We must celebrate the few bright sparks, enhance them in 2017

Despite being the incurable optimist, I fear we are headed for a bleak and uncertain 2017. While the year 2016 started on a fairly hopeful note, it ends with worrying possibilities of doom, locally and in critical spots around the world.

Internationally, the uncertainty is informed by political developments in Europe and America where recent developments have undone several decades of multi-lateralism and liberal philosophy and brought in unknown, untested leaderships and ideologies. There have also been worrying rumblings in Asia, which threaten the peace that the world had come to assume for decades.

Africa has not been left behind with trouble spots on the rise including in our own Kenya. Europe’s biggest shocker was the Brexit vote. Until the referendum, no one would have countenanced a Britain-less European Union. However, mounting anti-immigration sentiments and increased support for a more insular Britain begat Brexit.

A keen watcher of the goings on in the West will notice that Britain is not alone; insular right wing parties are competing very well in several municipal and in some cases national European elections. These truly are uncertain times that must concern any world citizen who believes in the value of internationalism.

In America, few would have imagined that Donald Trump would be Obama’s successor. In Asia, the failed coup in Turkey converted an Islamic state that was about to join the European Union into a state of terror, with thousands sent to jail in Stalin like purges. When criticised, President Erdogan threatened to open the gates for the millions of refugees Turkey was hosting to invade Europe, and a hypocritical Europe immediately ceased criticism.

Further South, an emboldened Putin continued to decimate his opponents, one shot to death right outside the Kremlin. The world watched helplessly as he annexed Crimea and helped subdue Syrian rebels. A defecting North Korean Ambassador just reported that Kim Jong Un would have his own nuclear bomb within the next year.

In Africa the usual tragedies continued to play out. In the East, Museveni bullied his erstwhile opponent into electoral submission and continued to wallop him long after the elections. The UN warned of an impending Rwanda like genocide in South Sudan. In West Africa Gambia’s Jammeh conceded and then unconceded, leading his miniature Nation into inevitable war. In the South, ANC’s Zuma continued to own the headlines with weekly allegations of sleaze. Not to be outdone Central African states including the DRC continued in turmoil with Kabila refusing to hold elections this year and sending soldiers to the streets to pulverize his citizens.

In our own Kenya, the elections in 2017 appear headed for crisis as rhetoric surrounding the elections continues to rise to dangerous levels, reminding one of the pre-2007 season. Even the most basic of issues evoke intense emotions with hardline positions being articulated and thereafter passionately owned by a naïve public which has an amazing faith in its political heads.

Who can believe that eight months before the elections we cannot even agree to have a manual back up for a technology we are yet to purchase let alone deploy! What then must our attitude be as we say good-bye to this year of hope that turned to gloom?

In Kenya and elsewhere, we must look out for the few bright sparks, celebrate and enhance them. On Kenyan elections for instance, we must celebrate that we are still reverting to institutions to resolve our stalemates. The Senate has taken over the Elections law. CORD has gone to court.

The IEBC is being reconstituted. We must enhance these approaches, and refuse to be drawn into deeper gloom. The alternative is to sink into what the late Kijana Wamalwa used to call the miasma of despair. That option is clearly not available. May you have a happy and blessed 2017.