invented this thing called Democracy it was precisely because they thought it was going to be an effective way of stopping the politicians (that group of people in each society that ostensibly "volunteer" to take the "heavy" burden of leading us all) from taking over all power and doing whatever they pleased with it. 

The very fact that there was a need to introduce such thing as democracy should have told us something - that politicians are not now and have never really been, even in those ancient time, anything closely resembling servants.

They are now, and have always been, even in the past, a group of people who thoroughly enjoy the idea of being in power and being in control. If there was no law forcing them to do it, they would not even bother to pretend that they want to serve, and they wouldn't bother to even as much as ask for your permission to take over power and do exactly as they deemed fit, whether or not it was in your interests. The Greeks understood that, and wanted to put something we now like to call "checks and balances" a system in which the population has to agree that they want you to serve them and how they want you to serve them.

And as any of you who has read the history of the world knows, as soon as democracy was instituted, the politicians were all up in arms against it. Edicts went out stating that it was sin to imagine that mere rabble can choose their leaders. After all, the leaders argued, it was God who chose leaders (by giving some families lots of money and power and the capacity to wield big armies and take over land) and the others were to dutifully follow where they were led. For those who didn't feel too dutiful entire armies were sent to quash them. 

But by and by the monarchies have succumbed, and republics sprouted. Still the myth that politicians are in it for the good of the country continues, a myth just as powerful as the one battered women and children have, that somehow the battering husband or parent is a good person beneath it all.

As soon as the monarchs conceded that all people had a right to say in government and parliaments were the forums for this and not the king's throne, they were quickly replaced by military rulers. Now this group of leaders basically said forget democracy, I have the gun, you obey, and that is how we do business.

So that is another little thing they forgot to tell us when they introduced democracy to us. That politicians (especially where they come in the camouflage kind) will insist on serving us at gun point. How eager must they be to serve!

Mind you, there are always good reasons why they really must insist to serve you. You know, because there are ethnic tensions and the army is better at being in charge, because we want a change of corrupt government, because we want a revolution. So because of all those things, voters just like you and me are forced to accept the service of people we did not choose to serve us.

I guess then its no wonder that once there are no monarchs, no armies, nobody forcing us, and we have an open ballot we sigh with relief and finally pat ourselves on the back and say we have attained democracy. It's a bit unrealistic though if you think about it. It is as if somehow by the magic of being able to voting, we have turned the political class (those people who are so eager to serve) into true servants.

It's no wonder we get shocked and astounded when people we believed were good and upright and righteous loot the treasury, give jobs to their brothers and their cousins, and hire goons and thugs to go after their opponents.

You know Kenya is far from being alone. Many countries in Africa have reached this stage only to wake up to dismay at the people they have put in power. We tend to realise, very belatedly that we have put into power people who are so determined to keep it, that they will destroy a whole country rather than share "the service". And here we were… thinking that they really had our interests at heart!

Now we come to the awful realisation that even voting is not enough. Somehow, we have to get these servants to actually serve us. Now, how on earth do you get a group of people whose key interest is serving themselves to serve you?

And here is where I propose that as Kenyans we desperately need to stop kidding ourselves. If these people are servants, then at best they are a servant that is not trustworthy.

Now as a Kenyan, think about it. What do you do if you had a house help or guard that you are not sure will be trustworthy? You probably would put someone you trust in charge to watch how they behave, you never trust what they tell you and always try and check it out, and you put in place a mechanism that ensures they have to do their work. If you found out they were stealing from you, or that they were molesting your child, you wouldn't care if they are from your home land or if they are your brother's best friend, you would fire them. Then you would even call the police to escort them out. You wouldn't allow them to hang around your house because you would know fully well you might come home one day and find your house on fire, and all your goods stolen.

Yet this is exactly what we don't do with our politicians. We know the guys is a murderer- he or she has been involved in ethnic clashes before- that is murder, but somehow we tolerate them and vote them back in because they are from our community.We know someone is a thief- he has stolen money from you, from taxes or from treasury- still we vote them back. We know that someone is a hate monger, they are telling you very bad things about other communities and inciting you against other people, but you believe the incitement because they are from your community.

You bring them back to power, because they are now in the opposition, yet you know fully well that last year they were in the government and next year they will be back in the opposition and those labels mean nothing because all this person really cares about is to SERVE YOU, whether you like it or not, by hook or crook, even if he has to convince you that if the guy he hanged out with the whole of last year and issued statements with is suddenly planning to take over your business. Even if they have to convince you to hate each other so that they can effectively serve you.  And we, as usual, listen and take sides with them, because ati they are from your group, they are from your tribe, they are opposition or they are the government you want back.

That is why I am asking today my dear Kenyan, how on earth is intransigence, posturing, business as usual, oh there is nothing wrong and we are soon going to be back to where we were before, how is this season of machetes serving you?


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www.marykimani.com -He Didn't Die Easy; The Search for Hope Amidst Poverty, War and Genocide.