Kibaki Legacy: Ethnic Hegemony, Toxic Tribalism

By Pheroze Nowrojee

Though President Kibaki states that he will not endorse any individual’s candidacy, he is in fact endorsing the candidacy of one ethnic group to the presidency. His endorsement of one ethnic group’s candidacy is an endorsement against other ethnic groups. This is an imminent danger to national cohesion. The newspapers are debating what the Kibaki legacy will be. Some posit an infrastructure of roads, others an increased freedom in society. The facts however give the impression that the only legacy that Kibaki wants now to ensure is a succession by the same ethnic group.

Kibaki’s refusal to order a correction of these matters is not a sign of his lack of leadership. To the contrary, it is a sign of his leadership – of these preferences. He is not sitting on the fence. He is squarely on the side of the preferred ethnic outcome. Events to this end take place under his silence.

In furtherance of this, Kibaki is trying an old and obvious trick : the Statute Miscellaneous Amendments Act. This is an Act of Parliament within which it makes amendments to many other Acts of Parliament. It has such a bland name and has so little publicity, that unless one goes through its contents with a tooth comb, one would not know that within it, quietly, many laws are being amended removing constitutional and hard won checks on Presidential or Ministerial powers.

This latest such bill is the Statute Law Miscellaneous Amendments Bill, 2012, which following the bad tradition has slipped in a bad amendment. It is that once their terms are up, (which will be soon), President Kibaki will be able to reappoint the chiefs of the National Cohesion and Integration Commission unilaterally, without Parliament vetting the reappointments or appointments. Since the Commission will control hate speech during the election campaign and can bring criminal cases against violators of the law, this amendment will obviously assist those who will campaign for the ethnic outcome preferred by the President.

Such a process is exactly what Kibaki used two months before the 2007 elections. That year, he unilaterally appointed and re-appointed all his own choices as Election Commissioners in the Election Commission of Kenya (ECK) under Samuel Kivuitu, and refused to allow the political parties to nominate them as previously done. The result of Kibaki’s insistence on his own choices was the disastrous Election of 2007 and the Post- Election Violence which brought Kenya to its lowest point ever.

Now again in 2012, Kibaki and the new elite around him do not care about the nation’s safety, but only about the result they want again - that the same ethnic group is declared winner of the election. Therefore they want the National Cohesion Commission not to prosecute any hate speech from their preferred ethnic group and its candidate, but instead to curb its opponents by prosecutions. For that they need their own appointments, not Parliament’s. Hence the amendment. The amendment must be opposed. Kenya does not want a repeat of a failed-state election or PEV, 2007-8 style.

This time the elite around Kibaki is divided. This is because his actions continuously assist a candidate from only one part of that one ethnic group. Hence the complaints that he prefers a southern candidate and forgets the fact that, “the Kiambu fighters entered the Aberdares several months after our people from Fort Hall and Nyeri had already established themselves there.”(Mau Mau From Within Karari Njama & Donald L. Barnett (1966, 274)

By this amendment only months before the elections, Kibaki is admitting publicly that there is a group that intends to violate the hate speech prohibitions in the National Cohesion Act, and needs immunity to achieve the preferred outcome. Therefore the independence and impartiality of the Cohesion Commission has to be removed before the elections. It also makes clear such a compliant Commission will be used against the opponents of the preferred outcome.

A legacy is what an ancestor leaves to his descendants. Who does Kibaki consider as his descendants? Just now it appears these descendants are only some of the people of Kenya. If he genuinely believes that his descendants should be all the people of Kenya, then he must move away from this ethnic succession. Such a legacy has the dangerously close potential to break the nation, as in 2008. Kibaki must return to and inhabit the centre of Kenya instead of Central Kenya. He must not ride the matatu we once used to see, that said, “Centralising the nation.”

Kenyans Must Learn From History Before They Cast Their Vote

By two Kumekucha Anonymous commentators

What more could be said on this subject? We have been shown - by time and time again - what to do, when to do it, how to do it, and why we should do it for the express purpose of enabling ourselves (the majority) to have a better nation in which we can at least be proud of and above all enjoy living in it for a change.

Chris, one thing is for sure, it does not matter who wins the presidency, because we, the people, will still end up on the losing end, as well as find ourselves on the wrong side of the equation after the 2013 general election.

That is unless fundamental changes are made and implemented in all branches of government, the private sector, including all regions of the country.

Otherwise, we, the people, and the fifty year old nation will get another so-called new president (bus driver with moderate driving skills) but remain stuck with one of the world's most dilapidated buses, with the same old myriad of mechanical problems, same old makanga ('marks'), same old untrustworthy mechanics, same old rough and rowdy passengers.

And left with no alternative but swallow our collective pride and accept - as usual - to be driven on the same old unpaved roads that can't handle floods brought about by the seasonal torrential rains.

Well, Musalia Mudavadi may seem to be the lesser of the other four evils (contenders), but corruption incorporated and tribal extremism unlimited will not just evaporate in a matter of weeks and months unless majority of the known godfathers and culprits are prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law and forced to forfeit their ill-gotten wealth from way back when.

We, the people, have divorced ourselves from history on numerous occasions in the name of collective amnesia, and that's one of the reasons why we've continued to pay a very hefty price, fifty years after independence.

Will someone out there challenge Kenyans from all walks of life to defy the cultural norms - sickening tribal extremism - that compel us never to look beyond our myopic ethnic prism during the much dreaded season of our so-called democratic general election?

Our cultures often insist that we continually strive to support our anointed tribal chiefs during peaceful times, and stand behind our tribal warlords in any type of battle and war, while not informing us that the traditional circling of ethnic wagons for whatever reasons known to us can be a never ending-abyss of discontentment and disillusionment within those very communities.

So far, Kenya has been in desperate need of political leaders cable of 'providing' nurture, safety, healing, development, and vision, and not experts in tribal finger-pointing and sabre rattling before and during election season.

Those of us who survived the post election violence, or were very lucky enough to have not been affected in any way, shape or fashion during the deadly mayhem of '07/'08, should never forget the obvious, that anything can go wrong, and what can go wrong will go wrong if we don't change our national psyche, retrogressive ethnic psyches as well as warped (devilish) personal political interests.

As a matter of fact, the next president, including all of the elected officials and government will not be able to help most of us - you and me - deal with any misfortunes in life that are bound to head our way (God forbid) between May of 2013 and May 2018.

Such as personal economic collapse, divorce, devastating illness, death (within our immediate families and respective communities), usual insecurity, displacement, vehicular maiming, and a myriad of related complications that come with aging etc.

Hence, just because some of us already believe that we are on the right side of history - whatever that means after fifty years of political decadence and ethnic strife that are bound to continue after 2013 - does not give us the right to hate, abuse, despise and look down on our political opponents with malice and hubris.

I will be one of the first people to go off on a limb by saying that there are no guarantees in the coming general elections, and as mater of fact, things are not what they seem to be.

The presidency will not be won on silver platter due to the fact that the dynamics in the country have changed a lot and will continue to change beyond our wildest imaginations.

All things taken into account, may the best candidates win the general elections, and may the most qualified presidential candidate with a national appeal end up being elected by the majority of Kenyans.