Why dialogue and referendum only way out for Kenya
What you need to know:
This country cannot afford to go to another election before a national palaver and whose main product should be a referendum to panel-beat the Constitution.
Handshake and the question of the Uhuru succession should be treated as intertwined and springboards to a better Kenya as opposed to vehicles to self-aggrandisement.
This is the message the political leadership across Kenya should get clearly.
There is a lot of sense in the reasoning that premature campaigns are not helping Kenya. It is worrying, 2022 is a whole four years to go but a foreigner would be excused for imagining Kenya is gearing up for an election in weeks. The confusion and cacophony that have suddenly engulfed the hitherto formidable ruling coalition, Jubilee, only months after the General Election is a perfect recipe for economic gridlock. As a matter of logic, it is near an impossibility to marry high octane succession debate with such "high-sounding" and "sexy" goals like Agenda Four.
Importantly, in a country whose politics is by and large tribe-mediated, a chasm within Jubilee is a sure curtain raiser for ethnic animosities, as witnessed in the past.
But it is not everyone who can see the situation from this perspective, so do not expect campaigns to cease, reason being 2022 is a do-or-die affair for our leading political protagonists. Still, it is possible for voices of reason to intervene and ameliorate the situation, as has always happened. Once upon a time the church/religious community and civil society played this role quite well. Not anymore.
CONFLICTS
Consider, for instance, that even as we get glued on the intraparty war in Jubilee and the confusing, if confused, place of former prime minister and ODM leader Raila Odinga in the whole jigsaw, there are latent and not-so-latent conflicts that need high-minded attention.
One of these is the unsettled question of the relationship between the Turkana community and our newest kid on our economic block — oil. The community needs a lot of convincing that that oil is as good for them as it is for the country. The faster that happens the more we avoid our own Niger Delta situation.
But for now, our most active volcano remains the land question. This country is currently dotted by land-based conflict hot spots. Things in this department have been moving from bad to worse with the promulgation of Constitution 2010 and the resultant birth of devolution as its cornerstone. Suddenly, ethnic sub-nationalism is the most valued currency for our engagement as communities. Is devolution turning out to be more of a curse than the envisaged blessing?
BOUNDARIES
That is the question that crosses the mind when one listens to voices like Nandi Governor Stephen Sang and a band of fellow local leaders suddenly laying claim to parts of Kisumu County. The argument is that immediately after independence, founding president, Jomo Kenyatta and his vice, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, found spaces in the raised lands for settlement of members of the Luo community to save them from perennial floods in the lower lands. It is now over 50 years down the line, you wonder why some people want the situation reviewed. Elsewhere, boundary disputes exist between Nyamira and Kericho counties over who rightfully owns Borabu constituency.
This is just one of the examples of how Kenya, as a nation, is still a disturbed soul.
SUCCESSOR
As political temperatures rise going towards 2022, special attention needs to be paid to the Rift Valley region, with specific focus on how the Uhuru succession debate and architecture pans out. Sudden boundary quarrels with neighbouring counties, shrill voices calling upon the president to declare his position on the fate of his deputy, William Ruto, as his successor, plus the equally intriguing recent call by a group of Rift Valley leaders to the president to denounce his “handshake” with Raila should not be overlooked. Neither should suggestions by a group calling itself Kikuyu Council of Elders on DP William Ruto to retire alongside his boss, President Uhuru Kenyatta.
This country cannot afford to go to another election before a national palaver and whose main product should be a referendum to panel-beat the Constitution. Handshake and the question of the Uhuru succession should be treated as intertwined and springboards to a better Kenya as opposed to vehicles to self-aggrandisement. This is the message the political leadership across Kenya should get clearly.
Mwalulu is a media and governance consultant [email protected]
