With 24/7 politics, ways are needed to ensure the country keeps running

Three things: One, once you call for a plebiscite, just as when you call an election, you divide people.

That is when you ask people to make a choice between two or more different ideas, thoughts or people who represent them, then you are dividing people.

Because politics is about choosing between ideas, which are conflicting or antagonistic, it is divisive.

When ODM leader Raila Odinga calls for a referendum ahead of the 2022 General Election, he divides Kenyans.

When Deputy President William Ruto opposes the call and posits that a plebiscite will simply prolong the 2017 election cycle and deny Kenyans an opportunity to focus on development he, too, introduces a facet to the plebiscite call that will divide Kenyans.

Indeed, when Suna East lawmaker Junet Mohamed argues that by doing a U-turn and supporting the referendum call the DP has seen the light, he divides Kenyans between those who are groping in darkness and those blessed with brightness.

SUCCESSION

But has Mr Ruto, in fact, seen the light? Mr Mohamed’s light is not Mr Ruto’s light. The Mr Ruto’s position is that if Kenyans are going to have a referendum let it not be about expanding the Executive but about making the lives of Kenyans better.

The current runs deeper. First, a surrogate, Mr Mohamed is speaking for Mr Odinga who is the DP’s nemesis and now front-runner to challenge Mr Ruto in 2022 for the presidency.

Second, Mr Ruto reads the change-the-constitution winds as driven by vested interests.

Therefore, the light Mr Ruto has seen is that the mooted expansion of the Executive, possibly by creating the office of premier, is aimed at stopping him from succeeding President Uhuru Kenyatta and Mr Odinga as a kingpin in the scheme.

Two, the politics of presidential succession cannot be tied to a timetable. What can be time-bound is the official period for campaigning or the electoral stage by the polls umpire.

Therefore, calls for an end to early presidential politicking are meaningless.

POWER

Rewind to 1963. The Kenyatta I succession began when Kenya became independent because of the founding President’s advanced age.

In public all prayed for Old Jomo’s maisha marefu (long life) while in private they all conspired and connived around shortening his stay in power.

The 1976 change-the-constitution push was brought about by the realisation that Jomo’s end was nigh and his principal assistant, Mr Daniel arap Moi, was the constitutional heir apparent.

When two years later the President died and Mr Moi took over, the Moi succession began.

The new President was called a passing cloud but the skies above remained overcast for 24 years.

In 10 of these, Kenya was under a constitutional dictatorship aimed chiefly at creating, buttressing and preserving an imperial presidency.

TRUCE

No sooner had President Kibaki assumed tenancy at State House in December 2002 than plots of his succession kicked in as Mr Odinga & Co decried his breach of a pre-election Memorandum of Understanding, and push for a new constitution took centre stage.

In 2010 many expected Mr Odinga to back a constitution that created a Westminster-type government but, believing he would be president two years hence, he embraced that of the American-style presidency and ran with it as if it was his own.

Fast forward. Deny or prevaricate as frequently and as vehemently as he might, Mr Odinga’s call for a referendum on the constitution, his March 9 public seal on a private deal with President Kenyatta and antagonism with the DP revolve around and are about the Kenyatta II succession.

Undetected by radar trained on the ultimate prize in politics, are the thousands of aspirants for gubernatorial, senatorial, National Assembly and county assembly seats who are just as busy sharpening their elbows and jostling for space, attention and mileage ahead of 2022.

SERVICES

Three, Kenya is a land of politics anytime and all the time. This is a mathematical certainty: Next year we will be very busy.

We will politick about the referendum, census, electoral boundaries and corruption, and do nothing about wastage in National Government and county governments.

What Kenya needs, then, is to be able to politick any time and all the time while government services to the people go on uninterrupted and the business of government and people becomes business 24/7.

The starting point is a neutral, increasingly motivated and valued Public Service. I will return to this topic of partisan politics and the neutrality of the civil service next week.

Mr Opanga is a commentator with a bias for politics.