Has CORD really accepted poll defeat and moved on?

Moses Kuria

On Friday, July 19, I was a panelist in a recording for a BBC  Sema Kenya programme on the first 100 days of Jubilee Government, alongside Political activist Maimuna Mohammed, Article 19’s Henry Maina and Siaya Senator, James Orengo. The Show will air on KBC TV from 6pm tonight. The audience was gathered from a cross section of Nairobi residents, but interestingly it was clear that they were drawn predominantly from CORD supporters. Most of the questions and comments from the audience were hopelessly partisan and biased. However, one question directed at me from a lady from Kibera was as striking as it was legitimate. ‘What is the Jubilee Government doing to foster national cohesion given that the former Prime Minister’s side has many people and they are badly hurting after the election loss?’ I thought the lady from Kibera was forthright and open about the feelings of CORD supporters. Not only was she clear about what the problem is, she was also candid about the solution-fostering national cohesion.

For her, it is the singular onus of the Jubilee Government to rebuild the cracks of our nationhood created by the emotive March 4 polls. This is where I disagree with her. It is the duty of victors to demonstrate they can be magnanimous in victory. However, it is equally incumbent upon the vanquished to prove they can be gracious and honourable in defeat, or as the common parlance in town has it, to accept and move on. But has CORD really accepted and moved on? Contrasting sharply with the innocent lady from Kibera, the youth who would be expected to be the beacons of hope and cohesion have formed very armed militias in the social media.

I was expecting that these militias would be a transient problem that would quickly fizzle out with the passage of time. But, alas, the bile among CORD supporters in the social media is equally matched by the bravado and triumphalism of Jubilee supporters online. This war should be of concern to any well meaning Kenyan. Unfortunately, the statutory body under whose docket fostering national cohesion falls, the National Cohesion and Integration Commission, is nowhere to be seen. The last time I heard of the NCIC is when its chairman, Mzalendo Kibunjia’s name was in the shortlist of candidates for consideration as Principal Secretaries. Needless to say, Kibunjia’s bid was unsuccessful. It would appear that when Mzalendo took time off to grieve his unbearable loss, NCIC retreated into a miasma of inaction and clinical death. If Kibunjia and NCIC would wake up from their slumber, they would visit a Facebook page known as The Good, The Bad and the Shame of Kenyans. The online tribal wars that take place in this page would put Somalia’s al-Shabaab and Afghanistan’s Taliban to shame and international odium. The CORD supporters’ attacks are as vicious as they are virulent, mostly directed at the communities perceived to be staunch Jubilee supporters.

These communities too do not take this on their four knees. They respond in equal measure with disparaging attacks mostly directed at those who are perceived to be die-hard CORD adherents. Of late, any news item is analysed on this page scanning for the tribal identity of anything mentioned in the media. When a report was published in the media that Nyanza is one of the leading bastions of homosexuality, the Jubilee online Army went for the jugular of the Nyanza CORD supporters. The CORD social media side would soon get their chance for payback when reports that girls in Mombasa who were caught having unnatural acts with certain animals had names suggesting they come from certain perceived Jubilee strongholds. Strangely, the media all of a sudden went on a frenzy of ‘discovering’ other unnatural acts with all sorts of animals.

.

Keep Reading

•  Let's de-link party leadership from Executive, Parliament
•  Climbing Mt. Kenya
•  Unease in Ruto, Raila camps as young leaders challenge status quoPremium
•  Jostling for supremacy in coalitions is not driven by any ideologyPremium
•  Early campaigns: Poisoned chalice or blessing in disguise for country?Premium

It is difficult to convince me that the media is not being caught up, knowingly or unknowingly, in pre-programmed  schemes to create an environment that would be fertile for hate and even genocide. I agree with the lady from Kibera the Jubilee government needs to do more to foster national unity. However, the one thing that would go a long way to help this country heal and move forward is when the leadership in CORD genuinely accepts the elections are over but also truly moves on with their role as the loyal Opposition.  Unfortunately, CORD leadership has not accepted. They appear not to have moved on from the notion that something might happen, whether natural or man-made, that will see them occupy the House on the Hill before the next General Election.