What does being a Kenyan mean? We don't know

What you need to know:

  • Why do we care so much about politics? In other countries, people may not even know the name of their president
  • Every child is trained to gain a sentimental attachment to symbols of the nation, such as the flag, national anthem and head of state
  • There's no risk of a revolution however, for revolutions require a deep sense of identification

Some countries eat, drink and sleep football, rugby, soap operas, TV series or Coca-Cola. In Kenya, we eat, drink and sleep politics.

Over seven consecutive days, a bird’s eye view of the space used for political news on the covers of the two major national newspapers taught me that 78 per cent of our space is political.

We are political animals, or at least that is what our press thinks of us.

The most watched TV programs a few weeks ago were the interviews for the appointment of the Chief Justice, Deputy Chief Justice and, to a lesser extent but still impressive, the Supreme Court Judges.

It is not difficult to expect that the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) interviews will top the charts once again on December 19, when the five contenders, Florence Mwangangi, Taib Ali, Wanyonyi Wafula, Tukero Ole Kina and Lucas Naikuni, face the panel and the nation.

Onychophagy, better known as nail biting, will take over homes, universities, saloons and bars, just like those soap operas that test their fan’s nerves.

As the interviews progress, we must reflect on why we are so focused on specific institutions.

Why does everyone in Kenya care so much about the name of the head of the judiciary or the IEBC? Why is it so important that a new Nasa has been born?

Nasa, the new kid on the block, has made cover-fonts bigger and larger. It has nothing to do with the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration, apart from the fact that some astronauts who only appear on stage every five years have joined it.

Neither is it related to our own Nasa (Nairobi Swimming Association), which was our only Nasa until a few weeks ago. Why do we care so much about politics? In other countries, people may not even know the name of their president.

It happened to me in Switzerland, where I witnessed an argument between two well-educated men who were not sure who the current president was.

Spain has been without a government for almost two years and Italy is often headless. Australia changes Prime Ministers like socks.

In Namibia, I met the Chief Justice but lawyers in the room did not know him and were not aware of his name. The same happened in Zambia.

In Australia I entered the chambers of the Queensland’s Chief Justice and went straight to greet a gentleman, who happened to be the personal assistant of the Lady Chief Justice.

This made me worry. It proved my own bias, that of thinking the head must always be a man and the vice-chair a lady. This is a bias we have constitutionalised in Kenya.

COMMON HISTORY

Politics comes from the Greek politikos, means something of, for or relating to how decisions were made in the polity. And polity was a group of people who came together as an organised society, with something in common that is usually referred to as identification or identity.

Identification is essential for the sustainability of a constitutional democracy. It is first and foremost, personal or psychological. It is the need and convenience to achieve a satisfactory degree of identification between people, government and state so that they are fused into one image, and all consider travelling in the same direction.

In his essay "Nationalism and International Conflict Resolution", Daniel Katz has enumerated four kinds of dormant forces in the individual, which are the basis of identification. Each can be aroused so that the individual assumes his role as a national.

The first force is the emotional and behavioural conditioning to national symbols. Every child is trained to gain a sentimental attachment to symbols of the nation, such as the flag, national anthem and head of state.

This is why in some countries the national anthem is played and the flag raised every morning before school starts.

The second force is the sense of personal identity as a national, including those general aspects of socialisation by which a person comes to perceive herself or himself as being of a particular nationality.

This is associated with education concerning a common history, fate and culture, in contrast to outsider groups which display different histories, fates and cultures.

RELIGION AND SPORTS

The third force is compensatory and defensive identification, with militant nationalism. This is a dangerous type which turns into love of the nation founded on the hatred of everyone else.

It is based not so much on the individual’s attraction by the advantages of belonging as on attempts to solve one’s own internal conflicts and insecurities.

The fourth force is the  instrumental involvement in the national structure. This is best appreciated by looking at the results of rejecting the national structure, which are treason, imprisonment or exile.

The activation of these forces should eventually lead a person to identify himself or herself with the nation and the way government is conducted.

This is perhaps the greatest pitfall we are suffering as a nation. We lack a sense of identity and identification.

In Kenya, we have three key identification parameters: ethnicity, economic status and citizenship, in that order. Religion and sports sometimes spice up these parameters.

Religion ranks between economic status and citizenship, while sports ranks between ethnicity and economic status, though during high season it may climb to position one.

MANIPULATE INSTITUTIONS

Finding an identity is an essential element for political integration, which is achieved through nation building. Nation building, according to Werdell Bell, describes the process whereby the inhabitants of a state’s territory come to be loyal citizens of that state.

Werdell says that nation building includes the processes of creating viable degrees of unity, adaptation, achievement and a sense of national identity among the people.

This is why it is possible to speak of Kenya’s attitude to Tanzania, Rwanda’s views on East Africa’s markets, and so on.

We have a problem with identification, and for as long as this remains, we will always have a problem with nation-building.

Whoever the leaders are, they will be judged by ethnicity, how much they helped “their” people, not the nation. We will fight and manipulate institutions just to get our man or our woman up there. This manipulation is what is at stake in these public interviews.

The country is crying for fairness, a clean sheet and a new start but whatever happens with IEBC will not provide a long-lasting solution.

IEBC is there to secure fair elections, which are just the start of the race. A lot has to be run after that.

For as long as we do not develop a deeper sense of identification, which takes many years and a proper education plan, the hope of a fair election will be limited to the hope of having a preferred man or woman in the top job and the country will always come second

Lack of identification mixed with unethical behaviour is the recipe for chaos. There's no risk of a revolution, however, for revolutions require a deep sense of identification. But chaos, violence and widespread impunity could occur.

We could well have many people fighting each other for different reasons or causes, the main one being ethnic. 

Dr Franceschi is the dean of Strathmore Law School. [email protected]; Twitter: @lgfranceschi