USA
Dec 2007
WHERE ARE OUR LEADERS?
The current political crisis has placed Kenya in the spotlight, this time not for the positives that have brought us fame since Independence – like athletics and tourism - but in this instance, we find ourselves under international scrutiny as a result of the wanton killing of innocent citizens whose sole crime is that they exercised their democratic right to cast a vote, in an election intended to showcase the democratic maturity of our beloved Kenya.
Throughout the campaign period, I listened with keen interest to the promises of the presidential candidates, and to the principles they stood for. It was obvious that each of the leading presidential candidates cut an image of statesmanship, and desired that Kenyans believe they were championing the welfare of the poor, pledging to make Kenya a better place to live in, assuring that they would raise the standard of living, turn the economy around and tame the escalating insecurity and crime, making our country an envy of many.
However, as we see today, all these assurances have proven to have been empty rhetoric. Just less than a month after the Presidential Election results were announced, here we are watching what was once the bastion of peace and stability - a respected peace broker in the region - burn to ashes. People who for decades have lived in peace and harmony, are now hacking each other with axes and machetes, spurred on in their madness along tribal lines; and unfathomable hatred is witnessed in the most trivial and illogical circumstances, just to mention a few.
The promise of patriotism and wise leadership that we were guaranteed in the run-up to the polls is lacking aplenty, the ‘statesmanship’ our leaders exhibited or pretended to exhibit is nowhere to be seen as common wananchi continue to be driven further into a morass of poverty, while warring factions square it out on behalf of their tribesmen who reside in lavish up market residential areas behind iron gate and police cordons.
It is at this point that we should wonder where the conscience of these leaders lies. The Honorable Stephen Kalonzo Musyoka, a man I greatly respect, has always presented himself to be a superior political figure. He has for a while led Kenyans to believe that he is a Born Again Christian, untainted, uncorrupt and diplomatic, and while that may be the case, his instantaneous acceptance of the Vice Presidency at a time when Kenya is bleeding from the wounds of post-election chaos underscores the mystery surrounding the circumstances under which The Honorable Mwai Kibaki was declared winner.
Mr. Musyoka should have side-stepped the Vice Presidency and instead informed the appointing authority that he ought to focus on the pressing nationwide issues that required his service, foremost of which is national reconciliation.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with Mr. Musyoka occupying the vice premiership; he is qualified for the job. What beats logic is the urgency with which he accepted the appointment, when the country is engulfed in an outcry of possible election fraud. It is not lost on many that the disgraced Electoral Commission Chairman Mr. Samuel Kivuitu sensationally mentioned Mr. Mustoka’s ODM Kenya party as being one of the parties that pressured him to announce a winner during the ensuing post-election stalemate vis-à-vis the countrywide tallying of the votes. This kind of behavior is reminiscent of one whose party had a motive - and at this moment, the objective has been revealed.
These are not the times to accept high office appointments. It would be more prudent to place the interests of the nation before our individual desires; desires that often times are skewed by the indignities of personal greed, petty rivalries, or as we see throughout the country, murderous tribalism. Mr. Musyoka has betrayed Kenyans and the close to one million voters who supported him. I say this because he – while portraying himself as an honest politician - occasionally warned President Kibaki while on the campaign trail that Kenyans would not accept rigged elections results. Were Mr. Musyoka’s forebodings merely political rhetoric? Or was he speaking purely on principles when he wagged his finger numerous times while championing democratic tenets? The bottom line here is that Kalonzo will go down in history as an egocentric self-seeking politician who would sell his own people for personal gain.
As for The Honorable Raila Odinga and President Kibaki, the stakes are high and the country is calling out loud for you to climb down from your hard line positions and emulate the former Vice President Mr. George Saitoti who once said that “there comes a time when the interests of the nation are more important than those of the individual”. Indeed, that time is now.
I know that you are held hostage by many interested parties around you and by your immediate supporters but the truth is that millions of Kenyans are suffering, going without food, without shelter; women are enduring the horrors of rape, and they, their children and the elderly are displaced while you attempt to outdo each other and stamp your authority on a bleeding land. Please remember that deep in the villages and rural areas, citizens are suffering not because they did anything wrong but because they casted a vote.
It does not matter who one votes for, well, at least, it shouldn’t. Voting is an individual democratic right protected by law that must be respected. Your failure to engage in honest dialogue in the spirit of give
and take, and your intensification of the current anarchic situation is a huge dent in the democratic gains we have had over the years, and in the cohesion that has existed since we gained our hard-fought independence.
There is no reason for Kenyans to fight. Kenya has always been a peaceful country, a country of loving and hardworking people, a country of enormous beauty. Here in the US we used to walk with our heads high and with the Kenyan pride, but now we suddenly find ourselves on the defensive whenever we identify with our beloved country. Every time we mention that we are Kenyans, we find ourselves bombarded with a barrage of questions as to why Kenyans are killing each other and what tribe we are from. This has been occasioned by recklessness and immaturity on the part of our political system where politicians think only about themselves without putting the interests of the nation first.
You have to provide leadership. Use your Church masses to preach peace. It is evident that you both received votes from all the eight provinces. Think National and talk National. Speak the language of Amani Amani Kenya.
The Police should license political rallies aimed at sensitizing Kenyans on the necessity to live in pace and harmony and to embrace the spirit of nationalism. Kiswahili should be promoted even in the deepest rural areas so that Kenyans can attain a concrete sense of national belonging and eliminate the need to retreat to one’s own tribal language which not only makes him/her think tribal but also makes him/her view others who do not speak his/her language as strangers and competitors. Tanzania is an example of what the promotion of Kiswahili has led to greater national integration and we have quite a lot to learn from our neighbor.
The time is now, we can’t wait for tomorrow. We can’t afford to lose another life. Too much blood has been shed and it is time this madness comes to an end. It will not come to an end without our leaders swallowing their pride and steering forward in the direction of national reconciliation. This is my call for you; please save Kenya.
