It’s not alright to trivialise assassination talk

Kenya is going through yet another phase during which the juvenile instincts of our politicians are in full display. When they are not threatening traders from neighbouring countries with beatings and deportation, they are trading insults and accusations in public rallies meant to polarise the population ahead of elections that are three years away.

PROPAGANDA

Despite the President’s insistence that everyone must focus on the development agenda and shun divisive politics, his own lieutenants are busy promoting one candidate or another for political office come 2022.

The most outrageous display of juvenile energy came a few days ago when a letter purportedly written by a Cabinet secretary was leaked. The letter accused some Cabinet secretaries and other government officials of holding secret meetings to plot the assassination of the Deputy President.

This was followed by counter-accusations and explanations that cheapened the allegations and added a political twist to the whole saga. The police are now investigating the authenticity of the letter, as well as the veracity of the allegations themselves.

Not surprisingly, supporters of the DP have taken the allegations very seriously, and are perpetuating the story that there is a modicum of truth in them, given the fact that the accused government officials have actually admitted to holding a series of meetings but indicated that the subject of the meetings is to discuss development in their region of origin.

Others have dismissed the allegations as part of political propaganda meant to increase sympathy for the DP in his quest for the presidency at the next elections.

What is tragic in this whole saga is that no one has sat back to think seriously about this assassination talk. In our national history, assassinations have been commonly used at decisive moments to nudge the population in a particular direction.

Prominent politicians have been killed at critical moments in history, and some of those assassinations have changed the trajectory of our politics. However, such assassinations have always been carried out in strict secrecy, and even when official involvement was suspected, it was never confirmed or even openly discussed.

HEADLINES

So when did assassination talk become so mundane that we could read newspaper headlines about Cabinet secretaries planning the assassination of the Deputy President and move on to continue with business as usual? When did elimination by assassination become a legitimate political tool in this country?

We have known for the longest time that the life of an ordinary Kenyan is so cheap that any death is unremarkable and will not even merit discussion beyond the deceased’s immediate circle of friends and relatives. We, however, never thought that this cheapness extends to our political leaders, and especially the top leadership of the country.

What the current talk of assassinating our Deputy President does is to confirm to the ordinary citizen that their life is that much more worthless.

We must now prepare for a future where government officials will routinely threaten us with death whenever we uncover malfeasance on their part. We must be ready to start losing lower level politicians over political differences, and we must, therefore, brace for particularly violent elections. If we have started threatening our top leadership with death due to different political views, nobody else can be safe.

Welcome to Kenya’s graveyard. This is where our dream dies.

Lukoye Atwoli is Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Dean, Moi University School of Medicine; [email protected]