Madaraka Day fete unveiled Kenya’s ‘tale of two cities’

In the run-up to the 2017 General Election, Kenya’s political scene is emerging as yet another “tale of two cities”. In its classical sense, the idiom of “two cities” derives from a narrative of a violent clash of ideas between “good” and “evil” in civilisations.

The historical setting of the classical clash of good and evil ideas is the sacking of ancient Rome by the Visigoths in 410 AD. Expectedly, the Romans, deeply shocked by the plunder of their city by the barbarians, interpreted the event as a punishment from the gods for forsaking the traditional Roman religion and adopting Christianity as the official faith of their empire.

It is against this background that St Augustine of Hippo, one of the greatest men of letters of the time, wrote his book, The City of God. Propelling Augustine’s thinking was a deeply intellectual and political logic.

Across civilisations, rational and morally superior ideas have always triumphed over depraved and dishonest campaigns of hoodlums and kleptomaniacs in the cosmic clash between the “City of God” and the “City of Evil”. Although the Roman Empire was imperiled, Augustine argued, the City of God would ultimately triumph over the violence of the primitive vandals and pagans.

By the same token, faced with the tragic violence of the French Revolution, Charles Dickens re-visited St Augustine’s idea of two cities rocked in a duel in the famous novel, A Tale of Two Cities (1859).

Like the violence of the Visigoths, Dickens’ historical novel centres on the violence of the French Revolution in the city of Paris, which had many parallels with life in London. Dickens depicted the vanity and smouldering violence of the French aristocracy against the peasantry before the revolution and the brutality of the revolutionaries towards the aristocrats during the Reign of Terror.

VIOLENCE TURNS VICTIMS INTO KILLERS

The enduring lesson of the French Revolution is that violence dehumanises its perpetrators, turning victims into killers. The historian was right when he declared that Maximilien Robespierre, one of the most influential figures of the French Revolution, would have made a better man had he concentrated on growing roses.

Almost literally, Kenya’s Madaraka Day celebration dramatised Augustine’s and Dickens’ rendition of the classical “tale of two cities”.

In a clear show of might, the Government and the Opposition held two separate celebrations in two Kenyan cities, with President Uhuru Kenyatta leading the nation in the festivities at the Afraha Stadium in Nakuru and the Raila Odinga-led Coalition for Reforms and Democracy (Cord) in Nairobi’s Uhuru Park. But what kind of ideas are clashing and defining in Kenya’s tale of two cities?

On the Madaraka Day, the two cities of Nakuru and Nairobi represented the two ideological sides in the clash over the Raila-led anti-IEBC protests, which have so far claimed three lives, injured many more including over 20 police officers and are eroding Kenya’s global image as one of Africa’s most stable democracies.

To be sure, both the Government and the Opposition seem to agree on the principle of dialogue on all aspects affecting Kenya’s nascent democracy, including the IEBC.

But that is as far as their concord goes. Their difference, which hinges on the framework of dialogue, is fundamental and deeply ideological.

On one side of the divide is the Opposition’s approach driven largely by a cynical thesis that “democracy is on trial” despite the 2010 constitution and the 2013 elections.

The Opposition has never forgotten or forgiven the IEBC’s “original sin” of declaring President Uhuru Kenyatta the winner in the March 4, 2013 presidential contest.
Accusing Jubilee and the IEBC of colluding to rig the 2017 polls, they want its commissioners forcibly ejected out of office without any recourse to the law even though the constitution lays out clearly how individual officials and the commission as a whole should be hired and disbanded.

Cord’s stalwarts have rejected pursuing the disbandment of the body either through the court or Parliament, which are the channels provided for by the constitution. They prefer street protests as a strategy to create the impression locally and internationally that Kenya is on fire and hurtling down to the type of cataclysmic violence that occurred in 2007/2008.

UNDER PRESSURE

Pushed to the extreme level, this strategy will get the international community to “intervene.” Kenyatta will come under pressure to talk and share power with the Opposition, and to possibly give in to the idea of a “neutral international electoral management team” to oversee the country’s elections.

But incipient violence is tainting Odinga’s strategy. Recent deaths may have forced Cord to skip last Monday’s protests ostensibly to “give dialogue and peace a chance.” During the Uhuru Park rally, Cord reined in its own ranks while projecting the Opposition as committed to peace and consciously pushing for “a dialogue of equals.”

Despite this, forcing IEBC out of office remains Cord’s default strategy. Before Uhuru Park, Opposition stalwarts issued a 10-day ultimatum demanding that the government respond to their call for dialogue of face “the mother of all demonstrations” in the streets. After Uhuru Park, Raila has named five members and a twosome secretariat to spearhead talks with the Government.

In Nakuru, Kenyatta and his Deputy, William Ruto, backed the idea of dialogue. However, they are unbending on the law, and have urged those pushing for the disbandment of IEBC to respect the Constitution. The President declared that he would not engage on a “horse-trading” deal on a matter whose resolution is expressly stated in the Constitution.” He reiterated that talks must be steered through Parliament.

“I swore to defend the Constitution and I will be faithful to my oath of office,” said the President who, like St Augustine, believes he is on the rational and moral side in this debate.

“God has already sorted out the issue of IEBC. It is for us to read and follow the Constitution. Let’s not burden God with an issue that He has long helped us with,” President Kenyatta stated.

But Ruto believes God has a role in Kenya’s clash of the “two cities”: “With God on our side, we will confront the challenges no matter the magnitude.”

Kenya’s choice is clear: It is either “horse-trading” or the straight and narrow constitutional path. In this choice lies the triumph or tragedy of Africa’s most promising democracy.

Prof Kagwanja is the Chief Executive of the Africa Policy Institute.