Time to launch a national peace manifesto

• Aspiration: The Kenyan state has failed to fashion a a Kenyan nation

We are approaching that time of the political calendar when political parties put together their clever boys to draft a set of policy promises and dreams called manifestos.

As one who has intimately participated in manifesto writing for at least four parties over the past two decades, I find it appropriate that I help reflect on the value of this policy ritual, and ask why the opportunity should not, in fact, be put to better collective use.

Party manifestos in Kenya have tended to have very limited use in actual campaigns. They are documents mainly targeting an audience of media houses, diplomatic missions and academia who will have limited direct influence on voter behaviour.

They are embraced by party mandarins who have little input and less interest in what they say beyond showing that theirs is a serious party with an agenda. They are launched with much fanfare but abandoned in Nairobi as normal service resumes on the campaign trail.

Because our manifestos are mostly soulless manuscripts, we sacrifice the opportunity for inspiration and dedication at the alter of universal acceptability when we produce them.

The chance to say something we believe in and can fight for is surrendered to the ritual of saying something others may find clever. One corrective measure we can take is to try and develop a declaration we can actually believe in.

Most Kenyans will readily agree that the biggest challenge facing us is how to come to terms with our failure to convert Kenyan nationalities into a Kenyan nation.

We have broadly succeeded in constructing the Kenyan state, with viable security apparatus, efficient tax collectors, an acceptable civil service, and now, a credible constitution. But this state development will not translate into a successful nation.

We remain mired in the contradiction between tribal identity and national engagement. Politicians continue to bestride the divide between ethnic legitimacy as some latter-day warrior heroes and national patriots with a trans-ethnic credibility.

We continue to turn a blind eye to our past failings and gloss over the hurt we have individually and collectively inflicted upon so many of our people.

We have come to the moment when we need the promulgation of a national peace manifesto. A peace manifesto for Kenya starts with recognising our past failings. It acknowledges past and current mistakes and omissions.

It makes a bold confession that the Kenyan state has failed to fashion a Kenyan nation. That for us to design a desired future, we must be ready to confront a past that has left many hurting and dress the wounds of our recent failings.

Rather than seek to point cheap accusatory fingers at each other, it will help us all comprehend that the hardware of the state cannot operate without the software of the nation.

Our desire to build a prosperous future for our grandchildren is just a pipe dream if we do not create conditions that bring all the grandchildren of Kenya on that march forward.

A peace manifesto for Kenya will set out inclusive ways through which the divide between our state and nationalities can be bridged.

It will set out our collective commitment to building a culture of dialogue and collaboration where in the past we have glorified shouting at, and competing with each other.

After half a century of futile competition and confrontation, Kenyans can set their sights on a future where consensus-seeking and collective ownership of success become the hallmark of our identity.

Where we have caused others pain because of the appetite for individual and sectarian victory, we can lay the foundation for collective success through collaborative and inclusive leadership values and practices.

A peace manifesto will lay the foundation for transforming Kenyans to see people from other communities not as a threat and competitor as they do today, but as a resource whose success lightens the burden of their own success.

By seeking a manifesto not for any party but for all Kenyans, I confess my belief that our national challenges are not divided along party lines. Our national solutions can, therefore, not be partisan either.

Let us all lay the foundation for a society whose heroes are couriers of integrity and honesty and political leadership will seek legitimacy through demonstrated desire for consensus and collective ownership rather than the narrow pursuit of self-glorification.

Dr Kituyi, a former Minister for Trade, is a director of the Kenya Institute of Governance mukhisakituyi@yahoo.com