Sunday, September 02, 2012

The constitutional honeymoon is definitely over

A new constitution for a fair land was supposed to make the pain of 1992, 1997, 2007/08 go away. Someone forgot to tell us that a constitution is not paracetamol. The past three months have been bloody so much so we are wondering if the nation ever recovered from the scars of 2007/08. The latest are the ongoing skirmishes between the state security establishment and the supporters of murdered al Shabaab-sympathetic cleric Sheikh Aboud Rogo. Mombasa is on fire and no one seems prepared to do what it takes to tamp down the flames and lower the temperature.

If we needed more proof of the ineptitude of our elected representatives, Mombasa should be a sober reminder. Kenyans should take the promises made on a daily basis on the stump by campaigning politicians with a truck-load of Indian-owned Magadi soda. While the politicians are the most visible symbols of the rot in Kenya's cadre of leaders, they are by no means unique. Institutions of higher learning have become battle-grounds for, as Eric Kiraithe might put it, each tribe to measure their strength against another. Faith-based organisations have become vehicles for the self-aggrandisement of their "owners". Corporations are organsied more like ethnic self-help groups and their chief executives operate more like tribal warlords than good corporate citizens. Professional institutions are divided into tribal alliances; not even the Law Society has escaped this sad descent into the abyss of ethno-chauvinism.

In this environment the more violently inclined among us take out their frustrations on sysmbols of the ruling class. In Mombasa, Garissa and Nairobi, these symbols have been churches and policemen. It seems no one has truly let go of the events of 2007/08 when the church and the police were accused of taking political sides for or against one presidetial candidate or the other. It is only a matter of time before attacks against private businesses become the norm as was the case at the height of the violence in 2007/08; the bombing of Assanand's House was the just the first salvo.

The National Security and Intelligence Service has warned that giving the Mombasa Republican Council political legitimacy is a bad idea. Perhaps they realise that the MRC has been infiltrated by foreign elements hell-bent on destabilising the country ahead of the general election in favour of more radical or radicalised candidates. Majo Gen Gichangi's warnings have been ignored by all leading presidential candidates, keen as they are to secure votes in the restive Coast region. In 1992, 1997 and 2002, they did the same when it came to (as the NSIS called them) organised criminal organisations such as the murderous Mungiki, Chinkororo, and Jeshi la Mzee. If politicians had not patronised these outfits, the bloodshed of 2007/08 would have been minimised; the country would not be in crisis and we would not be expressing disappointment at the tactics politicians are employing to get around the provisions of the Constitution.

The obsession by civil society types on the "implementation of the Constitution" without addressing the core problems this nation faces has only exacerbated the situation. Their obsession with the political system at the expense of socio-cultural questions has blinded them to the realities on the ground. Politics, of course, is the only vehicle for expressing frustration in governance issues but it is by no means the only one or even the most important. Some programmes that were crucial to moulding good citizens were abandoned when the government began the free primary education programme. Children are no longer being mentored to be leaders; nor, it seems are students in secondary schools or institutions of higher learning. Public universities have lost the most when it comes to their character. Student leaders, if they could be described as that, are mere pawns in the chessboard of national politics; they are easily manipulated and sacrificed. Few survive to be effective political, religious, academic or corporate leaders. Many become political thugs-for-hire without a name to themselves. The less said about the church...

Kenyans have few viable choices going into 2013. We know it. The politicians know it. Our enemies know it. But we will repeat past behaviour, fall into old patterns. The violence, bank heists, poaching and terror attacks are more of the same. We are prevented from properly vetting candidates for high office; our attention is on our safety, both physical and material. It is what politicians want. It is what our enemies want. But it is not what we need.

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