Political parties must become vessels within which democracy is nurtured

Advance of multiparty democracy in Kenya is painfully slow. Little has been achieved since the country restored political pluralism in November 1991. Where there was one party dominance, we have for the past 26 years had multiparty autocracy. This is perhaps the best we have achieved. Between 1981 and 1991 there was only one legalised party. Its leader learnt to bend the will of the country to his own. You toed the line or suffered political oblivion. That power has since been diffused. It has been scattered across a number of power barons who lord it over local populations. Not to be in Kanu before November 1991 meant that you were excluded from political opportunities and benefits. Not to be on the local bandwagon today is dangerous.

In a gone age, Kanu used to clear political aspirants for general elections. The party brought powerful individuals on their knees. They literally fell down and begged for mercy. Mvita’s Sharif Nassir cried. So, too, did Habenga Okondo of Bunyala. They wept before the dreaded disciplinary committee of David Okiki Amayo. Vice President Josephat Njuguna Karanja faced the wrath of Kanu. He was smoked out of office by a mob of legislators, baying for his political blood. Constitutional Affairs Minister, Charles Njonjo, was the political maestro who midwifed the Kenyatta succession and chaperoned President Moi to power. He, too, ate of the Kanu bread of sorrow. He was sunk into political limbo. The powerful Chief Secretary and Head of Public Service of the 1980s, Simeon Nyachae, was witch hunted into aloneness and loneliness, between 1988 and 1991.