Politically incorrect
So here we are: A peaceful poll, no stones cast, no bloodshed, no IDPs, no deaths. And it didn't hurt one little bit. In fact, this observation is more critical because this poll was about the future of the country and generations to come, not electing a potbellied warmonger in monkey skins to Parliament.
Voting
Citizens rose early, voted and went back to their business — selling charcoal, driving matatus, tilling farms and bringing the harvest home. The cops were ready for any eventuality, the IIEC made it extremely difficult for the usual suspects to stuff ballot boxes and there were no delays, no phantom poll officials vanishing into thin air.
There are lots of people who are disappointed though, ranging from mobs for hire and other petty goons who have made elections hellish for people who have better things to do. There is also the international media who were waiting for a bloodbath and walked away disappointed. Time, for instance, a respected American newsmagazine, went so far as to interview some crackpot respondents in Mathare in a bid to concoct a non-existent conflict between Christians and Muslims.
It is however incorrect to suggest that there was voter apathy. What is more accurate is to say that the ‘middle class’ didn’t vote.
There were several reasons for this. First, these chaps, for some curious reason, always elect to register as voters in their home villages, knowing fully well that they lack the time to drive there to cast their vote.
Warped fellows
While they make millions every year in Nairobi, they don’t give a hoot who represents their city constituencies in Parliament, explaining why very warped fellows end up as Nairobi legislators.
Too worried
The second thing about the middle class is that they are too worried about their personal safety to expose themselves to even mildly dangerous situations. In fact, they would rather park their posh cars outside safe pubs and watch the action from television than get their backsides on the streets. They hate teargas and pain with a passion, notwithstanding the fact that it’s they who enjoy some of the finest medical insurance covers in Kenya.
They do not give a hoot
And the last bit is that they don’t give a hoot. They are educated enough to get jobs anywhere in Africa, even the world, and as they sip beer in pubs while the riffraff fight on the streets, they know a flight to safe havens is only an hour away.
Thus, the political field is left to the extremely well moneyed who need politics to protect ill-gotten wealth and amass some more. Their lieutenants are dirt poor, hopeless peasants and idle youth who have nothing to lose and everything to hope for.
As part of the nation’s rebirth, the fence sitters — the middle class — must step forward. The place to begin is by joining party politics and participating as members and officials. This country did not educate them to sit on the fence.
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