“Listen here you unruly lot, I am your democratically elected president and will remain so for the foreseeable future so, why don’t we all give it our best effort and try to get used to it”. If I were a speech writer and wrote for one president Kibaki I would be very tempted to write that as an opening line of his state of the nation address. Sadly I am not a speech writer and even sadder, the subject of this blog is not as flippant. I find it very difficult to write this piece because quite frankly I do not know how to properly refer to Mr Kibaki without being seen as either being disrespectful or as being a supporter of an illegitimate government.
The opposition movement in Kenya has it on what seems to be good authority that Mr Kibaki defrauded his way into the presidency. Mr Kibaki on the other hand points out to the election results and says “who’s your daddy now?!” In the meantime the greater cleaver of nations, ethnicity, is happily swinging his scythe felling lives and limbs with wild abandon.
In the crudest possible terms this is where Kenya finds itself. I remember reading one of the earliest reports on the situation in Kenya in the Sunday Times (the South African model of objectivity and fair comment, by any means necessary, etc) and being amazed by the angle taken by the paper on the story. The paper ran two reports on interviews conducted respectively with a member of the Luwo and a member of the Kikuyu tribes. The reports are that the two tribes are at each others throats for all sorts of reasons chief of which is the distribution of resources in Kenya. The report went on to indicate the tribal origins of the current leadership of both the government and the opposition. I remember thinking how ominously close to Rwanda, Kwazulu South Africa in the eighties, some parts of Nigeria, Sudan and so on and so forth, all of this really is – at least based on the news reports.
The latest on the Kenyan debacle is the arrival of one Kofi Annan the previous secretary general and public face of the United Nations (that well-meaning but worryingly ineffective organisation). It is the very Kofi on whose international watch Rwandans were butchered by other Rwandans. This is his strongest point and greatest qualification for the job for he knows more than most what happens when situations such as the one prevalent in Kenya are left to fester and get out of control – people die in their thousands and bloated bodies float along the rivers while other rot along the highways.
What are the negotiations between the representatives of the Kibaki government and those of the opposition supposed to be about? They cannot, I think, be about how Kibaki cheated his way into power; neither can they be about the lawless conduct of the opposition during their protest marches which, some would say, amount to nothing than being bad losers. The official results are that the opposition lost and Kibaki won. I am not sure what to make of this because in my reading on the Kenyan crisis (which has by no means been any detailed) I have not come across any statement (unequivocal or otherwise) from the electoral commission (independent or otherwise).
Should it not be the electoral commission or whatever authority that was charged with running the elections, that is centre-stage during these trying times for Kenya? Were there any observer missions present in Kenya during the elections and what do they have to say? Ultimately, Mr Kibaki and Mr Odinga are about proving who’s wrong and who’s right. In the absence of an independent, objective and trusted body to pronounce on the elections, we are left with the “mine is bigger than yours” type of screaming matches between the government and the opposition. In the meantime Kenyans are killing other Kenyans. Some carry out their murderous act in the name of keeping the peace, law and order, etc. Some do it in the name of ethnic cleansing which, incidentally they do not have the courage of their own convictions to admit to it. In these times, people are no longer just Kenyans, they are Luwos and Kikuyus and all other groupings. The content of the Sunday Times report referred to earlier pretty much sums up the nonsense that people are prepared to butcher others in the name of. It reminds me of a statement I read somewhere which, went something like this: “the reluctance to accept that the other is the same is the other is as dangerously stupid as the reluctance to accept that the same is the other”. I have taken great liberties with this quote for which I apologise profusely, hopefully someone will be kind enough to correct it and better still, remind me of the source (for the record, I am not claiming those wise words as mine). The multiplicity of the problems that confront not only Kenya but the rest of the continent and the world are often conveniently placed at the door of a conveniently designated group; the result is often what happened in Rwanda and other genocide examples around the world.
For as long as power is the goal for our leaders, both in government and in the opposition, the people will continue to die. Should the opposition movement in Kenya continue to go on protest in the face of brutal repression by the state security forces? This is not a question of whether the Kenyan people should give up their right to protest and to assemble freely. What leadership is it that unleashes such terror on its own people? Odinga calls Kibaki a thief and all sorts of other names. Kibaki maintains he is the president in the face of protest, which he dismisses as a tribal aligned minority that wishes to distabilise Kenya. All manner of arguments can be made, yet in the meantime the people of Kenya lose their lives and homes and loved ones and time.
So, Mr Kibaki, Mr Odinga what will the negotiations be about (if they ever take place in earnest)? Will they be about power or will they be about saving the lives of the people of Kenya, whichever group or tribe or political affiliation they may belong to?
As we wait for the answer and if you care to listen closely, you will hear the eerie thud, thud, thud of Kenyan heads, lives and limbs. Such is the price of power.
The opposition movement in Kenya has it on what seems to be good authority that Mr Kibaki defrauded his way into the presidency. Mr Kibaki on the other hand points out to the election results and says “who’s your daddy now?!” In the meantime the greater cleaver of nations, ethnicity, is happily swinging his scythe felling lives and limbs with wild abandon.
In the crudest possible terms this is where Kenya finds itself. I remember reading one of the earliest reports on the situation in Kenya in the Sunday Times (the South African model of objectivity and fair comment, by any means necessary, etc) and being amazed by the angle taken by the paper on the story. The paper ran two reports on interviews conducted respectively with a member of the Luwo and a member of the Kikuyu tribes. The reports are that the two tribes are at each others throats for all sorts of reasons chief of which is the distribution of resources in Kenya. The report went on to indicate the tribal origins of the current leadership of both the government and the opposition. I remember thinking how ominously close to Rwanda, Kwazulu South Africa in the eighties, some parts of Nigeria, Sudan and so on and so forth, all of this really is – at least based on the news reports.
The latest on the Kenyan debacle is the arrival of one Kofi Annan the previous secretary general and public face of the United Nations (that well-meaning but worryingly ineffective organisation). It is the very Kofi on whose international watch Rwandans were butchered by other Rwandans. This is his strongest point and greatest qualification for the job for he knows more than most what happens when situations such as the one prevalent in Kenya are left to fester and get out of control – people die in their thousands and bloated bodies float along the rivers while other rot along the highways.
What are the negotiations between the representatives of the Kibaki government and those of the opposition supposed to be about? They cannot, I think, be about how Kibaki cheated his way into power; neither can they be about the lawless conduct of the opposition during their protest marches which, some would say, amount to nothing than being bad losers. The official results are that the opposition lost and Kibaki won. I am not sure what to make of this because in my reading on the Kenyan crisis (which has by no means been any detailed) I have not come across any statement (unequivocal or otherwise) from the electoral commission (independent or otherwise).
Should it not be the electoral commission or whatever authority that was charged with running the elections, that is centre-stage during these trying times for Kenya? Were there any observer missions present in Kenya during the elections and what do they have to say? Ultimately, Mr Kibaki and Mr Odinga are about proving who’s wrong and who’s right. In the absence of an independent, objective and trusted body to pronounce on the elections, we are left with the “mine is bigger than yours” type of screaming matches between the government and the opposition. In the meantime Kenyans are killing other Kenyans. Some carry out their murderous act in the name of keeping the peace, law and order, etc. Some do it in the name of ethnic cleansing which, incidentally they do not have the courage of their own convictions to admit to it. In these times, people are no longer just Kenyans, they are Luwos and Kikuyus and all other groupings. The content of the Sunday Times report referred to earlier pretty much sums up the nonsense that people are prepared to butcher others in the name of. It reminds me of a statement I read somewhere which, went something like this: “the reluctance to accept that the other is the same is the other is as dangerously stupid as the reluctance to accept that the same is the other”. I have taken great liberties with this quote for which I apologise profusely, hopefully someone will be kind enough to correct it and better still, remind me of the source (for the record, I am not claiming those wise words as mine). The multiplicity of the problems that confront not only Kenya but the rest of the continent and the world are often conveniently placed at the door of a conveniently designated group; the result is often what happened in Rwanda and other genocide examples around the world.
For as long as power is the goal for our leaders, both in government and in the opposition, the people will continue to die. Should the opposition movement in Kenya continue to go on protest in the face of brutal repression by the state security forces? This is not a question of whether the Kenyan people should give up their right to protest and to assemble freely. What leadership is it that unleashes such terror on its own people? Odinga calls Kibaki a thief and all sorts of other names. Kibaki maintains he is the president in the face of protest, which he dismisses as a tribal aligned minority that wishes to distabilise Kenya. All manner of arguments can be made, yet in the meantime the people of Kenya lose their lives and homes and loved ones and time.
So, Mr Kibaki, Mr Odinga what will the negotiations be about (if they ever take place in earnest)? Will they be about power or will they be about saving the lives of the people of Kenya, whichever group or tribe or political affiliation they may belong to?
As we wait for the answer and if you care to listen closely, you will hear the eerie thud, thud, thud of Kenyan heads, lives and limbs. Such is the price of power.
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