Kenyans have to learn from the past and allow voice of reason

NAIROBI: This has been the week of war drums. In reality however, war drums have been hammered for some time, they have just been more nuanced and less volatile except those on social media which have been explicit, aggressive and unapologetically combustible. Actually those statements that have landed politicians in court have been doing the rounds in social media platforms for a while.

The National Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC) appears completely neutered when it comes to Internet-based hate mongering, even when it is uttered by persons easily traceable. The tacit support for flammable utterances, most evident through these platforms. is what partly makes politicians comfortable to utter their own incendiaries. They know they have groundswell of support, from the elite who preach water at daytime but guzzle wine once darkness comes, and from a public who believe that their security and prosperity is tied to this leadership. You would be shocked at how these politicians we frown upon are popular in their rural villages. They attract hero worship and are considered warriors, the assumption being that we are, or will soon be, in some ethnic war.

The sickening truth is that despite the verbal commitments to nationhood after the horrid events of 2008, we have the capacity to quickly surrender to our demons with worse consequences than 2008. Despite burying more than 1,000 Kenyans, despite glaring evidence of IDPs, our leaders and we, their loyal followers seem committed to jump down an abyss. I am convinced that part of the problem is that our political leadership paid no price for the chaos of 2008.

Indeed, the political elite benefited from the chaos. No only did everyone on both sides of the combative political divides end up in one government after the chaos, no one was ever held accountable for the murder and displacement that occurred. Whilst the coalition gave us our most stable political season since independence, it also sent a latent message that brinkmanship and unrest can pay significant dividends, loss of life and limb notwithstanding. It amazes me that even the International Criminal Court (ICC), which had been our collective hope in 2008 became our collective enemy once it targeted our political leadership.

We even toyed with the dastardly idea of quitting the court, even as we beat war drums for future massacres. My worry is that whilst the chaos of 2008 gave birth to a fairly progressive Constitution, the daily delegitimisation of this Constitution will leave us with few options of a structural nature to revert to once the “doodoh hits the ceiling” to quote my favorite writer Onyango Obbo. So what ought we to do? The first step is to recognise that this hurtling towards the chasm is not inevitable. It is stoppable.

This is a very different season from 2008 when we had no reference point to revert to. Now we have a Constitution. However imperfect it may be, it is the first social contract that Kenya has entered into since we became a nation. It is the only document that has support from Shimoni to Lokichogio. Because it was birthed after many years of struggle, it tries to answer, albeit imperfectly, our most intense questions and to resolve our more fundamental challenges, however inadequately.

While it has achieved a lot in five short years, it still requires support and shepherding to enable it unlock our decades-long problems especially that of exclusion, which is the foundation for ethnic disunity. Secondly we need to be careful about placing all our eggs in the politician basket.

While politics tends to suck all available social air, politicians primary goal is to push us towards a direction they can harvest from. They are willing to sacrifice anything, including you and I to get to their destination.

Times like this call for statesmen, not politicians. And alternative leadership. Kudos go to the church for seeking to be an alternative voice of reason in this season of madness.

They need our support even as we ensure they do not get distracted and get caught up in the political power play. Finally, none of us can afford to give up. We are in this for the long haul and fundamentally, this country has more positive possibilities than many of us can see.