There’s a lot to learn from Robert Mugabe’s shameful exit

One would have hoped that the era of military coups in Africa was over but the latest events in Zimbabwe paint a different picture.

Having said so, one could still argue that from what has been going on in Zimbabwe, it was indeed a disaster waiting to happen.

After hanging on to power for close to 40 years, President Robert Mugabe has been forced to exit in a manner that cannot be termed dignified in any way.

It could, however, be that the most humiliated individual in that whole fiasco is his 52-year-old wife who was gearing up to take over from her 93-year-old husband.

POWER

Mugabe represented the old generation of African leaders who wrestled power from the colonialists.

They then held on to that power through whichever means and insisted on being retired by death.

Of course, there are a few still remaining who seem to be guided by that same philosophy.

It is worth noting that in countries like Tanzania, Kenya and a few other places, there are former presidents happily living among their people after having been removed either through elections or whose terms came to an end.

It is certainly not a good commentary on a president to be removed by force.

One man who was a real good model to African leaders was Nelson Mandela. Old although he was, he was not attached to power and ruled for only one term before retiring.

STATESMEN

The likes of Mugabe obviously did not learn from that model. One hopes that current and future African leaders will seriously reflect on the events happening in Zimbabwe right now in the light of the life and actions of statesmen such as the late Mandela and endeavour to entrench an authentic democratic culture in their nations.

Here in Kenya, we have seen commendable efforts at establishing such a culture particularly since we promulgated the 2010 Constitution.

That notwithstanding, this year of elections has seen negative tendencies that could jeopardise our very efforts at becoming a truly democratic nation.

In recent months, we have come very close to a major crisis of a constitutional nature. Lies and propaganda have been the order of the day, a behaviour that poses great danger to our common national existence.

We had an attempted coup in 1982 from which we should have learnt our lesson.

The point at which we are in our political evolution is one where we should be consolidating the gains of our achievements by celebrating our diversity.

The writer is dean of students at the University of Nairobi [email protected]