- A reaction to call by Sunny Bindra on Kenyans to "blackout Politicians"
I have just read the article posted by one
SUNNY BINDRA on Sunday 21.02.2010 in DAILY NATION NEWSPAPER urging
Kenyans to blackout politicians and instead concentrate on personal
development. While the article highlighted a number of brilliant ideas
that Kenyans actually need to embrace, there were however a number of
misleading calls on Kenyans that are likely to be detrimental to the
country if embraced by readers. As a peace-loving Kenyan who is keen to
see his motherland progress to full democracy, I do hereby, in this
spirit, write to avert this possible poisoning of the minds of millions
of Kenyans reading the newspaper and pursuing what was good for their
motherland.
If a politician, any politician, holds a rally in your area, can you afford to ignore it completely? In the 21st
century, can we afford to stop buying newspapers just because they
highlight stories from political scenes in the country? If television news
bulletins highlight reports on our politicians, can we afford to switch
them off? These are some of the proposals put forward by SUNNY BINDRA to
Kenyans amid efforts to contain the impasse that befell the ruling
coalition. However, for any rational Kenyan of sound mind, the answer to
these questions is “NO” and by answering “YES”, we
will be neglecting our common responsibility bestowed upon us by virtue
of our citizenship of The Great Motherland-Kenya. I salute all Kenyans
for their increasing public awareness and public consciousness on how
the country was performing. The increasing public bickering in the
political scenes, peaceful demonstrations and general keenness on
following public scandals and other corruption matters are indicators of
how well we execute our collective role of determining what becomes of
Kenya tomorrow – this will go a long way in deciding whether
tomorrow Kenya becomes a failed state or not.
Therefore
attempts to convince Kenyans to ignore politicians and instead rather
concentrate on personal development can only be seen as a backward move
and an attempt to detour a citizenry on the right track, pursuing what
was good for their motherland – more so in determining the political
future of this great nation.
However,
I should not be misconstrued and here we read with Mr. Bindra from the
same script: Escalating individual interpersonal violence between
Kenyans in the name of holding different political opinions, to the
extent of killing each other as witnessed in the 2008 post-election violence,
must be condemned in the strongest terms possible. The fact that I
support candidate A while you support B does not provide us grounds to
go violent against each other – Kenyans must mature and stand for good
ideals rather than show emotions while taking political decisions.
“Man muss das als gegeben hinnehmen: Demokratie ist nie bequem”-Theodor Heus (1884-1963): These are German words meaning: “One has to put up with it as it is given: Democracy is not comfortable”-
The words of Theodor Heus (1884-1963). This is the fact that Kenyans
have not fully understood; they are however making every attempt to do
so.
Merriam Webmaster dictionary defines democracy as a : government by the people; especially : rule of the majority b :
a government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and
exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of
representation usually involving periodically held free elections.
Therefore “free and fair elections” and “majority rule” are two integral elements of democracy. These two integral components make the realization of democracy always elusive especially in a multi-ethnic environment like Kenya. Determining the “majority”
by way of election has often boiled down to ethnic violence resulting
into dictatorship of the “minority” by the emerging “majority”.
As Kenyans strive to understand and embrace
democracy, they need good guidance and supportive policies and
institutions with mechanisms to promote ideals of democratic practice
and good governance before they take part in any voting exercise. This
is what Kenya needs - not misusing the youth to dictate the way people
vote or at its worst, scare Kenyans from participating in the voting
exercise. As highlighted above, democracy is not comfortable either,
what therefore means that, to be able to live with the weaknesses of
democracy as a system of government, we must train our citizens on true
meaning of democracy and what it requires of the citizens to have a
fully democratic system in place.
That
Democracy is not comfortable means it takes a lot of give and take
between the “majority” and the “minority”- this calls for tolerance
between the two. As the minority nurse their wounds having lost the
election, the majority must understand and appreciate the existence of
the minority as they take over the government and the running of public
affairs.
In
my opinion therefore, Kenyans shutting their ears to politics is not
the best solution in addressing political impasses whenever they arise.
What Kenyans need is maturity in the manner they express their
discontent on public matters. This maturity will only be realized if we
strengthen our democratic institutions. This calls for everybody to play
their part, it’s a task that cannot be entrusted exclusively on any
individual or institution, not the police, not the Kenya anticorruption
commission, not the judiciary, not the attorney general, not the
parliament, not the provincial administration, not the civil service,
not the teachers, not the NGOs, not ordinary citizens, not the rich, not
the poor…neither is it the Ogiek nor the Maasais but ALL KENYANS.
We
need a government that will understand and respond if its citizens hold
peaceful demonstrations for that is a wakeup call on public discontent
in the way the public affairs are run. If an ordinary citizen steals
Ksh. 100,000,000, he will be immediately arrested, taken to police cell
and charged in court. However if a minister steals the same amount from
the taxpayer - from a kitty meant for providing education to our children -
a commission of enquiry is set up on the matter and Kenyans must
therefore wonder what the courts are meant for. It becomes even more
frustrating when the implicated minister finally goes scot-free and the
taxpayer has lost additional funds to the commission that was set up to
investigate the matter. It’s therefore time for Kenyans to demand equal
treatment, if setting up the commissions of inquiries is the way to go
then let it apply to all Kenyans. We are not more criminals just because
we are not ministers: a thief remains a thief and MUST be charged!
Now
I know from personal experience that anything negative happening within
the boundaries of a nation does not simply end within those boundaries
but do have far reaching consequences beyond the boundaries of a nation.
In his article, Mr. Bindra talks of Kenya’s strategic location making
it suitable for investment. However, to my surprise he adds that nothing
has changed: In a country where government ministers are looting the
economy and citizens are demonstrating to stop the crisis – an adult of
Mr. Bindra’s calibre can’t see what has changed! That is very
disturbing and obviously "disturbing" is an understatement. Maybe the word scandal has become so popular in Kenya
to the point that it’s nothing new ( it's normative and we need to start by stigmatizing it if a change for the better is anything to expect ). I can only recommend that the media
should stop referring to stealing public money as SCANDALS, let them use the word STEALING so that the thief can be brought to book e.g. Ksh 100 million has been stolen from the ministry of education instead of a scandal of Ksh 100 million has occurred in the ministry of education.
If Mr. Bindra lost Ksh 100 million am very sure he will not sleep until
the culprit is brought to book but if Kenyans go demonstrating on the
streets over their stolen money, just because their country has reduced
them to that level, it appears Mr. Bindra finds that offending!
I
want to bring it to the attention of citizens like Mr. Bindra that
Kenya’s strategic location makes it a suitable business destination only
as long as it’s a country in which the rule of law is observed – no
businessman of sound mind would wish to do business in a country where
corruption is the order of the day! To this end Mr. Bindra, you
therefore realize personal development which you urged Kenyans to
concentrate on can only be pursued if good governance and the rule of
law is observed, which unfortunately is not the case! For nobody will
pursue personal development successfully if they were unemployed – the
same unemployment results from misappropriation of public funds and the
associated negative image sending investors away from Kenya.
I therefore salute Kenyans who made their voices heard by taking part
in peaceful demonstrations against public officers involved in
corruption. To these Kenyans you earned my respect and made Kenya proud
by ensuring the demonstration was peaceful and free from acts of
violence.
To
Kenyan public officials involved in corruption please it’s time we
realized that we are not doing justice to our motherland! Kindly listen to
my plea and let’s move the country forward – stop corrupt practices!
The negative image we are sending of our motherland is far reaching and
affect Kenyans not only in Kenya but also abroad, you are painting us
black please stop it!.
Finally
I am very saddened to report that our motherland, Kenya is ranked among
the 10 worst countries in the world in a recent study on Democracy
Ranking 2008/2009. Campbell, David F. J. and Georg
Pölzlbauer of The University of Klagenfurt, Faculty for
Interdisciplinary Studies (IFF), Institute of Science Communication and
Higher Education Research (WIHO) Vienna, Austria conducted the research
assessing democratic performance of countries through a two year period.
The study conducted by Campbell, David F. J. / Georg Pölzlbauer (2009)
put Kenya position 94 for the years 2002/2003 and position 86 in the
years 2005/2006 in a sample of 103 countries worldwide. Among the
countries trailing the list during the 2002/2003 years were:
Lebanon (position 96), Guinea-Bissau (position98), Burundi (position 102),
Mauritania (position 95), Ethiopia (position 99),
Central African Republic (position 101 ), Zambia (position 97),
Nigeria(position 100) and Yemen Republic (position 103). Our neighbours
Uganda and Tanzania took positions 80 and 89 respectively. Among the top
10 best performing democracies worldwide were countries like: Sweden,
Norway, Denmark, Finland, Switzerland, Netherlands, New Zealand,
Austria, Australia, and Germany in that order.
The
report therefore implies that an investor would therefore prefer Uganda
or Tanzania as destinations of investment as opposed to Kenya. This is a
perception that all Kenyans must endeavour to change in order to win
back the international confidence when it comes to peace and political
stability in the region. I have an idea for
Kenya on the way forward as far as building of a strong democratic
system is concerned. Countries that have attained full democracy status
have made it a culture and an integral part of the day-to-day life
of their citizens. Maybe we could borrow a leaf from these countries
and on this note I have a leaf from Germany to suggest to Kenya. In
Germany there are institutions known as Landeszentrum für politische Bildung – State centres for Political Education. This
is a country that knows and appreciates the fact that sending an
illiterate/uninformed voter to go and make a decision at the polling
station is not doing justice to the country. So, Germany as a country
runs these centres to train her citizens on political matters throughout
the year whether there are elections or not. Among the duties bestowed
on these institutions are: To inform the citizens about political events
taking place, present decisive criteria on political issues, make
political and government policies understandable and shed light on the
background/basis of political matters so as to secure the critical
consciousness of the citizens. In other words, the German government
trains the citizens to be critical and not just loyal.
In
Kenya, the duties named above are scattered between the provincial
administration, politicians and the electoral commission and how
effectively they are performed leaves a lot to be desired. I
would like to inform Kenyans that German laws are written in German –
which is the mother tongue of the citizens and despite that, they still
run centres to train their citizens on political matters. This just
highlights how badly Kenya needs such centres because Kenyan laws are
written in English which is not the mother tongue of Kenyans and nobody
is going to make any constructive political decision without
understanding basics of Kenyan law and generally how government
functions.
I am quite sure that the taxpayers money spent on running the commissions investigating scandals would be well spent if Kenya hires lawyers to simplify and synthesize the basics of Kenyan laws and train citizens on politics at various stations countrywide.This will go a long way in realizing the much needed critical conciousness of Kenyans and will reorient the Kenyan public towards issue-based politics, a people who will not take on arrows, bows and spears but rather the pen and the ballot paper in shaping their destiny!
REFERENCE:
3. http://www.nation.co.ke/oped/Opinion/-/440808/865796/-/item/1/-/3bv9mxz/-/index.html
Foto: Nobel Laureate Prof. Wangari Maathai 
The
Luo tribe currently lives in western Kenya, northern Tanzania, northern
and eastern Uganda, and southern Sudan. The Luo tribe makes up 12% of
Kenya's population and is the third largest tribe behind the Kikuyu and
Luhya tribes. The Luo tribe consists of 12 subgroups or sub-tribes. They
are also known as Lwo, Jaluo or Joluo.