Respect for public institutions, offices not a sign of weakness

By Machua Koinange

R-E-S-P-E-C-T. This key seven-letter word is musically best enunciated in the hit song by Aretha Franklin and originally sung by Otis Redding in 1965. The words epitomise what respect is all about. Redding’s version is a plea from a desperate man, who will give his woman anything she wants.

He won’t care in the least if she wrongs him, as long as he gets his due respect. However, Franklin’s version is a bold declaration from a strong woman. She has everything her man wants. She never does him wrong and only demands his “respect”.

For the last few weeks, respect seems to be in short supply in both public and private discourse among leaders and the public. Respect can be for our law or even traditions. Several cases point to a disturbing picture of dwindling decorum in national affairs. We seem to be dancing to the rhythm of archaic times.

Rule of law

Members of the public routinely block the road to protest something. Prison warders in Kibwezi blocked Mombasa road to protest killing of a colleague by a hit-and-run motorist. Angry Kenyans barricaded the Bomet-Narok road to protest frequent accidents.

Residents of Kinyago and Biafra slums in Nairobi blocked a public road to protest an outbreak of cholera. They barricaded the First Avenue and lit bonfires. We routinely lynch crime suspects and police regularly execute “suspected gangsters” who never live to defend themselves. As a nation, we seem to have very little respect for the law or human life.

Let’s move to the teachers’ strike. The President and his deputy made an impassioned plea for the teachers to negotiate and resume work to save students from the agonising strike. I don’t hold brief for the Head of State, but I know that when he appeals to your compassion honestly and respectfully, you don’t respond the way Knut did by rallying your troops and calling “the mother of all strikes”.

The President is Head of State and a member of the ruling Jubilee coalition. He deserves his due decorum, even if many times — like I do — you don’t necessarily agree with him or his Government. In the US, Republicans don’t exactly have a high regard for President Obama, but they will treat him with respect befitting the President of the United States.

Then there is respect for the departed. We mourn and accord the dead the best send-off we can put together, many times with heavy hearts. When a school bus crashed in Kisii recently, it stole from us brilliant students, future leaders, doctors, farmers, lawyers and teachers.

It anguished many and pained their parents. The funeral service was meant to be a final salute to this young Kenyans who had paid the ultimate price because, as a nation, we have refused to address the issue of road carnage. We all collectively bear responsibility for their deaths.

Depressing

Instead the service was turned into a tragic political contest. It is the saddest and most depressing thing I have seen next to the funeral scene in Shakespeare’s play Julius Caesar. It was depressing to watch grieving parents shaken as hecklers reigned supreme at their moment of loss Let’s respect the dead, even in their last journey.

Finally let’s respect our public institutions. Many are the times I don’t agree with their actions and policies, but I recognise they are the collective will of the majority set up by a Constitution that was approved overwhelmingly by the public. These institutions do not exist to respond to the whims of individuals, political parties or interest groups.

Our onus should be to strengthen these institutions and address their weaknesses. Should we disband the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) just because we are upset with elections results?

Why not disband the Supreme Court as well because you did not like the ruling and replace all the judges? Should we also disband the police force because crime is on the rise and we have all been victims? Or disband the Nairobi County government because of failure in service delivery? Where does the boulevard of dismantling broken dreams end?

There were many technical and institutional failures at the last elections. The purchasing of the biometric voter registration kit was allegedly not transparent and the electronic identification kits and results transmission system failed massively on March 4.

But to IEBC’s credit, it was able to execute a complex election at a very short period of time without adequate time to prepare.

It was not a stellar election. Would I disband IEBC? Why not fight for the systems to be strengthened and enforce better checks and balances ahead of 2018.

Our frozen focus should be to put our heads together as a team and resolve institutional failures, not disband them to create new institutions that will sing to our tune. That sounds like a slippery road to anarchy.

That’s why respect is so important in every aspect of Kenyan life if we are to move forwards as one united nation, under God, with liberty and justice for all.

The writer is Associate Editor (Investigations) at the Standard Group.

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