It’s time to dismantle reeky political edifice built on quicksand

One of the unique features of the 2010 Constitution is the provision for the annual self-appraisal of the Executive through the President via Parliament.

The President must not only report to the nation on all measures taken and progress achieved in the realisation of the national values, he must also publish details of the same in the Gazette.

Article 10 values of patriotism, national unity, devolution, rule of law, democracy, participation of the people, human dignity, equity, social justice, inclusiveness, equality and human rights among others, is the bedrock of our Constitution, and essentially, of the republic.

In other words, a report on these values is one on everything that defines the true character of the republic, the essence of our being. It is an important report that ought to be discussed in the streets, town hall meetings and other public forums.

Wednesday’s State of the Nation address by the President, the fifth of its kind and the first in his second and last term should be seen in this context. It is also of particular importance coming in the backdrop of a divisive electioneering period and a significant event that occurred, the rapprochement between himself and his main opponent, former Prime Minister Raila Odinga.

It is the handshake and the stated grand aim of the two gentlemen that I want to focus on because of its potentially enormous implication on our political order if pushed to its best conclusion.

The weakest link

The weakest link of our constitutional take-off has been negative ethnicity and the seething effect it has in our political mobilisation and organisation. This is the genesis of the political corruption that has soiled all our endeavours as a nation.

Since the March 9 handshake, the country has been held in suspense over what it all entails - the nitty-gritty. The various pronouncements, essentially statement of the problem, made then and thereafter have all been inspiring but not quite struck the core of it in terms of next concrete steps.

The President’s own off-the-cuff remarks in Murang’a on the joint determination between himself and Mr Odinga to break clean from the past were heavily pregnant. And then everyone hoped that he would finish the job with the State of the Nation address and unveil the missing software to propel our Constitution.

In my humble opinion, and observation, he did not deliver on this expectation. If we believe the President and the former PM, the handshake heralds a new beginning in our political culture.

It’s function is to restore nationhood in the place of destructive negative ethnicity, put paid to unbridled quest for political power for its own sake and at the expense of every else, and shift the dynamics of the political game forever.

Some view the handshake through the short term prism as a stop-gap measure to allow the President to deliver on his Big Four agenda for his legacy while also granting Raila a breather from his political quagmire. Inevitably, this would explode right into our faces sooner than later.

If the handshake is about what the two have made us believe it is, that is a grand bargain aimed at completely shifting the political tectonic plates, then we need to see more of the “how.. Discussions on what needs to be done to cement the handshake for posterity need to be done above board and at the most opportune time, now!

Kenyans have shown themselves to be a most patient, resilient and understanding lot. As demonstrated in the past when a rare moment of unity afforded us tremendous leaps, Kenyans are already too willing to walk the handshake journey.

Needless to say, the handshake team unveiled last week, and with all due respect to the membership, appears to have been underwhelming on many scores. The manner of it was quite ad hoc for such an important task requiring an elaborate roadmap.

What we should not allow is to let the nation slide back to the skepticism/cynicism of the past.

The two political leaders must take concrete steps towards implementing the agreed programme of unity while also openly discussing the enormous political challenge that lies in wait. They have the credibility to run this programme and they ought to be supported.

The time to dismantle the reeky political edifice built on tribal quicksand is now. And the sooner we begin to appreciate that it requires more than a great speech, the better. You strike the hammer when the iron is hot.

The writer is former Mandera Central MP and immediate former advisor to the President Constitutional and Legal Affairs