Broad-based government highlights the flaws in our multi-party democracy

President William Ruto of UDA and Rt. Hon. Raila Odinga of ODM sing a agreement to work together at KICC. [Photo/Emmanuel Wanson]

Many Kenyans are waking up to find with dismay that a staunch opposition leader has not only joined government but has become its leading cheerleader. Although the President has defended the alliance with opposition figures as a strategy to unite the nation, the spectacle of prominent opposition figures joining a widely discredited government is symptomatic of a flawed multiparty democracy.

Since the repeal of section 2A of the Constitution, party coalitions have become a regular feature of our democracy and recent co-opting of opposition figures to form a broad-based government is not exceptional. The absurdity of our approach to coalitions becomes apparent however when a fierce critic joins government and starts defending its policies like a rabid member of the ruling party.