Meeting selfish ends in name of democracy

From our experience of the 2017 elections, any right thinking person has to conclude that this project called democracy is quite a hard one to settle down to for us Kenyans.

During the whole of the last one year we have heard all manner of arguments and counterarguments in support of one side of the political divide and against the other and one is left wondering where the real truth is.

An election is called and one side of the political divide does not want the commission appointed to conduct such an elections to carry on with its work.

The election goes on anyway and a winner is declared. The losing side goes to the Supreme Court to challenge that win. After listening and discerning, that Court does annual that election and order another election be held in sixty days.

CONFUSION

While this is going on, there is a lot of confusion — mainly caused by politicians — about the electoral commission. At any rate one of the main candidates says he is withdrawing from the contest and tells his supporters not to vote.

The second election is held all the same and a winning candidate is declared. For the record, an inauguration ceremony is organised and that winning candidate is sworn in to be president.

The candidate who chose not to participate in the second election says he will also be sworn in and indicates that he does not recognise the other who is already sworn in.

As the “democratic” talk continues I only get more confused about what real democracy is all about. 

What had become clear during the campaign period and is still part of us is that our so called democracy is still a long way from maturing.

DEMOCRACY

We claim to be part of the community of nations yet we behave as if we still wish to reinvent the wheel in the manner of how we practice our democracy.

It, of course, could be that the real issue is that our political operators are not guided by any philosophical thought or ideology.

They are more about their own interests as individuals — and how many people “worship” them — than focusing on differing ideas about how to organise and lead our society towards progress. I truly believe, no matter how many people disagree with me, this is where our real problem is.

Then there is of course the other matter of who between the two political sides can construct better discourse than the other and how believable each of those discourses could be. Some discourse — which is often crafted as dangerous lies — can lead this country into chaos. God bless our Kenyan delicate democracy.

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