Someone should remind Mr. Koigi wa Wamwere that we are living the first pages of the history of the Second Republic and his fulminations on the ethinicisation of politics are counter-productive (Why Nakuru can never become a county for one ethnic community, Daily Nation, Thursday September 9, 2010). In his analysis of the challenges faced by the people of Nakuru regarding the question of who will be elected to the County Assembly, the Governorship, the Senate and the Constituencies to be found there, Mr. Wamwere neatly side-steps a pertinent fact: Nakuru is not subdivided neatly into Kikuyu, Kalenjin and Maasai enclaves, but is a truly cosmopolitan County. It shares this profile with other counties including Nairobi, Mombasa, Uasin Gishu, Kericho and Trans Nzoia.
In his analysis of the ethnicity question, Mr. Wamwere betrays the fact that he has refused, ostrich-like, to accept the results of the August 4th referendum. In his continued hold on the idea that politics will continue to be played as it has for decades, Mr. Wamwere fails to offer new ideas for how to ensure that the question of ethnicity will be addressed to the benefit of the constituents of Nakuru County. The fears that he expresses are very real but they should not be the defining feature of politics in the future of Nakuru, indeed of the country.
It is now quite clear that Mr. Wamwere and Mr. Gideon Moi share the same feelings as regards the future of Nakuru, now that it is no longer the headquarters of what was once Rift Valley Province. Mr. Wamwere has conceded an unfortunate and dangerous fallacy: that the Kikuyu and the Kalenjin are illegal usurpers of the land that once belonged to the Maasai. Pursuing this line of thought to its logical conclusion, the Maasai have a legitimate claim on the territory of Nairobi County too! In his erroneous reading of the provisions of articles 67 and 68, Mr. Wamwere is persuaded that the Maasai have a legitimate claim on Nakuru as their ancestral land and that this will be a source of future conflict among the three largest ethnic groups in the County. What he refuses to admit is that in addressing the question of historical land injustices, the solution to these questions will not be limited to the transfer en masse of whole communities from what is adjudicated to be ancestral land of one ethnic group or the other.
The solutions of the future may include some other action, such as enhanced investment in the livelihoods of communities that may have suffered injustices at the hands of the colonial power as well as the successive regimes that have ruled Kenya since 1963. Mr. Wamwere, Mr. Moi and those of like mind must remind the nation that it will be impossible, if not divisive, to rule that a community has suffered such injustices and then suggest that only 'fair compensation' will redress this injustice if such compensation revolved around the question of restoring them to what was 'rightfully' theirs.
The implementation of the Constitution is going to face many challenges and the voices of Mr. Wamwere and his fellow-travellers are the long ones to listen to. They have spent the better part of their adult lives living under conditions of near-servitude at the hands of the three regimes that have ruled Kenya since 1963. They do not grasp the fact that the younger generations do not hold to the same truths that they do. The future of this nation will not be shaped by 60-, 70- or 80-year olds who have managed to make a political name for themselves in the Kenyatta, Moi of Kibaki regimes. The future of this nation is in the hands of professionals and other stakeholders in the 25 to 45 age group. This is a constituency that admits that while there may have been injustices committed against entire communities in the past 47 years, the solution does not lie in attempting a political, economic and social re-engineering that will rend this country asunder but that it lies in taking stock of the facts on the ground and finding workable solutions that ensure that no person is left behind regarding the enjoyment of his rights.
One of the solutions that could be suggested regarding the knotty problem of cosmopolitan Counties is that in the election of the Governor and Deputy-Governor, the successful candidates must garner 50+1% of the votes cast in the County plus at least 50+1% of the votes cast in at least half of the wards in the County. This could also be applied to the election of the Senator. In this way, the winning candidates will be a symbol of unity for the County just as the President and deputy-President are a symbol of unity of the country. In this way, the winning candidates must ensure that their campaigns reflect the needs and priorities of their constituencies. Therefore, if Mr. Wamwere is correct, the peoples of Nakuru County would have to vote for the candidates who best reflect their cosmopolitan nature and not revert to the ethnic enclaves that have caused so much bloodshed in the past 20 years. If he is incapable of admitting that a solution can be found, Mr. Wamwere, and his like-minded colleagues, must give over to the new generation capable of seeing themselves as more than ethnic cannon fodder for the bloodthirsty, avaricious political class. Somebody needs to shut him down. Permanently.
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