One of the most amazing displays of patriotism, and a baby called Amani is born
What you need to know:
- Since 2007, every time you hear the words ‘Kenyans’ and ‘politics’ uttered in the same breath, you imagine the worst. But Then again, every time you see Kenyans acting on politics, you witness the best. Here is the thing: Kenya is presumably the most political country in Africa. But from Sunday, March 3, 2013 until today, Kenyans have proved that they have something else, and that is the spirit of hope, resilience, patience, love for their country, and respect for fellow Kenyans. The older people say they only witnessed what we have gone through over the past few days during the dawn of independence
The world paused to watch Kenyans troop out to vote on Monday last week, and blogged in awe as the elderly, the youthful, the sickly, and the healthy joined kilometre-long beelines to polling stations in a show of regal patriotism never witnessed this side of independence.
If you woke up at 5am on Monday morning to go and vote, you woke up late. Because, by this time, some of the 33,000-plus polling stations in all the 47 counties had significant queues.
Some 14.3 million people had registered to vote in these elections, and a good number were on their way out. In the villages, cocks crowed to empty homes since, as early as 3am, Kenyans were out plodding their way in the darkness towards their voting centres.
They stayed at the stations, most of which were opened between 6am and 8am, till well past 9pm in the evening in some centres, with others going on into the night. In some places, the wind blew cold and misty. In others, it blew hot and dusty. Some had the mind to show up with their umbrellas, some did not. In the end, the day proved long for all.
It may have been a democratic right. It may have been a civic duty. It may have been the courage to view themselves as employers giving a select few the authority, space, and power to represent them and articulate their interests at a higher level. It may have been the covenant that they made with Kenya when they were born in it of being its minder and protector through their right to vote. It may have been the knowledge that change starts with them — the individuals — before it goes to the leaders.
It may have been all of the above, and much more, this time round. Because it was personal; a colourful, heart-warming show of determination and hope.
No single event tells the awe-inspiring story of this election than the death of 72-year-old Wanjiku Maina, who died while in a queue at a polling station in Murang’a. No single event paints the determination of the electorate better than that of the woman at Muthurwa polling station who gave birth while waiting for her turn at the booth. By the birth of that lovely girl she named Amani, Kenya seems to have been reborn as well.
Erick (23) was at his polling station in Kajiado North by 5am. By his estimation, he could have been the 579th (cheeky) person there, excluding the five who walked in just seconds before him. And while on his way to the station, he sent texts and made phone calls to friends, urging them out of the house to go vote.
But Erick is not the only one who called people that morning. He was one in an army of devoted Kenyans who, from Sunday, when the clock struck midnight, pulled out their mobile phones and started sending group texts.
But, why care so much?
The answer lies in our social psychology and how in-group solidarity drives people to join hands in a cause. The need to be part of a social phenomenon, especially where members of one’s society are taking part in, points to why people could have taken their time to call each other up, send texts, and pick each other up to go to polling stations. The comfort lies in knowing that you form part of a larger thing.
In politics, though, people could be driven by the urge to see a candidate not win — that is if they do not espouse the ideals of the individual — so much that they will come out to vote for an alternative and, within that alternative, still find a new community that shares their ideals. Still, it is all about in-group solidarity.
What, then, is patriotism? Let us start by what it is not. Patriotism is not about self-righteous flag-waving. It is also not about pompous expression aimed at appealing to people in peripheral reasoning spheres.
Dr Tom Namwamba, a philosophy lecturer at Kenyatta University, says patriotism is intent love for one’s country that negates ethnicity and cuts across all cultures, age, gender, religion, and class boundaries.
“Patriotism is about cultivating a sense of collective responsibility and using the self-will of this understanding in an individual to uplift one another as a group,” he says.
Lawyer James Okeyo of Muthoga Gitaru and Company Advocates knows who the real hero of the whole exercise is. “The average Kenyan loves his country too much to put it at risk,” he says. “Left to their own devices, Kenyans can undertake any political exercise in peace.”
The lawyer, who was done voting by early morning, dismisses the notion that Kenyans forget too easily, which has been used to explain the high voter turnout despite the apathy expressed after the 2007-8 fiasco. To him, the prevarication that Kenyans can wink away memories only abides in the minds of the delusional.
The false start by the IEBC in relaying information from the polling centres to the national centre for reception and announcement at Bomas, and the failure of the transmission system, were the ultimate tests on the level of restraint of Kenyans, especially in the wake of simmering rumours and fears of inaccurate results being relayed. But, being the graceful patriots that they are, Kenyans held their own, peacefully managing their expectations, anxieties, and frustrations.
Dr Namwamba, whose ring-back tone is the National Anthem, concludes that love for one another as members of the human race and as creatures of God drove the hearts of Kenyans in these past few days. But the greatest of all was the love for their country, and that is what patriotism is all about.
