Stand with civil society for a peaceful future

A few days ago, the government purported to ban a civil society organisation funded by the American government on the grounds that it was involved in a scheme to interfere with the forthcoming General Election.

Questions have arisen as to the justification for the ban and the jurisdiction of the NGO Coordination Board over registered companies in Kenya, but that has never stood in the way of this administration.

As we approach the next General Election, the ruling coalition is getting more and more jittery about the finances available to those in the opposition. Any indication of “foreign” support will elicit extreme reactions, and the civil society organisations perceived to be involved in channelling some of those funds will definitely run afoul of this government. In any case, the Jubilee administration has never been comfortable with civil society, and has blamed them for the myriad of problems it has encountered since its inauguration.

Jubilee apologists have taken to derisively referring to NGOs and other non-state actors as “evil society,” undermining the huge role these organisations have played in Kenya’s quest for more freedom and democracy. In doing this, they turn a blind eye to the massive foreign support for government programmes, especially in the important sectors of health, education, law and order, and infrastructure development.

The government has mastered the skill of doublespeak perfected by the Kanu kleptocracy, in which the president would rant about our sovereignty and refusal to take dictation from foreign powers even as he sent his ministers to Western capitals to beg for funds in aid of “budgetary support”. In their scheme of things, they can have their cake and eat it, too!

While it might look like all fun and games for the politicians, this petulant stance has very real and painful consequences. Most of the electoral support from foreign sources goes towards civic education to help voters understand the electoral process and make informed decisions. It is possible that their intention is to scuttle civic education so that they become the only source of electoral information for their captive base.

If the past and current warlike utterances by some of these politicians is anything to go by, this country should brace itself for the most divisive campaign period yet, with the very real possibility of violent confrontations during the campaigns and after the elections next year. All the signs are there.

This past week’s shenanigans in the National Assembly revealed the depth of angst that drives the desperation evident in our politicians. The viciousness of their gestures, and the degeneration into fisticuffs during parliamentary debate, only serves to embolden the criminal underclass among their supporters. One can visualise these miscreants sharpening their machetes, and oiling their automatic weapons.

So today, as we celebrate Christmas, we must bear in mind the possibility that this time next year many of us will be on the run or in hiding from our ethnopolitical “opponents”, many of them inflamed only by the mere fact that our surnames are different from theirs. We have normalised hate speech and violence, and the cynical political class has done everything in their power to paralyse constitutional organs that might have prevented such escalation.

The misconceived National Cohesion and Integration Commission lies mortally wounded on its deathbed. The National Human Rights Commission has similarly been reduced to a helpless bystander, issuing empty threats to a political class that considers itself above the law.

The last bulwark for the weak and downtrodden, the Judiciary, has been captured by conservative forces beholden to the executive. In my opinion, it will have a rough time presenting itself as a neutral arbiter in case of a post-electoral conflict.

Atwoli is associate professor of psychiatry and dean, School of Medicine, Moi University; [email protected]