Standard Digital World

Can someone stop this primitive energy!

News that members of parliament had amended a host of electoral laws to suit their individual needs before beating a hasty retreat was shocking, disgusting and completely unacceptable. When Kenyans voted for a new Constitution on August 4th 2010, they made a big statement of change. By overwhelmingly passing a constitution that had a raft of changes to the way Kenya was being governed, Kenyans were simply saying enough is enough and that time to chart a new course for the country had come. It cannot therefore be that a small group of people seeking self gratification can sit in parliament and seek to reverse the gains that were delivered by the new Constitution. This is what can best be described as primitive energy; not helpful at all for the country.

Parliament on the Spot

In fact, I dare say this is the kind of impunity that Kenyans wanted buried when they fought for over decade to realise a new constitutional dispensation.  This is totally unacceptable! Why should this country keep suffering under the tyranny of a minority?

When the law clearly says that those running for presidency cannot run for other positions like Member of Parliament, Senator Governor etc, I want to believe that the motive is to eliminate jokers from the kingly race. In the past we have seen people described as ‘projects’ enter the race not win but achieve totally different objectives. People who go around campaigning for presidency when in fact all they are interested in Member of Parliament position. Why should we allow these kinds of jokers in a presidential race?

It is for this reason that I am totally unable to come to terms with an attempt by parliament to amend laws to give way for mediocrity. Fortunately, it flopped. My position is simple, people who want to go for the country’s top job must be serious people ready to go for it full throttle and not jokers only seeking to raise their profile for individualistic or other gains only known to themselves.

As a strong believer in democracy, I know that it is not possible to have strong democracy in a country that has not embraced party democracy. If political parties are the vehicles through which presidential contenders are seeking opportunity to run a country on democratic principles, then it is obviously basic expectation that political parties should be first ones to embrace democracy.

To foster democracy, political parties must be built on certain ideologies that will then define their governance principles and policies. So much so that when a politician joins a certain political party, he/she will be doing so because he/she believes in ideologies of that party.

What is happening today is sickening. The way our politicians are hoping between parties can almost be likened to a monkey tree-hop fest in the forest. And why should this be so? Because we all allow a tyranny of minority to not only destroy our country, but to also reverse any little gains we make. This latest move to amend the law so as to allow MPs to hop between parties as if they were monkeys jumping from one tree unto another in the forest must be rejected by all Kenyans.