When the Roman Senate appointed Julius Caesar dictator, they could not have predicted that it would all end with his assassination on the Senate floor at the hands of his most trusted friend, Brutus. In their decision, they were guided by the knowledge that in exceptional circumstances the Senate was a stumbling block to quick decision-making and that in giving the Caesar absolute power of decision-making, the Roman state would be protected from the threats that it faced in its day. As always, it fell on the shoulders of civic thinkers like Cicero to point out the dangers of handing over too much power to a man such as Julius Caesar was, and it came to pass that Julius Caesar enjoyed the power he wielded to the detriment of the Roman people and the Senate decided to act.
When the new Constitution was promulgated on August 27th, Kenyans were inundated by profiles of 'executive' presidents who would be professional and keep the good of the people at the forefront of their decision-making. Prime Minister Raila Odinga has styled himself as a consensus-builder who is the great hope of the nation after the next presidential election. The image that the Right Honourable Prime Minister has drawn of himself requires the truthful, honest examination that such a position demands. In his recent statements and activities, the Prime Minister has all but demanded that Kenyans interrogate his desire for the top job as dispassionately as possible with a view to deciding if he is truly the only one who cold see the implementation of the Constitution accomplished within the spirit of the Second Liberation Movement and the objectives and ideals of the Second Republic.
Presidents Kenyatta, Moi and Kibaki are poor templates of the president post- 2012. Prime Minister Odinga assures us that he is the best candidate and that in the 2012 contest we should repose our faith and trust in him. In the past month, he has come out strongly against homosexuality and homosexual acts (though he later retracted what he had publicly declared), he has called for the military overthrow of Laurent Gbagbo of the Ivory Coast, he has campaigned for Uganda's Yoweri Museveni, and, together with the President and their Cabinet, proposed that Kenya withdraws from the Rome Statute in order to safeguard our sovereignty and try the Ocampo Six in a local tribunal. It is now becoming more and more apparent that the lessons that the Prime Minister has learnt from the preceding three presidencies is the art of saying one thing and doing something else entirely.
The Prime Minister has the capacity to inspire loyalty in his supporters which other politicians only wish they had. As an orator, he may come out as stilted and a poor communicator, but this does not seem to have hurt his connection with the ordinary Kenyan. When he speaks, thousands upon thousands listen to his word as if it came from On High. However, what is apparent is that he does not believe in the rule of law if it is to be strictly applied against him. His call for action against homosexuals and homosexuality flies in the face of the anti-discrimination provisions of the Constitution that he campaigned vigorously for. His demand for the military removal of Laurent Gbagbo refuses to admit that military regimes in Africa have a poor record of returning power to civilian hands. His campaigning for Uganda's Yoweri Museveni acknowledges that at times it is more expedient to force constitutional amendments to perpetuate what is in effect a one-man presidency. He recent calls for the establishment of a local tribunal refuses to admit that the Judiciary has not changed from what it was pre-promulgation. It is still subject to the vicissitudes of the political arena and its independence though guaranteed in the Constitution is a mirage that Kenyans see but cannot touch. This is the philosophy that defines a possible Odinga presidency ad it is one that will ill-serve the Kenyan people. It must be resisted by all right-thinking Kenyans and the prime Minister reminded that though he has the power to ensure that the country is ungovernable, this is not his personal plaything that he can manipulate at will. We are a sovereign nation and we will not bow down to the Mighty USA or the Mighty Raila Odinga!
If he wishes to assure Kenyans of his good intentions, he must state publicly that he accepts the constraints placed upon the state by he Constitution, especially the Bill of Rights. He must acknowledge that military take-overs are abhorrent and should be avoided at all costs. He must distance himself from the Ugandan dictatorship that controls the country through he use of coercive military force. He must assure us that his calls for a local tribunal are not an attempt to scuttle the trial of the Ocampo Six at the Hague, but an opportunity to try all the other perpetrators of the PEV. If he fails to do this then, sadly, we must choose someone else as the President of the Republic of Kenya for he will not have our interests at heart, but his own selfish ambition.
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