Our Favorite National Mistake; Delicious ambiguity.
For Kenyans in general and Kenya in
particular, these pressing problems of life and death for whole societies could
only be solved by galvanizing the entire population, by giving them the
confidence and enthusiasm to resolve them. This can only be done through the
two acceptable, desirable and civilized ways: One, through our institutions of
governance and two, through out-of institutions peaceful avenues like national
dialogue. Unfortunately for us, all other schemes, coalitions, collisions and
constitutions have been tried, and none of them has been successful. And that
is why as things stand now, for Kenya the nation and Kenya the individual,
disorder, hullabaloo and animosity are eminently practical, realistic and
seemingly inevitable. Kenya may be the next recipient of the 4th and final wave
of democracy-the African wave.
Without necessarily exploring the
obvious historical circumstances under which the current situation has emerged,
I must confidently say that Kenya is in a critical and criminal position. The
democratic waves of the 1990s did not completely redeem our country, the
socio-political base of democracy has been progressively narrowed, huge gaps
are emerging between the original promises of successive regimes and their
actual practices, the electorate are tired of testing the limitations of
kindness by nursing injured political snakes, the political donkeys are tired,
the load must be dropped, the falcons are no longer hearing the falconers,
things are falling apart,the center can hold no more.
The stark choice has presented
itself; either to change their practice to make it fit the modern political
demands, or discard the carriers of impunity, theft, thuggery and perjury and
create a new specification of democratic objectives and new institutions to
realize them. The first option will, undoubtedly, lead to a rapid erosion of
the monopoly of power that those on the right have assumed for decades. The
second option however, will undoubtedly bring the leftists into conflict with
precisely those groups that have been in the forefront of the squad
representing status quo and the squad’s most ardent supporters. This is,
perhaps, the single most important turning point in the history of this nation
since 1997.
With hardly any dissent and
hesitation, the leading leftists have abruptly redefined the nature of the
opposition and democracy; they have re-specified the functions of the state,the
party,the proletariat and politics. Simultaneously, they are rewriting the
history of democracy and are moving with vengeance against those standing on
the path of reforms. In my opinion, this is a bright, stimulating and of
considerable interest to those who want to understand how this fragile
concept,democracy, has evolved. Ladies and gentlemen, the road to practical
Kenyan democracy lies through a period of the highest possible intensification
of the principle of opposition politics. My fellow Kenyans, democracy must be
direct,participatory and trans-formative. Its purpose is to transform people
from passive objects of the purposes of others into conscious and active
subjects. It is to be measured, in the ever-growing Kenyan numbers who
participate in the management of public affairs and the ever-increasing range
of powers they assume. In this therefore, as in so many other respects of
leadership, let us cross our fingers, for if we do not do so,we shall simply be
confirming our favorite national mistake;delicious ambiguity.
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