Weekend rallies signalled start of campaigns for 2017 polls

This weekend has been a busy political one. What with Jubilee prayers at Afraha Stadium, Nakuru, and the rival Cord, or is it ODM, rally at Kibra?

Whatever anyone of us thinks, the truth is that campaigns for next year’s General Election have begun.

It is, of course, a little early but this has now become part of the Kenyan political culture.

I was thinking about these things the other day and wondered how we shall ever get into a civilised political behaviour pattern.

No sooner is a General Election over than mechanisms and campaigns for the next elections begin to take shape.

These efforts come with a big cost and these campaigns must truly be an expensive affair.

Where does all that money come from? But it is possible that this could be explained by the enthusiasm we see in key political players doing everything they can – including violence sometimes – to make sure they get into government.

If what we have seen regarding how public resources are handled is anything to go by, then one can understand the determination on the part of politicians to belong to government.

FEROCIOUS COMPETITION

Seeing that our so-called political parties are never guided by any ideology that differentiates them from one another in terms of approach to governance, all that remains is a ferocious competition to get to where they can control resources.

The interesting character of the rallies that happened in Nakuru and Nairobi this weekend is that the one in Afraha was about those who had been accused at the ICC while the one in Kibra was about others who were in a different category.

There are even claims that some of the latter had wanted the former jailed.

Now that they were not jailed, a thanksgiving prayer service is a good excuse to bring together like minded political operators who had been in that predicament together.

In the same token, those who have a different political opinion can grab the victims of violence as an excuse to articulate their agenda.

Of course the victims of 2008 have not just happened. And in any case they did not bring that condition upon themselves.

This violence was planned and executed by someone. There must have been politicians who uttered certain things that incited people in the direction of violence. Shall we ever get to know who those were? Will these victims ever see justice?

There is a lot of work that needs to be done to make Kenya a great nation among the nations of the world.

This will however not be achieved by “leaders” making endless noise at each other and confusing the citizens. Kenya is greater than any one individual.

Fr Wamugunda is dean of students, University of Nairobi; [email protected]