Opinion:Why elections are Kenya's costly mistake repeated every 5 years

 

Asked what came to their minds when they heard the word Africa, Curtis Keim, in Mistaking Africa, says his students came up with coup, poverty, ignorance, drought, famine, tragedy and tribalism.

Keim, an American professor of history and political science, argues that Africa has mistakenly been thought of as a primitive place “full of trouble and wild animals and in need of help”. This state of horror is occasionally supplanted by images of a wild safari, a warrior and a hut.

All around us are dark hints about crumbled beliefs and dashed hopes. A few spots of hope and change are dimmed by the deep-rooted political gangsterism and bewildering ignorance of the masses. Forget the hopes brought about by the 2010 Constitution.
On the whole, Africa and especially Kenya, is a tragic story of corruption, bad governance and a citizenry though inured to the bad state of things, is engaged in a futile attempt to make the best out of a bad situation.

EXPECTAIONS

A college acquaintance the other day told me he was excited about August. And that they (I guess he and the villagers) can’t wait to teach their MP, MCA, Senator and governor a lesson.

The village gossip was about the attitude of these leaders; that for lack of water to wash his hands at a recent rally, the MP had washed his hands using a bottle of soda; the MCA's inability to “greet” the people, his new SUV, the new mistresses in the town, new businesses, favoured relations and the new upmarket estate the governor was putting up. As I walked away, I asked myself; were the man’s (and his fellow villagers’) fears borne of jealousy and malice? What would he do if they elected him MP?

Apparently, across the country, a backlash against the current elected leaders is brewing. And the reason for this ranges from the mundane like; not waving back at those who “took them to Parliament or the governor’s office”; to claims of impropriety in the CDF kitty to the county kitty; to failing to secure jobs for jobless villagers.

An expectant public, a greedy leader make for a lethal cocktail.
I am persuaded that what we are witnessing is an “equalisation syndrome” as social scientists might want to put it. That is; those on the ground relish in pulling down those climbing up the ladder. And so, we are engaged in an endless circus.
Do the people elect their leaders entirely for the wrong reasons? Does this then lead those aspiring to lead to make promises they cannot deliver.

Over time, this rod-and-reward politics is manifest in a population that unwittingly becomes instruments of bad leadership barking up the wrong tree and getting drowned in a sea of disillusionment.
No doubt, so much is done in the name of politics. After all, it is a ladder to wealth, a means to an end. In a functioning democracy, elections should provide the best leadership options. Here, tribalism, violence disappointment and looting stand out.

In circumstances where greed, deceit and violence are the hallmarks of a country’s politics, it becomes difficult to separate the foulness of former MPs, senators and governors and MCAs and the grand intentions of the new ones. By any standards, the moral case for yanking out an MCA or an MP or a senator or a governor merely for not waving at you as you went to grind your maize at the posho mill, or not attending a harambee or not employing your cousin, is to say the least, frivolous and short-sighted.

One of the hard lessons about elections in Kenya and much of the developing world is that despite regular elections, wretched injustices and misdeeds continue to be perpetuated by a corrupt and often brutal and self-preserving elite because the people have refused to be masters of their destiny. Instead, they have elected to be passive victims of their actions through deep-seated tribalism and despicable ignorance.

Paul Collier in Wars, Guns and Votes, Democracy in Dangerous Places says; “On their own, unless held in the context of a functioning democracy, elections can retard rather than advance a country’s progress.” And that is so very true about our democracy.

 Mr Guleid is the Deputy Governor, Isiolo County [email protected]