Mr President, drop the political pride and let’s engage

President Uhuru Kenyatta receives a warm welcome from some of the beneficiaries of the Last Mile Connectivity Project in Ndigu-ini, Kiambu County. Ordinarily, presidents are the last line of defence for the nation. They are expected to bring the people together whether a constitutional framework of doing so exists or not. PHOTO | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • The country is facing a dire political crisis wrought by politics of dishonesty, dereliction of duty, widespread impunity and lack of integrity of a few.
  • There is no meaningful dialogue or resolution of serious political dispute which can take place outside the involvement of the key political players in this country.
  • In the end, the president who “sees far” ignores his court jesters and allows for minimum reforms through an informal process.

The whole world is currently witnessing a brazen dereliction of duty by a supposedly popular President Uhuru Kenyatta in the matter of reconstitution of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission.

One would have hoped that the President would have wished to shed off the dubious reputation he accrued in 2007 when he neglected national duty in more or less similar circumstances.

At the time, Uhuru broke all known rules of democratic principles and practice by ditching his “Official Opposition Leader” position for the government.

He not only made history, he must have surprised himself as well.

Although it has been appreciated by analysts as a politically correct move in the set of circumstances that obtained for him at the time, the repercussions continue to negatively reverberate across our political narrative.

I do not wish to remind Kenyans of the painful period of post-2007 election or the painful journey the President undertook as an ICC suspect, charged with serious counts of crimes against humanity.

Suffice to say that more often than not, providence affords one a second chance to convert the wrongs of the past into the rights of the present.

The country is facing a dire political crisis wrought by politics of dishonesty, dereliction of duty, widespread impunity and lack of integrity of a few whom, to paraphrase a popular patriotic song, want to “fart out Kenya.”

For the President to purport that he has little or no role in the resolution of the dispute is to both live and tell a lie.

For the President to purport that his hands are tied by the law is to miss the point.

HISTORY
Let us face the truth. There is no meaningful dialogue or resolution of serious political dispute which can take place outside the involvement of the key political players in this country.

The most serious political players in this country are well known. They have earned their place in the political pecking order of this country and in the process the legitimacy (popular acceptance by the people) to transact business on their behalf.

Any other route, including the parliamentary one being suggested, would be circuitous and in vain. It would amount to putting a cart before the horse.

We never did that in the pre-independence negotiations, never did that in IPPG, never did that in the 2008 political crisis.

In 1997, Uhuru’s own political sponsor, President Daniel arap Moi, had no constitutional or legal basis for forming or endorsing the Inter-Party Parliamentary Group.

He could have brushed it aside and urged Opposition MPs to follow the laid-down law of the time.

What existed then, and what exists now, is what Dr Martin Luther King often referred to as the “fierce urgency of now”.

I can imagine President Moi getting counsel from his close advisers, many like the belligerent JJ Kamotho, telling him to stay put and ignore the Opposition.

In the end, the president who “sees far” ignores his court jesters and allows for minimum reforms through an informal process.

Moi rose to the occasion and, through his magnanimity, saved both the 1997 and 2002 elections.

UHURU'S RESPONSIBILITY

Ordinarily, presidents are the last line of defence for the nation. They are expected to bring the people together whether a constitutional framework of doing so exists or not.

This is not a favour they do to anyone. This is what their office demands. It is what comes with the office. It why we say the President is the symbol of unity for the nation.

Time is running out. The President needs to ignore the coterie of hardliners pushing him to the wrong side of history. He needs to drop political pride.

It is possible to put this matter behind us to enable the country focus its energies on preparations for the next General Election. The time to do so is now!

The writer is Migori MP and ODM Director of Elections