Why the Opposition needs to change strategy
What you need to know:
- If the Cord leaders go ahead with the planned campaigns to force the country into a referendum on the key issues they identified during the rally, they will ethnically polarise the country.
- With over three years to the next election, the opportunity is not yet lost for a structured dialogue that does not compromise the role a strong Opposition should play in checking the government.
The much-hyped Saba Saba Day rally came and passed without any serious incidents.
But the anxiety and tension that gripped the country clearly testifies to a nation yet to heal the scars of the post-election violence, justifying the need for a new approach to our politics.
With a long list of genuine grievances that the opposition Cord enumerated during the grand rally, there are many inconsistencies in its approach— calls for national dialogue that backfired, and then calls for mass action followed by insistence on a referendum. This portrays a team without a strategy.
The rallies did not attract the Opposition’s core supporters, and one wonders why Cord is insisting on taking this path.
The support of religious leaders, diplomats and civil society, all of whom nurtured the democratic space the country enjoys today, was not actively sought. Nor was the support of strategic thinkers or the business community.
If the Cord leaders go ahead with the planned campaigns to force the country into a referendum on the key issues they identified during the rally, they will ethnically polarise the country.
Already, the images of people fleeing their homes for fear of a repeat of 2007-2008 post-election violence are worrying.
This is so because the country is yet to initiate the process of redeeming the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission, which did not do its job competently, according to the Opposition.
Dangerous also is the Supreme Court ruling that upheld the Jubilee coalition victory in the 2013 election.
DENTED CREDIBILITY
This raised some serious legal and political questions that dented its credibility to act as an arbiter in future contests, especially in an ethnically polarised political environment.
The mass action route the politicians wanted to take would not have brought any desirable results, unless, in the first place, the intention had been to topple the government by making the country ungovernable.
The country has made significant constitutional changes that grant wide ranging freedoms and liberties the Opposition can use to press for reforms, whether the government is listening or not, without creating tension.
We all agree that we need to have a conversation as a country, to find ways of tackling some of the challenges we facing, including the high cost of living, unemployment among youth, corruption, and insecurity which has already taken a huge toll on the country’s economy.
When Jubilee took over power in 2013, it should have prioritised a broad-based dialogue involving all Kenyans.
With over three years to the next election, the opportunity is not yet lost for a structured dialogue that does not compromise the role a strong Opposition should play in checking the government.
Both President Uhuru Kenyatta and Opposition leader Raila Odinga must take deliberate efforts to unite the 40 million Kenyans.
If the Opposition says it is committed to providing a new vision for Kenya, it must do so peacefully and use both the constitutional and political means that focuses on cohesion and prosperity.
Mr Obonyo is the external adviser on the UN Habitat’s Youth Advisory Board. ([email protected])
