Mutuma Mathiu
11 May 2008
column
Nairobi — The ongoing hearings by the Kriegler commission into the election fiasco serves to focus the mind of Kenyans on the costs of this cursed election and the wanton lawlessness that attended it.
Those who have visited the affected areas will no doubt have reacted with shock at the scale of the physical damage, the buildings that were torched or brought down in some fashion and the many people from all over Kenya who have been living in hardship away from their homes.
The human suffering is simply intolerable. The economic damage is bad, livelihoods have been wiped out, our own confidence in our economy has been shaken.
But the most debilitating effect has been on the concept of Kenya itself. We are asking ourselves: Is Kenya worth all this suffering and death? Shouldn't people who can't live together in peace just go their separate ways? Shouldn't we have a meeting at Uhuru Park, dissolve the union and let tribes go and find their happiness with whomever they find they can live with without resulting to machetes?
I AM VERY CLEAR IN MY MIND THAT ORDInary Kenyans need to network with a shared resolve to ensure two things: First, that there should never be violence in this country, ever again. Violence, in my definition, includes the rigging of elections.
Secondly, that we all need to realise that basically, there is nothing wrong with Kenya but there is plenty that is wrong with our corrupt, tribal and power-mad politicians. Our job as Kenyans, therefore, is to protect our country from politicians.
An army fights on its stomach, a nation survives on its institutions. The protection of national institutions from political interference and influence becomes a matter of national survival for Kenyans.
First is the Electoral Commission of Kenya. An electoral body which, through incompetence or collusion allows or participates in the rigging of elections, is a threat to national security. It is also a threat to democracy and quite intolerable.
The Kriegler commission, it is hoped, will find out exactly what is wrong with ECK and propose mechanisms for fixing it. Our job as ordinary people is to insist that the recommendations are implemented to the letter. Politicians might resist this because perhaps they would like a weak institution that they can manipulate.
Second is the Judiciary, which has been the subject of reform talk and unclear management. First, the fiction that the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs manages the Judiciary needs to end. It does not, it couldn't in a democracy. And the apparent involvement of that ministry in the promotion of judges and magistrates is a threat to our nation and to democracy.
The Judiciary and the Executive must be totally separate; their relationship should not be a cozy scratch-my-back-I-get-you-a-promotion sort of thing. The only way to ensure a high level of integrity and professionalism is to have an independent, well-funded Judiciary.
Third is the police, as poorly resourced and generally demotivated a group as you will find anywhere. Police procurement has traditionally been a magnet for politicians out to make a dishonest shilling. And there has been an almost pathological reluctance to sufficiently finance police training and equipment. The police themselves don't take care of the resources they have been provided with, if the misuse and abuse of their vehicles as well as the dilapidated state of some of their stations is anything to go by.
AS KENYANS, WE NEED TO BE MORE POSItive about the police rather than constantly accusing them of incompetence and corruption. We must find a way to take care of them and to be proud of them and the job they do of protecting us.
An independent police service commission and legal protection from political interference coupled with pressure on the government to provide realistic financing for policing would be a pretty good place to start.
Finally, the military and the security intelligence services. Many Kenyans have been wondering why the military did not do more at a time when the country was in crisis. There have been rumours that both the military and the intelligence services were divided during the election troubles.
I remember a soldier once telling me that there are two kinds of people who by law are not welcome in the barracks: Journalists and politicians. Journalists are unwanted because they might expose military secrets, I presume. Politicians are unwelcome because they divide soldiers whose loyalty to the Republic ought to be united.
I think it should be an offence very close to treason for a politician to try and win over members of the armed and intelligence services. I think we need to regard these security institutions not as the property of the President or this or that tribal leader.
They don't exist to serve politicians, they exist to keep us safe and to preserve our country and our way of life. Some of them work in the shadows, putting their lives at risk every day for their country. Their sacrifice and good work is never publicly acknowledged. The least we can do is to support and honour them.
If these institutions were all to work as they are designed to, nothing, not even politicians, could hurt our country.
End of patriotic sermon.
President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga made all the right noises during the bonding seminar that ended on Saturday. The corrupt ones, and Kenyans have reason to suspect they are many given that the combined Moi-era Cabinet experience in this one one-and-half centuries, were told they would be kicked out of office, awaiting investigation.
They were also told there are no ODM and PNU ministers, just ministers. No leaking of information to damage rivals, they were told. And Mr Odinga was talking tough about incompetence and the need for all to pull up their socks.
Well, as they say in the land of the white man, the proof of the pudding is in the eating. Gentlemen, go right ahead and surprise us.
Mutuma Mathiu is the Sunday Nation's managing editor.
Read comments. Write your own.
Copyright © 2008 The Nation. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
Mr Mathiu, I have read your write up on I know who will save us from these political gasbags and I agree with you on several statements like: “I AM VERY CLEAR IN MY MIND THAT ORDINARY Kenyans need to network with a shared resolve to ensure two things: First, that there should never be violence in this country, ever again. Violence, in my definition, includes the rigging of elections. Secondly, that we all need to realize that basically, there is nothing wrong with Kenya but there is plenty that is wrong with our corrupt, tribal and power-mad politicians. Our job as Kenyans, therefore, is to protect our country from politicians. I don’t quite agree with you on some parts of the following statement, where you categorically imply that the electoral commission participated in the rigging of elections. Not that they wouldn’t, but they have not been proved to have done it.” That the Electoral Commission of Kenya, the electoral body which, through incompetence or collusion allows or participates in the rigging of elections, is a threat to national security. It is also a threat to democracy and quite intolerable”. I think on this statement you were too harsh on the Electoral Commission since a case has not been proved against them. It is all allegations. It’s not like you were in Kenya and interested and following the proceedings as we waited for the elections and on the behavior of ODM team at KICC during the announcement of the elections results. If you were as keen as I was and as I would expect you were, you must have noticed the deliberate stage managing of ODM of incidents purported to be elections rigging strategies by PNU. The administration police story of marking ballot papers, a man touted to be a returning officer at KICC who was supposed to give the correct results for some constituency and another gentleman on the morning of polling day. The latter was allegedly arrested by the public carrying, as they put it 2 million Kenya Shillings to, they said, bribe voters or buy voting cards. Who had told the public all this and how did the station, KTN, appear on the scene. Mr Mathiu, I don’t think you agreed with the ODM on the issue of Majimbo. The common man interpretation of Majimbo is well known and the leaders shouting that during the campaigns that Kenya would be a Majimbo state know all too well what they wanted to achieve. No wonder the motivation of Kalenjins in Rift Valley. The uprising cannot have been spontaneous as the ODM would like us to believe. In all honesty, Mr Mathiu, no ordinary Kenyan, Kalejin, Luo , luhya or Kikuyu would rise against his neighbor in such a magnitude without support or sponsorship from a higher power. Personally, where I live in Kenya, I have a Luo neighbor and who is a close friend to date! There has been a more serious case of election meddling in Zimbabwe, but we have not heard of the opposition rising in any way close to the Kenya style. So, who in Kenya fought who and why? It must be known by the government and the reasons too are known, but even if it was due to elections rigging, no one is justified to fight another in that way except in a situation as you rightly put it, where there are ‘tribal and power-mad politicians’. In your sermon, Mr Mathiu, you did not apportion blame rightly or condemn the perpetrators of the killings and displacements, while, unless you are not a Kenyan, you know exactly who is involved. Journalists should as far as possible report fairly. You are not unfair, but you appear as I note of late with Kenya news papers fear or are reserved or shy to tell ODM exactly who they have proved to be. Just power hungry at any cost. How many people have been killed in their watch, how much properties burnt down or looted and how many people displaced and why. How does it benefit a man to gain the whole world but lose his soul. They would not mind gaining the leadership of Kenya at whatever cost and they don’t care for their souls.