Let no politician use you for their narrow ends this year

We are barely one-and-a-half years to the next General Election. Just as the coming of the rains can be foretold from the clouds and behaviour of certain birds – where I come from the old men swear they can smell the rain in the soil from three weeks away – the ominous electoral signs are evident.

First, reckless talk. We have heard politicians hurl the crassest, basest and rawest epithets to the other side. Then the wild claims, which often come with thinly veiled incitement against perceived ethnic enemies.

So, why on maize-growing earth can’t I just sit back, a gunny-sack of popcorn on hand and watch as Jubilee Party and CORD mass their troops and dig in for what they always fashion as a ‘mother of all battles’? The answer is ours, every fool knows, is not a politics based on ideology and ideas and a burning desire to take office and make the lives of our people better. To be sure, among the aspirants for the presidential, senatorial, gubernatorial and other seats are people whose only intention is to make a difference. Unfortunately, these altruistic voices out to do God’s work are drowned by the deep pockets and raucous cacophony of those whose mission is to go to public office to make more cash, launder cash from shady deals, protect wealth or just triumph over historical foes.

The tragedy is that, like the foolish electorate in Khaemba Ongeti’s classic play, Visiki – where politicians are artistically likened to obstacles such as stumps of felled trees, we take these ego trips and power games too seriously. Just like in the play, where the politicians play the voters against each other based on differences they were innocently born into, we are whipped into an ethnic siege mentality. So much that by the time the polls are called, you’d think we are going into war. We call each other names on social media, and sometimes clash off the wall and in broad daylight, as we saw in early 2008, all in the service of people who don’t know who we are and are bosom buddies of the ‘enemies’ they shout to us about at rallies.

In those moments of politically-instigated madness, we forget the very people from whose shops we take a quarter kilo of sugar to pay ‘when cash is available’. The kind guy who jump-starts my old jalopy now becomes ‘that tribe’ and the lady next door who gives you a handful of unga to harden your ugali when you (sometimes intentionally) pour more water than the maize flour remaining, becomes an enemy, thanks to indoctrination by a politician at a funeral or political rally. So as we head to the next election, here are some stinging home truths for Kenyans. This being the beginning of 2016, before we blame the politicians for the mistakes we’ll make ahead of the polls, ask yourself; do I have to let anyone’s words drive me into melting the glue that holds us together?

And is there any good reason to accept to see another as an enemy just because they were born speaking a different mother tongue, and only because of elections? And given that we have as a country been through difficult times, does poverty and want affect us based on tribes, religions or other differences? Remember, when the peasants in Central, Coast, Nyanza, Western and Nairobi are hit by tough economic times, those in power don’t think of tribes when increasing their salaries, cutting deals and doing other things that drive a wedge between the rich and the poor.

Last but not least, with devolution, the amount of money that will come to your county is determined by a well-known constitutional formula, not whether the tin-god that eats on behalf of your tribe is in power. That means you can get ready to vote for whoever you think can deliver. After all, the tribe no longer has anything to do with it, though the politicians would want to use you to create a façade of danger if you decide to vote outside the box.