Role that 'gunnysacking' will play in Kenyan election

Behavioural experts call it “gunnysacking”, the human tendency to store up grievances that may have occurred in the course of a relationship rather than raise them when they first occur. A person involved in “gunnysacking” works herself into the role of a victim, collecting slights and wrongs that have been committed against her. When these accumulate they will amount to a formidable weapon for use against the perpetrator.

In domestic relationships, the tendency to nurse grudges that will one day be unleashed in an emotional tirade is common among spouses and within the larger family. Experts argue that storing up grudges weakens, rather than strengthens, relationships. Does Kenyan politics suffer from “gunnysacking”, and what role will this play in this year's General Election?

The Waki report discusses the effects of an incident that occurred in September 2007 in Nyamarambe in Kisii when a group of Orange Democratic Movement politicians, including the current Deputy President William Ruto, were attacked by a mob as they arrived at a public rally in the area. One of the politicians, Chris Bichage, was severely beaten and needed hospitalisation. Ruto himself only avoided a beating because he escaped into the bush, and fled from the scene.

KEY DRIVER

According to the Waki report, the Nyamarambe incident became a key driver of the inter-communal violence that followed the disputed results of the presidential election four months later. What had been a contest between opposing political actors was re-interpreted as a slight on a whole community and used to justify the violence. This was communal “gunnysacking”. (The legend is that Ruto lost a shoe as he escaped, and the inter-communal violence was avenging the loss!)

Other slights that had occurred during the five years since Narc took power in 2003 were also revived and invoked as grievances in the post-election violence. In particular, the manner in which the retiring President Daniel Moi had been chastened on his way out, and the subsequent clear-out from government of senior Moi appointees, were re-interpreted into sources of grievance. Narc’s suggestion that Moi should now tend to his goats as he watched good governance under the new government was interpreted as ethnic arrogance and would be invoked in the rage that consumed the country five years on.

JUST SYMBOLIC

While the settlement of the violence resulted in a coalition government in which ODM now gained a stake, ODM was only symbolically in power, and President Kibaki’s side used its control of the bureaucracy to keep Raila Odinga, who as Prime Minister was supposed to be an equal to Kibaki, as an outsider. A pre-occupation of the coalition government was to ensure that, particularly during public functions, the protocol arrangements undermined the idea that Odinga was Kibaki’s equal in government. In his book Peeling Back the Mask: A Quest for Justice in Kenya, Miguna Miguna discusses his struggles to make the bureaucracy give some respect to Odinga. In this context, Odinga’s complaint about the lack of ablution arrangements befitting his position while on a tour of the country was, in effect, a complaint that the omission was a deliberate slight meant to communicate that, even as Prime Minister, he was not important.

If the Odinga side saw the 2013 election as an opportunity for redemption from an abusive relationship in the coalition government, the results did not favour them and, instead, Uhuru Kenyatta took power with Ruto. In that election, Odinga had joined up with former Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka, a person who ended up with his own grievances against Kibaki. Despite faithful service, and the fact that Kibaki only managed to form government for his second term because of Musyoka’s support, the retiring president passed him over when anointing a successor, reportedly contrary to an understanding the two had at the beginning of Kibaki’s second term.

ENDURE SLIGHTS

For the second time, the 2017 election pairs Odinga and Musyoka, two people who have endured some political slights. In Odinga’s case, this goes back to the relationship between his father Jaramogi Odinga and the first President Jomo Kenyatta. Koigi Wamwere, newly in Nasa, articulated this grievance during the recent unveiling of Odinga as the Nasa presidential candidate, pointing to the fact that both Odinga and his father before had made sacrifices for the Kenyatta family and the Kikuyu community, and that it was now time for the community to pay back.

In the time that Jubilee has been in power, Odinga and Musyoka have endured further slights, the latest of which were the street demonstrations they were forced into in order to get the IEBC commissioners changed. Thereafter, Jubilee marshalled its parliamentary majority to enact legislation that torpedoed the agreements that Jubilee had reached with Cord regarding the management of the next elections, a further humiliation of the Opposition.

STRONGER REACTION

While the Opposition could have reacted more strongly to these slights, they chose to swallow the insult, thus stocking up another grievance. Behavioural experts advise that the best way to manage relationships is to discuss problems as these arise, rather than storing up for later processing. The opposition would argue that they have repeatedly tried to get Jubilee to table for talks but, as this did not materialise, the issues they wanted discussed are now better put to the electorate.

Among a section of the public, Odinga symbolises a view that, despite the outward democratic manifestations, certain forces control the selection of the president, making the choice a boardroom affair, a gift from those forces, irrespective of the results. They view Odinga’s electoral failure as a conspiracy to keep him out of power. This grievance, the greatest of them all, will come back into play in this election.

In view of this section of the population, this election is a final chance to make amends over a political injustice that Odinga’s life and political career has come to represent. If the election is run well, then, irrespective of its results, Kenya can begin to heal.

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