Kibaki, Raila are harmless and boring politicians

Nearly 1,500 people died in post-election clashes. In February, a negotiated agreement shared power between Kibaki and Raila.

If you are interested in history, these events are truly amazing. In seven short years, Kenya has through what some countries needed more than 100 years to witness.

And, then, something else. In all this turbulence, political guerrilla war, agitation, and even incitement, Kenya did not have political prisoners. Even radical civil society activists get bail quickly.

This, in an Africa where some leaders still feed their opponents to the crocodiles, and have them tortured in secret dungeons.

My conclusion is that Kenya might, possibly, be the first Africa country to have reached the limits of civil politics. In other words, short of an extreme violation of the law, there is nothing you can say or do in the political “game”, that will get you in trouble.

On the other hand, common criminals and the corrupt too seem to be able to get away with anything. As a result, Kenya’s extreme civil politics is countered on the opposite hand by what critics consider to be “state failure”.

My take? It would seem from all this, the Grand Coalition has given us Africa’s first truly schizophrenic state.

cobbo@nation.co.ke