Tribal visits to State House are a threat to national unity

In the developed world, and let me use the most popular countries, the United State of America, party politics and government though conjoined are not publicly displayed. That is why the nomination of the democrat flag bearer, Mrs. Hillary Clinton was held in Philadelphia, where the party headquarter is. In Kenya, the statehouse where the presidency resides, and which is meant to be the symbol of national unity, is the field for playing tribal politics. It was therefore not surprising to see tribal kings congregating at statehouse to mortgage their communities (read form Jubilee party). I think we need to cleanse the house in the hill. It has been soiled and can no longer be a symbol of National Unity.   

However, that did not start yesterday; no single month passes by without leaders from a particular community trooping to statehouse to get, on behalf of their community, a share of the development cake. Given that this development cake is only eaten at statehouse in the feet of the president, what becomes of the people who cannot reach the statehouse? The jubilee coalition government has treated us to enough lip service and comedy.

We have been laughing for 4 years, and during that time, our economy has been suffering, with the cost of living skyrocketing! Believe you me, for the common man, feeling the pinch, no amount of statehouse visits by their tribal, cum party leaders, can assuage that!

The saddest part is the claim by Jubilee government to have the intention (they have been having the intention for 4 years now) of uniting Kenyans through folding of political parties. None of the political parties present at the statehouse launch have gone back to hold public forums or delegate conferences to seek their dissolution, not even hire the MR. Opinion polls guy Tom Wolf to conduct an opinion poll on the same.

In a nutshell, what I am saying is that the JUBILEE party is bringing together tribal leaders into one basket, to make it easy for the president to go for his second term. But after that, just the same way Kibaki used NARC in 2002, they will disintegrate. Their purpose served! For I do not see how the President will be able to balance the interest of all the leaders joining Jubilee in his second term, when he has nothing to lose!

Nevertheless, the reason for this piece is, one, for tribalism to end, the perception of favoritism by the government in power must be dealt with. No leaders from any tribe should head to state house to beg for development. The constitution as passed in 2010, guarantees equity and justice for all Kenyans. Every Kenyan has a right to access development program form the government without being discriminated against, and all the 40 million plus Kenyans don’t have to troop to statehouse for each to get a passable road in his/her area.

Secondly, in a country with over 40 million people plus and over 42 tribes; one community should not be seen to occupy more than one slot in the high echelons of government offices or department. Especially when there are many other qualified people from the different communities that make up Kenya and are capable of performing even better! With 21 ministries, you can have the cabinet secretary and his or her deputy, from each of the 42 different tribes, taking into account gender representation. However, that is a tough choice to make, why would we risk national integration and do ethnic balancing? Let’s go for the easy option. Dishing out political parties slots to balance ethnic interest, but failing to do the same in government appointments, a double speak if you ask me. But you won’t!

Finally, I know a group of people, who will take us back, and point to the grand coalition government and how many ministers from one tribe were appointed by someone. Please, we are in 2016 and not 2008! That was so 2008! Unless of course you are bereft of ideas and can only copy paste the bad habits of your predecessors, that’s why you keep pointing at it as an excuse. Let’s form parties based on ideologies, folding tribal ones is neither ideological nor able to accommodate all tribes! Imagine having all tribes in one party? We will be back to Nyayo era.