Nasa leaders should seek to unite Kenyans to avoid breaking up motherland

Nasa leader Raila Odinga with other opposition leaders and supporters on Likoni Road, Nairobi on November 17, 2017 after he returned to the country from a trip to the US. PHOTO | JEFF ANGOTE | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • Mr Kaluma wants economically advantaged counties separated from the disadvantaged as different countries.
  • They feared antagonising MRC would cost them votes.

The leadership of National Super Alliance (Nasa) should seize the earliest opportunity and make absolutely and abundantly clear its position on the disturbing calls or threats for certain parts of Kenya to secede or, simply, the praise for secession.

There can be no two ways about it. Either Nasa is unitarist in respect to Kenya’s territory as bequeathed by the founding fathers and affirmed by the 2010 Constitution, or it backs a separatist agenda in view of the economic and political disparities rampant in the polity.

Here’s why. One, as it became increasingly evident that independence was imminent, Kenya’s Somali ratcheted up popular pressure for then Northern Frontier District to separate from Kenya and become part of the Republic of Somalia on the basis of self-determination.

FINAL

Nairobi’s response, deliberately delivered by Oginga Odinga to an Organisation of African Unity (OAU) gathering in 1962, was tough and decisive:

“The principle of self-determination has relevance where foreign domination is the issue. It has no relevance where the issue is territorial disintegration by dissident citizens. We in Kenya shall not give up even one inch of our country to the Somali tribalists and that is final.”

The distinction was still clear in 1974. Then Attorney-General Charles Njonjo declared that if there were “Somali in Kenya who did not wish to remain in Kenya, all they have to do is to pack up their camels and cross the border into Somalia.”

Two, at the beginning of this decade, the Mombasa Republican Council (MRC) touting a damning but factual and popular catalogue of lament and complaint by the people of the Coast declared the region was not part of Kenya.

In 2012, outgoing President Mwai Kibaki was categorical: The government would not tolerate a separatist agenda.

Kenya’s security was non-negotiable. But wavering presidential, parliamentary and gubernatorial aspirants hid behind the vague construct that “the MRC has genuine complaints, so let us talk to them”.

They feared antagonising MRC would cost them votes.
COAST

Last, enter Mr Peter Kaluma, the Nasa Member of Parliament for Homa Bay. Last week, he crafted a Bill for Parliament to create a different country for Gikuyu, Embu and Meru (Gema) communities resident in seven (sic) of Kenya’s 47 counties.

Mr Kaluma wants economically advantaged counties separated from the disadvantaged as different countries.
Over at the Coast, Nasa governors Hassan Joho and Amason Kingi of Mombasa and Kilifi counties respectively declared two weeks ago that they want the region to secede in its quest for self-rule, which will redress marginalisation and ensure local resources benefit local people.

Unlike 2012, they bluntly and publicly back the MRC slate of lament and complaint and secession.

But the tone was set by Nasa’s economics guru, the courageous Saturday Nation fortnightly columnist and public intellectual, Dr David Ndii. He famously called Kenya a failed project and a cruel marriage and called for debate on divorce.

Now, here’s my take. If Nasa’s top brass and thinkers are persuaded separation is the solution for Kenya’s myriad ills, they should have had the courage of their conviction and fought the August 8 General Election on a platform of separation or economic justice.

RICH AND POOR

It behoves Nasa to show Kenyans, by force of reasoned and persuasive argument, why they cannot peacefully, orderly and exhaustively address and redress the disparities that have run rampant in the polity as citizens of one Kenya.

Second, separation is akin to ducking the chasm between Kenya’s rich and poor regions and people instead of designing solutions for bridging it.

It will create new problems to solve old ones. Evidence that Kenya’s myriad ills will be replicated in the proposed republics abounds in the fledgling devolved units.

Third, you know your elected representative is worth his salt when there is a problem or crisis and he comes up with a Bill to solve and not exacerbate it.

Nasa should not seek to break up Kenya but to bring Kenyans together to avoid breaking up the motherland.

Fourth, separatist bills will be comprehensively defeated in Parliament, but the legacy of Mr Kaluma’s bill will be a lasting bitter taste in the mouth.

Mr Kingi’s and Mr Joho’s quest will similarly flounder if subjected to a referendum, but the bitter divisions will linger.

It is why I think President Kenyatta should convoke a national conference at which Kenyans will address the problems bedevilling the country, how to redress them and how to implement resolutions.

Opanga is a commentator with a bias for politics [email protected]