#FRONTROW: The tragedy of our present-day politics 

The ballot papers for the fresh presidential poll have arrived in the country, but there might be no election on Thursday. PHOTO| FILE| NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • An election has to take place in 290 constituencies to be valid, but  there is no guarantee that it will be possible.
  • The National Super Alliance (NASA) has called for “the mother of all demonstrations” on the day of the election while their Jubilee opponents maintain that the election will go on, come rain or shine.
  • The arrogant, adversarial attitude from both sides notwithstanding, this plunges the country into a lacuna the likes of which we have never seen despite all lawyers assuring us that “the law is very clear”.

The ballot papers for the fresh presidential poll have arrived in the country, but there might be no election on Thursday.

Unless something earth-shattering happened in the two days between the time I wrote this and when it was published, we’re entering uncharted territory as a country and no one knows exactly what happens next.

An election has to take place in 290 constituencies to be valid, but  there is no guarantee that it will be possible.

The National Super Alliance (NASA) has called for “the mother of all demonstrations” on the day of the election while their Jubilee opponents maintain that the election will go on, come rain or shine.

The arrogant, adversarial attitude from both sides notwithstanding, this plunges the country into a lacuna the likes of which we have never seen despite all lawyers assuring us that “the law is very clear”.

I’ve hosted countless panels with a dizzying galaxy of commentators on the current situation all hoping for some glimmer of hope about how to get out of this mess and came out empty.

'STOPPED WATCHING NEWS'

A friend told me over the weekend that he had stopped watching the news altogether and had also given up reading the newspapers.

His sense of disillusionment about the national crisis we’re in is no longer isolated just to a handful of people but is probably representative of a larger percentage of the population than most are willing to admit.

He is a supporter of President Uhuru Kenyatta and his Jubilee administration that still believes we should have the election at whatever cost.

“Would you rather be in Somalia or Zimbabwe?” he asked when I accused him of being invested in the status quo because of his business interests.

“Neither,” I replied in an attempt to throw him off.

“I would rather be in Zimbabwe where there is a government even though some doubt its legitimacy, than in Somalia where the lack of a government has led to decades of civil war,” was his answer.

Both examples are misleading and needlessly alarmist, but the fact that they have entered the minds of the population should be a cause for concern. We are not anywhere near the failures that are Zimbabwe and Somalia, of course, but who knows what this week will bring? Our experiment in democracy is undergoing one of its worst stress tests yet and there is no telling whether it will pass with flying colours or collapse like the house of cards some say it is.

There was a time in Kenya when bipartisan consensus-building provided much needed solutions and helped forestall disasters before they happened.

I’m not too young not to have been alive when politicians reached out across the aisle to really listen to the other side and try to find common ground.

SHAM ENDORSEMENT

I’m also old enough to remember when we lived under a one-party state when elections were a sham endorsement of whatever the rulers had decided, when dissent was punished and sycophancy rewarded, when protests were banned and oppression was a way of life. Look around you and check which of these scenarios exist today.

That our tragic politics of grandstanding, irreducible minimums and parliamentary dictatorship is problematic is no longer in doubt.

Senate Majority Leader Kipchumba Murkomen told me last week that if the October 26 election did not take place, there would be no election in Kenya.

His colleague in the House, Mutula Kilonzo Jr, predicted a Thomas Hobbes-like breakdown of law where life would be “nasty, brutish and short”, imploring the Jubilee government prevent “Armageddon”.

So the future they paint is very much a doomsday scenario where ordinary citizens are killed by their government in the name of protecting lives and property from violent protestors.

If it sounds familiar, it is because we have been there before. It is the period we now refer to simply as the post-election violence.

As a young reporter covering that tense moment in our history, I never thought anybody who lived through it would want to take us back there.

I certainly didn’t imagine that the same players who were key actors then would ever be so driven by ambition again that a disputed election would potentially lead us into ruin.

It is a make-or-break season for a country at a crossroads and we’re still debating whether a widely discredited electoral body can deliver a credible election. Businesses are sending staff home by the hundreds while tourism grinds to a halt but let’s talk some more about how some grievances outweigh others.

Let us go to a great many rallies and repeat the same position we’ve had for the last two months but louder this time for the adoring masses. After all, leadership is about how big your crowds are and who is in your corner.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to live in a broken country that even remotely resembles Zimbabwe or Somalia, so this one has to work. Is that too much to ask for?

 

Is he right? Send your comments to Larry Madowo at [email protected]

 

***

Kwesé is changing media right before our eyes

I’ve chatted with Zimbabwean billionaire Strive Masiyiwa twice this year and came out thoroughly inspired both times. I interviewed him in a town hall at the Transform Africa Summit in Kigali, Rwanda,  in May, then we crossed paths again in New York while waiting to hear former President Barack Obama speak.

He was in the queue waiting to pick up his badge, even though he and Obama were having dinner that night. His latest venture, Kwesé, is slowly changing the media landscape in Africa and you don’t even realise it.

They just announced a joint venture to fully launch the millenial content powerhouse VICE in Africa, the latest in a round of big deals for the new player.

They’ve also got a partnership with ESPN and just launched what they are calling Kenya’s first “pay-as-you-watch” TV bouquet in Kenya.

This is becoming a compelling alternative to the traditional pay TV market and the potential for its free-to-air sports channel is endless.

 

***

Our response to disaster is itself officially a disaster

How long did it take a search-and-rescue team to arrive at the Lake Nakuru National Park after a helicopter went down on Saturday?

It was only hours later that a team from Naivasha got to the scene and they had just a few hours of daylight before the operation was called off.

The first reports of the crash filtered out at around 6.30am and leaders, law enforcement officers and onlookers quickly gathered but could not do much.

The Nakuru county commissioner is quoted as saying they were waiting for divers from the Kenya Navy in Mombasa to respond to the situation.

A police chopper that circled the lake trying to locate the signal is said to have been unsuccessful. There are far too many fires, building collapses, road accidents and other incidents where prompt action could have saved lives but no such system exists.

If you’re ever in a situation, where your life depends on how quickly first responders get to you, say a quick prayer and hope for the best.

Imagine what a crisis it would be if we suffered a major earthquake or some other natural disaster that we didn’t anticipate.

There are people who are paid to think about eventualities like this and plan for them. They should be fired.

 

***

FEEDBACK

Our partisan politics of protest

Larry, it is worthless to condemn a whole tribe or a section of it for allowing emperor worship. However, in an area like Kisumu, I wonder which business community looted Tumaini Supermarket? Two demonstrator were shown on TV carrying stones. What do Kenyans expect police to do? God, in his wisdom, created tribes.  Nations are created by men. So, let men destroy what they have created. Period.

Maina

 

Larry, I once heard you comment that “a journalist’s role is to report it as it is”. So what do you have to say about the following:

1. What’s the role of media in the ongoing crisis/situation (for lack of a better word)? What would Uhuru or Raila do if they were given a blackout by the media?

2. I haven’t come across any indepth report detailing where the protestors come from, given that the protests are held on weekdays and no boss can grant his/her employees leave to attend them.

3. The continued reference to a return to the Kanu era is in rather bad taste.

On Kenyans’selective outrage, we all know that if the government did its job, there would be no street protests.

Benard

 

1. I trust that you have seen images on social media of people looting property and committing atrocities without police having “triggered” such.

2. When marauding gangs rob a roadside trader just struggling to survive, isn’t that tantamount to ending his/her life. If that sounds far-fetched, then you’re among the 1 per cent who cannot empathise with the majority of Kenyans who survive by the Grace of God.

3. On Matiang’i, why do you NASArites always label anyone who stands firm by common sense a Nyayo tyrant? What you’re telling us is that Raila/NASA are perfect and their word is infinitely wise, fair, honest, and unselfish? Essentially, anyone not in agreement with NASA is non-Kenyan, unpatriotic, a moron, tribalist, etc?

Hilary

 

Your response to Dr Matiang’i’s recent calls on important national issues have been unfortunate, to say the least.  But the fact that he did a good job in the Ministry of Education seems to have gone into his head and the minds of the people that he can do no wrong.

He might have been good in one department, but we cannot entrust him with the captaincy of Airbus 254 known as Kenya: he will bring down the plane and there’ll be very few survivors after the crash. 

By elevating the good doctor’s standing with the security docket, we seem to have fallen for the Peter Principle: that one tends to rise to the highest level of incompetency. He was competent in the education ministry but incompetent in  the security ministry.

Daniel Ogana