It’s the worst version of a coalition government really. The
worst version of the amendments routinely made by the previous parliament to
allow those MPs to remain in power while flagrantly party hopping and the worst
version of their myriad coalition agreements that ensured that they would
retain power at all costs.
It is at this moment in time that we, if we were sincere
citizens, should deeply and earnestly miss Martha Karua. During the time, when
most of us were blindly approving ethnic groupings that purported to be
national but were not, simply ethnic ganging up in the name of politics, during
a time when the phrase “warembo na siasa” meant women coming on stage and
shaking their ample bottoms for cheering crowds, during a time when thousands
of young people thronged the Kenyatta International Conference Centre hoping,
and believing every coalitions’ false promises; Martha Karua staunchly refused
to join in the fray. She adamantly declined to be sucked into agreements that
were entirely selfish and had no basis for serving the people. She stood alone,
the lone ranger of Kenyan politics.
Perhaps she could see into the future, into THIS future. I
don’t think she has any seer’s powers; most likely Martha is just burdened with
a deep sense of integrity, something that does not seem to bother the rest of
our politicians.
It’s a pity that we have sold ourselves into such a willing
slavery. Consider the absurdities we have swallowed wholeheartedly; that
certain ethnic groups would not have stopped their violence and conflict were
it not for a coalition agreement to share power. Sadly, we forget that all the
conflict between those ethnic communities was politically instigated in the
first place. So, they start the conflict, and then they solve it by forming an
alliance where THEY will gain power.
Are we so foolish? It appears so. 93% of voters in the last
election voted along tribal or ethnic lines. 93% chose their ethnicity over
their nationality. 93% made sure that politics of personality, of personal
wealth and personal greed and ambition will forever be a part of this nation’s
“democracy”.
These coalitions will never end – the idea now is firmly
rooted in the politicians’ mind, the route to gaining ultimate power is to join
forces, not for the nation but for them. They know, that from here on, no
matter how visibly evil they are, and no matter what cruelty they exhibit, no
matter what greed and plundering they engage in, the people will always vote
for them because they are from their ethnicity.
Whose fault is it really? Some pundit had the nerve to blame
the civil society for not conducting adequate civic education hence the outcome
of the elections.
Some things must be said; why should someone come along and
tell you to have a conscience, to seek leadership that has integrity to pick
honest upstanding respectable people and not known drug barons, murderers,
embezzlers, fraudsters, kidnappers and thugs?
Chapter 6 of the Kenya constitution tries to define
leadership and integrity but fails miserably for one simple matter. The people
of Kenya define integrity and they alone chose their leaders. If they willingly
and with 93% of the electorate in agreement, pick fellows who rightly belong in
prison, for the reason that these people are rich, and have created an ethnic
alliance which they now purport to be using to represent their people; if the
people of Kenya have no sense of decency, morality, justice or wisdom, then the
high court has no mandate to decide otherwise. We do have a supreme law, but
that law must reflect the values of the society that derived that law.
Kenyans have no sense
of integrity, no understanding of that virtue and no need for its use or value
in our daily lives and our leaders understand that fully and have banked on
that fact so as to remain in power indefinitely. It is not because we are poor;
it is because we are ethnocentric bigots. Some things must be said. Looks like
in Kenya, Martha Karua is the only person who understands what integrity means.
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