Disrespect for public institutions kills obligation to higher authority

With the drama of a high stakes chess game, Raila Odinga has just checked Uhuru Kenyatta. One week almost to the hour the IEBC announced the winner of the Presidential election, the game is  ow wide open again. NASA’s 25,000-pages petition closes a tense week in which the country has swung dangerously between impunity and accountability in the pursuit of power and control.

The week left a stain on all of us. Instinctive mistrust overwhelmed sensible judgement. We relished in creating and sharing fake news. In so doing, we lost at times the ability to discern what was really happening and needed to happen next. Our electoral management body, the security agencies, media, international and national observers, political parties and even the voter took a public bruising. Worse still, at least thirty families were left preparing for burial of their loved ones. We got attached and in the process, we temporarily lost our commitment to our national values.