Let’s ignore ‘foreign’ bullies, elect leaders of our choice

By Charles Kanjama

Growing up in my school days, I remember being short. Of course, everyone is short before they grow up! I mean I was short relative to my classmates. So I fit the victim profile of bullying. Bullying victims either have low physical strength or low self-esteem. I think the latter best fits the profile of a bullying victim, who can be a big hulk of a man but still vulnerable due to emotional factors.

Anyway, probably due to my size, I did face a few incidents of bullying, or attempted bullying, in my primary school days. I vaguely recall getting into a few fights in those days. I know bullying attempts triggered the fights, and I probably emerged more battered than my opponents. But I know I could never stand bullying, and I was ready to suffer several tumble-downs and bruises to stop it.

So I may have lost the physical battles, but I won the war each time. Because the bullying stopped! It was too costly to the bully and I was not ready to roll over and submit. I was ready to escalate the cost because I knew every time that truth and right were on my side. And no, I never went squealing to authority because my personal moral code, and our shared social code, frowned upon it. But I stood my ground against the bullies, and learnt an invaluable lesson: Until you stand up to bullying, it will not stop.

Recent statements by foreign diplomats on Kenyan elections have brought the idea of bullying to mind. I was amazed to hear the British High Commissioner, Christian Turner, claim that it was Kenya’s Parliament that referred the post-election violence cases to The Hague.

Do incoming diplomats get proper briefing when they come to Kenya, and are outgoing diplomats properly debriefed? Or do they end up living in an oxygen bubble, sharing flawed ‘intel’ amassed from partisan civil society types, misled that they really know the country and can feel its pulse? I’ve begun to wonder.

US diplomat Johnnie Carson gravely noted, “Choices have consequences.” Of course they do, and every child learns that as soon as they reach the age of reason. What Carson really meant, absent the diplo-speak, is that electing Jubilee candidates Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto will have grave consequences for Kenya.

Carson was really saying that Kenyans should take into account US and Europe’s views as they vote. When Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hinted that Barrack Obama was not a reliable friend of Israel, America politely ignored him. British Premier David Cameron’s Conservative Party has politely rebuffed Europe’s soft threats about the UK’s planned referendum on European integration. Every nation worth its salt rejects interference in its sovereign democratic processes. So should Kenya.

These diplomats are meddling ‘non-meddlers’, partisan ‘neutrals’ and ‘innocent’ schoolyard bullies. They are experts of the iron hand in the velvet glove, which I guess is part of diplomacy. So should we pay heed to their threats as we cast our votes on March 4? Or should we ignore their threats?  My personal experience is that we cannot afford either choice. If you ignore or run away from bullies, they keep coming after you. Like with canines, turning tail in flight is a signal for pursuit. And if you yield to their threats, the threats will keep aiming higher. You will become a victim, and find it increasingly harder to overcome the bullies. We will have taken part in topsy-turvy elections that gave us not Kenya’s choice, but America’s or Europe’s choice. The elected leaders will then roll over to foreign interests when they collide with ours.

So my honest assessment is this. There is only one proper response to the diplomats-turned-schoolyard bullies. Stare them down. Stay the course. Stand up to them. Take the tumbles and bruises we must, no matter how grievous they seem, because truth and right are on our side. This does not mean voting Jubilee unless that is your choice. It means going ahead with your free choice without succumbing to foreign threats. But it also means this: Vote down anyone who allies with these schoolyard bullies.

The writer is an Advocate of the High Court