We need a national discourse that transcends ethnic fault lines

By Hassan Omar Hassan

I watched the final days of former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's hold on power. I was in Cape Town, with my South African friends and we stayed up through Thursday night to early morning on Friday waiting for his resignation.

That did not happen to our disappointment. The protestors though vowed not to relent.

But as the protesters concluded their maghrib (sunset) prayers at Tahrir Square on Friday, Vice- President Omar Suleiman announced on Egyptian TV that President Mubarak had stepped down.

My South African friends and I exploded with jubilation upon the news of Mubarak’s exit, just as did the protestors in Tahrir square and the people across Egypt.

Why would South Africans or a Kenyan like me celebrate Mubarak’s downfall? Why would there be scenes of celebrations across the world? Why would a man who never directly presided over our affairs attract such global loath?

It is "official"! The youthful global liberation movement is a fact. Support and sympathy for the struggles of people in their countries is transcending the national borders. The youth across the world are re-imagining and redefining their future. They are fed up with despots who afflict suffering on their people and steal their nations’ treasures. Their support for each other cuts across nations giving a new sense to the phenomenon of global citizenship. My hope and prayer is that the revolt does not stop with Egypt but sweeps across the Arab world, Africa and to other oppressed masses.

Globally, the dominant view on President Kibaki could be that he represents part of the cacophony of obsolete despotic African leaders who must pave way for better governance. Not only is he viewed as having stolen an election in 2007, but also ‘stole’ hope and an opportunity for a genuine national rebirth by undermining the spirit of 2002 popular revolt. The world now awaits the Kenyan revolt.

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My South African friends cannot quite understand why Kenyans who represent one of Africa’s most educated and sophisticated societies would allow itself to be under the strangulation of a cabal of corrupt and divisive old men who are out of touch and represent an archaic world view.

The answer rests in our pervasive ethnicity and our inability to mobilise a national discourse. How do you explain a character who has been to some of the world’s finest schools and toured the globe coming across as an unrepentant ethnic bigot? Where knowledge fails to illuminate, bigotry triumphs.

The challenge of realising genuine change now rests with Kenyans to mobilise a national discourse that transcends the ethnic fault lines.

A critical lesson from the Egyptian revolt is to mobilise our internal competencies and capacities. We can never realise meaningful change through donor work plans and tutorage. We need to be creative in building capacity from within.

I often make reference to a fellow who refers to himself as a "technical advisor". The fellow was once preoccupied on the dictates on who signs a commission’s advert while missing out on the larger objective of the overall initiative, illustrating the folly of reliance on such pseudo "technicians" or support. He is not known for leading any popular initiative leading to genuine change or revolt. What is therefore the premise of his "technical advice" or who tells him that we need it? Are our energies committed in this pettiness, idiocy and merry go-round worthwhile? And can such "partnerships" help to deliver change?

Kenyans possess the capacity for genuine change though the challenge is to mobilise it.

—The writer is a commissioner with the KNCHR.