Politicise the hell out of things.

Why shouldn't we politicise the referendum? Why shouldn't we politicise the paying of salaries of doctors, nurses and other health workers? Indeed why shouldn't we politicise every single decision made by the National Executive or county executives? The fallacy being advanced by the naive is that politics is a bad thing and that it poisons everything to which it is connected. I beg to differ.

The people making decisions in Kenya that affect the greatest number of Kenyans are politicians - or they were appointed by politicians. Jacob Kaimenyi, the Education Cabinet Secretary, wants to change the school calendar so that it is harmonised with the government's financial year. Jacob Kaimenyi was appointed by Uhuru Kenyatta. Uhuru Kenyatta is a politician. Uhuru Kenyatta must have approved of this proposal; if it is successfully implemented it would burnish his administrative and political credentials among the voters. The decision is a political one first, and an administrative one next.

But because the decision to make the proposal was arrived at in the traditionally opaque manner the Government of Kenya makes decisions, it should not simply be allowed to be implemented unless the people get a chance to interrogate it fully. The people cannot collectively participate in this debate without it morphing into a Tower of babel. That is why they have elected representatives, members of the National Assembly, the Senate and the county assemblies to speak on their behalf. Specialised organised associations can also contribute meaningfully to the debate. That debate will be a political debate because if it goes to the one side and not the other, the side that prevails will gain political mileage.

This is a good thing. Politics is the proper vehicle for the mediation of disputes in a government. Politics can be used for good or for ill. A good politician knows how to raise temperatures without allowing the kettle to boil over. When things boil over, we get the sort of violence that engulfed Kenya after the 2007 general elections. Mr Odinga and Mr Kibaki, the main rivals at that election, were very poor politicians. Mr Odinga was so consumed by hubris that he did not bother to negotiate with Mr Kibaki when things looked to be going out of control. Mr Kibaki was so filled with the fear of irrelevance that he was determined not to lose face to Mr Odinga. Both used politics badly; we paid a heavy price for it.

Kenya's politicians, for the most part, are an indifferent lot. They do the bare minimum to remain relevant. Few of them understand their place in the grand scheme of political things. Even in the depths of their self-aggrandizing mission to wangle as much wallet-fattening lucre from the national piggy bank, they have failed to do what all politicians are supposed to do - mediate, negotiate, persuade. Instead, especially the haranguing, sermonising and moralising members of the Senate, they defend the indefensible and promote enmity when they do not need new ones. 

Quite frankly, Kenya's politicians are bad at their core jobs: politics. It is why we the people should politicise the issues of the day without relying on the politicians. Politics, after all, is the only way to mediate between apparently conflicting priorities.