Let us support efforts to cure what is wrong with our politics

Reports that the Jubilee Party is willing to listen to NASA’s demands for constitutional changes as a way of securing elections and thereby strengthen our democracy is welcome news for Kenyans who have grown weary of political brinkmanship and hectoring.

Perhaps out of the realisation that the ping-pong games over who was right and who was wrong was not doing the country any good, a mellowed Aden Duale, the Leader of the Majority in Parliament said his party would welcome suggestions by the NASA coalition to change the Constitution.

With goodwill in short supply in our political discourse, it could be that deliberate behind-the-scene efforts by other interest groups like the church, the private sector and the international community alarmed that the country was hurtling down into the abyss unless something was done, have reached out to both parties to tone down their rhetoric and dialogue. Though his insistence that any changes to the Constitution must be done lawfully will sting NASA members, we choose to be optimistic about the prospects of this approach.

While announcing his next move after President Uhuru Kenyatta was declared winner of last week’s repeat election, NASA leader Raila Odinga steeled his supporters for a long-drawn-out campaign of economic boycott, civil disobedience, mass protests and processions and a formation of a People’s Assembly to force for what he termed “a return to democracy, constitutionalism and the rule of law”.

While not begrudging Mr Odinga his right to protest what he sees as a raw deal for his bid for presidency, this newspaper is of the opinion that some of his radical proposals are counterproductive and could hurt the people he claims to care for most.

Indeed, the softening of Mr Duale’s hardline stance reinforces the calls for dialogue made by both his party leader, Mr Kenyatta and Mr Odinga. It should be upheld. All or most of the players are in agreement that something is wrong with our politics and that something needs to give way to avoid the five-year ritual that keeps taking us to the edge of the precipice.

Indeed, we ought to be alarmed by the rancour the jostle for political office stirs up and find a way to defuse the tension, the anger and bitterness that come with it.

If nothing else, we need to restore public trust in the ballot as a means of choosing our leaders.