Riddled with double standards, our hypocrisy blossoms within a week

We are a country of double standards and our hypocrisy takes only one week to bloom. But the peddlers of double standards, in evidence on television and on social media this week, seem too narcissistic to see it.

They use every word in the book to name one thing primitive and barbaric but stay mute when equally egregious acts happen in their vicinity.

I am taking about the heckling of the President in Migori which has been named primitive, barbaric and uncivilised.

The commentary after the event did not stop at castigating the Migori behaviour, it went the extent of adducing a Luo identity to it.

They may not have said it, they implied it in not so many words that this is a peculiar Luo behaviour. Aden Duale went the full extent to claim this was the work of Raila Odinga, implying that the Luo remain an unthinking lot remote-controlled by Odinga.

No wonder, some of my Luo friends felt compelled to disassociate themselves from the incidence or to caution that not all Luos subscribe to the so-called primitive behaviour. Of course, many of them had nothing to do with the hooligans in Migori. They obviously did not know about it and neither do they support those actions. But they were, in our public commentary, explicitly or implicitly guilty by ethnic association and had to respond.

THIKA ROAD DEMOS

Elsewhere, those of us who use Thika Road have withstood traffic jam since Friday last week caused by rioters who blocked the road.

On Tuesday this week, Thika Road was again blocked for a whole day due to protests. Whatever grievances those protesting had, it had nothing to do with all who were inconvenienced. In spite of the horrible consequences the Thika Road rioting, it was not named primitive.
Why is the heckling of the president primitive and not the unreasonable blocking of a major public road? Why did many politicians crack with excitement when President Moi was heckled in 2002 but hate it when it happens to Uhuru Kenyatta?

Lest we forget, heckling leaders is an expression of displeasure in democracies. In the US, this is so normal that Barack Obama has encountered numerous instances of heckling and booing. George Bush even had foodstuff thrown at him. The only mistake the Migori hecklers made was to throw shoes and break chairs.

But in Kenya, we are too socialised in an authoritarian political culture that we cringe at the sight of leaders, including the President, being heckled. We however don’t complain when it is an MP or Senator, we only complain when it involves a President. Worse, it is the tribal busybodies who have taken to complaining and abusing the whole Luo nation for the actions of those few.

SHOUTING AT POLITICIAN ON TV

If we were frank, how many times have you shouted at the television in the privacy of your house whenever some test tube politician says the usual absurd or outrageous thing?

On numerous occasions, I have been forced to listen to extremely annoying things politicians say at funerals. Many times I wonder why I did not heckle them into silence.

In the particular case of Migori, I do not know why those few elected to heckle their leaders who incidentally included the President. But there is a suggestive explanation in the choice of leaders the President’s presence implicitly endorsed.

The President choreographed a trip to Migori through the likes of Dalmas Otieno while avoiding those who currently enjoy avid support in the region.

Dalmas Otieno has a history with the Odingas that immediately sends particular signals to the Luo nation. Had he called Raila Odinga to accompany him on a development tour of Nyanza, that would send contrasting signals.

So, while I defend the President’s choice of company to the tour, I also defend the right to peaceful citizen protest.

Godwin Murunga is Senior Research Fellow, Institute for Development Studies, University of Nairobi. [email protected]