President Uhuru Kenyatta (left) and Nasa leader Raila Odinga conclude a joint press conference at Harambee House, Nairobi, on March 9, 2018. There is rapprochement between the two leaders PHOTO | JEFF ANGOTE | NATION MEDIA GROUP
17.March 2018
Summary
- The monster underpinning all problems, and which the two politicians correctly identified, is the lack of a national ethos.
- Even in the jungle there are conventions that all animals, including the wildest of them, respect for fear of losing their lives.
On Friday morning a week ago, President Uhuru Kenyatta and former Prime Minister Raila Odinga shook hands at the President’s Harambee House offices and announced to Kenyans that they had reached a deal to end the ethno-political animosity that marks most public engagements in this country.
In their eight-page communique, they agreed on the sources of our problems – mainly ethnic antagonism and competition, lack of national ethos, lack of inclusivity, difficulties with devolution, divisive elections, problems with safety and security, corruption, poverty, and human rights abuses – and also formulated a common plan to begin chipping away at these problems.
According to the document, their plan quite simply hinges on the rolling out of “a programme that will implement their shared objectives”.
The only detail provided in the joint communique about this programme is that it “shall establish an office and retain a retinue of advisers to assist in this implementation”.
Two officials were then appointed to oversee the implementation of this programme, whose official launch we were promised shall be soon.
SUPPORTERS
This communique has sparked lots of discussion, with great optimism being expressed in some quarters that Kenya will see better days ahead because the two antagonists have literally seen the light and decided to work together and stop the country’s descent into a bottomless abyss.
This communique has sparked lots of discussion, with great optimism being expressed in some quarters that Kenya will see better days ahead because the two antagonists have literally seen the light and decided to work together and stop the country’s descent into a bottomless abyss.
Others have been caught flat-footed, having become accustomed to the toxic politics of insults and denigration of these two politicians and their followers.
It will take some time before they fashion new targets for their vitriol, and yet many of them have built their political careers on a foundation of filth and all things vile with their cheering supporters in tow.
Unfortunately, a critical analysis of the communique reveals little to celebrate.
ETHICS
Perhaps the best job done by its drafters was to identify certain core issues as problematic in the quest for a united nation.
However, as far as solution provision is concerned, they fell back on the age-old Kenyan procrastinatory technique of creating an office, staffing it with bureaucrats and waiting for their reports that we can then debate endlessly until the next election comes along.
The longer we take without being told the specifics of the joint programme, the more likely we are to slide back into our Kenyan routine characterised by a mosquito’s memory and elephantine rage, a very lethal combination.
In my opinion, the monster underpinning all problems, and which the two politicians correctly identified, is the lack of a national ethos.
MORALITY
In this column for the longest time, we have decried the lack of an underlying moral philosophy in this country that would define a zone of behaviour as taboo.
A simple code is required that will then be enforced on all Kenyans while being taught and modelled to our children and, hopefully, within a generation, we shall see a very different country.
The current situation where anything goes is untenable.
Even in the jungle there are conventions that all animals, including the wildest of them, respect for fear of losing their lives.
We need such conventions that we would all fear running afoul of for fear of losing our connection with the rest of Kenyan society, effectively “dying” socially.
COHESION
We must move with speed to agree and institutionalise this code, and if necessary to come up with new institutions to help us advance it.
The National Cohesion and Integration Commission and the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission constitute wasted opportunities to create and begin enforcing a national ethos.
They have been a huge disappointment, focusing instead on conducting regular ethnic censuses to satisfy the vanity of our ethnic demagogues who then terrify everyone with a narrative of “tyranny of numbers”.
We must refashion them to be less legalistic and more socially aware, less pedantic and more pragmatic in helping to institutionalise the Kenyan Code.
The rapprochement between Uhuru Kenyatta and Raila Odinga is a beautiful thing but, like all beautiful things, it will only be appreciated for a while before it falls apart unless it has some serious substance to back it up.
Atwoli is Associate Professor and Dean, Moi University School of Medicine Lukoye@gmail.com
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