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Kenya: There is No Such Thing as Reigns of State
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The Nation (Nairobi)
OPINION
23 February 2008
Posted to the web 25 February 2008
Philip Ochieng
Nairobi
A recent Nation piece urged President Kibaki to share "the reigns of state" with Raila Odinga. But - as the Shakespearean asks in King Henry IV Part I - "Can England brook a double reign" (between Harry Monmouth and Harry Hotspur)?
The question is posed by Monmouth, the Prince of Wales, the heir-apparent. For England is in the throes of a civil war. The Earl of Northumbria and his fiery son - nicknamed "Hotspur" - have rebelled.
Henry IV triumphs and Monmouth is crowned as Henry V. The lesson is that sovereignty cannot be shared. A sovereign state is a completely independent one and its ruler has unlimited powers.
Yet, with daily interference by the former colonial powers, no Third World state or ruler can be thought of as completely sovereign. But "completely sovereign is a fatuous phrase. For sovereignty cannot be graded either.
Before the Magna Carta clipped King John's wings in 1215, to reign was to rule absolutely. It is thus possible to say, metaphorically, that anarchy is reigning in Kenya today.
But - notwithstanding the neo-colonial threats - Mr Kibaki is our sovereign. And, knowing his character, we cannot hope that he will surrender some of his sovereignty to the hotspur of Lang'ata - a son of Kenya's Northumbria, the perennially dissentient Jaramogi.
Certain instruments
This is impossible even in language. To reign (spelled with a "g") is to use certain instruments - both ideal and material - to ensure social order. Such instruments also happen to be known as reins (spelled without a "g") and include such organs of state as the army, the police and the civil service.
They are called reins because they act like the yoke on the necks of a team of oxen. They guide the animals in a certain desired direction and prevent them from running off course. It is the control of such reins that Mr Kibaki is being asked to share with Mr Odinga.
But the resemblance between the verb to reign (to exercise political power) and the verb to rein (to use an instrument in the exercise of that power) is purely fortuitous. They have no etymological link.
Reign comes from the Latin regnum ("kingdom"), Rex ("king") and regina ("queen"), the Gaelic ri and ria, the French roi and reine, the Hindi rajah and rina, the Coptic ra and rat and the Cushitic rwty and rwota (whence the Luo ruot or ruoth. Also related to them are regent, regime, regiment, regular, and regulate.
Rein, for its part, is a combination of the Latin re (which indicates a repeated action) and tenere (to hold), the latter also related to the verbs attain, contain, detain, maintain and retain and the nouns tenacity and tenement.
So there is no such thing as "reigns of state" because reign and state mean the same thing.
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What the Nation writer meant is "reins of state" - the "strings" which the sovereign has to pull to steer the ship of government.
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