Shout a big boo to anyone who takes toxic politics to funerals

Kenya is one of the only very odd — and weird — countries where the political class sniffs out every funeral to go and attack opponents.

Memories of the departed and the bereaved are usually forgettable afterthoughts. This is as unacceptable as it is uncivilised.

What I don’t get is why Kenyans allow such abominable conduct to go unchecked.

That’s why I was pleasantly surprised when House Minority Leader John Mbadi was handed his hat by mourners at the recent funeral of MP Suleiman Dori in Gazi, Kwale.

Instead of paying his last respects to the MP, Mr Mbadi started to lambast DP William Ruto for the Echesa fake arms saga. The public rightly booed and heckled him off stage.

Mr Mbadi was travelling a well-worn route. Not long before his humiliation by the mourners, Mr Ruto had misappropriated the funeral of Sgt Kipyegon Kenei, the murdered head of security at the DP’s Harambee House Annex.

Kenei was a key witness in the Echesa scam and his killing implicated Mr Ruto’s office.

POLITICAL GREED

Mr Ruto used both the formidable power and accoutrements of his lofty public office to attack the State and what he called “the system” for planning to stop his ascend to State House by any means necessary, including murder.

The performance was worthy of an Oscar. With a forlorn Kenei family looking on, Mr Ruto turned the funeral into a platform for his political greed.

The Kenei family was powerless to stop Mr Ruto. How could they? The second most powerful man in the land was raving mad as he ranted and railed against his own government.

To him, Kenei was mere collateral damage. My mouth was agape.

To add insult to injury, Mr Ruto told the family he had to leave immediately after his speech — before the funeral ended — to attend political rallies in Meru.

He couldn’t even pretend to honour the memory of Kenei with humility even in death.

FINANCIAL HELP

That was a metaphor for how politicians view the “children of lesser gods”, even though these children, the hoi polloi, are the source of the power of state officials.

I can only imagine what Kenei’s family and friends were thinking. Mr Ruto had the temerity to tell them before the nation that he would financially take care of them. Wow!

Can money bring back Kenei, or wash away the pain of his murder? At best, the promise of financial largesse was callous, at worst a mockery of the victim and his family.

If you truly want to help the family, why not do it quietly without announcing it to the whole world at a funeral?

The proper thing Mr Ruto should have done was to come, eulogise his fallen officer, condole with the family, and sit with the mourners in honour.

It smacked of arrogance for Mr Ruto to swoop in with the firepower of the State and the phalanx of official cars and armed, jackbooted goons as though he were entering enemy territory.

In his speech, he even warned the State to stop antagonising him and “my community” (the Kalenjin).

VICTIM'S MEMORY

Mr Mbadi and Mr Ruto aren’t the first offenders, nor will they be the last.

But when you have two of some of the highest ranking politicians in the country openly disregarding the sombre moment of a funeral, you know the country has gone to the dogs.

But while Mr Mbadi was upbraided by the public, Mr Ruto acted with impunity before a powerless “home” crowd.

But this piece isn’t really about Mr Ruto or Mr Mbadi. I use them only as foil for a political elite that has lost all moral moorings and compass.

I heard some commenters say Mr Mbadi had mistaken a Muslim funeral for a Luo one. That’s nothing but xenophobia, ethnic, and religious bigotry.

Others even wrote on social media that Mr Mbadi was simply carrying on an African pre-colonial tradition at funerals. Baloney.

Nowhere in Africa were funerals occasions to vilify your political opponents. The focus of an African funeral was always on the memory of the victim and the pain of the bereaved.

Often, they were celebrations of the life of the departed, not petty political insults.

MORAL CODES

We can correct this damnable practice and stop politicians from hijacking funerals. The bereaved and the mourners aren’t a sack of potatoes to be tossed about like cargo.

But this isn’t something against which we can legislate. A society’s loftiest moral codes and ethics aren’t legislated.

They grow organically. That’s what happened at the Dori funeral. It shouldn’t be a Muslim thing only.

Citizens everywhere in the republic should boo, heckle, and pillory any — ANY — politician who tries to turn a funeral into a political charade.

Let’s end politics at funerals. We should say nunca mas (never again). Wolves only exist because sheep do. Let’s not be their prey to our predator.

Makau Mutua is SUNY Distinguished Professor at Buffalo Law School and Chair of KHRC. @makaumutua.