Happier days. Governor Ali Hassan Joho and President Uhuru Kenyatta during the Mombasa International Trade Fair in September 2016.
23.03.2018
Exactly 12 months ago, Mombasa came to a halt amidst a standoff between President Uhuru Kenyatta and Governor Hassan Ali Joho.
Those of us who spent up to three hours in the resulting traffic jam have bitter memories of the day Joho was prevented from attending the presidential reopening of a footbridge and launching of a ferry.
Joho’s bravado made him a hero and secured his re-election.
GARBAGE
If a week is a long time in politics, then a year must be a generation.
Joho was abroad on another trip to find a solution to the garbage and sanitation disaster that is Mombasa, but he found time to tweet his support for the March 9 Harambee House handshake between Mr Kenyatta and opposition leader Raila Odinga.
It is unlikely, however, that he was familiar with the contents of the package deal but if Baba amesema (Father has said), then that suffices.
ADDICTED
When Deputy President William Ruto visited the Coast last weekend, the rush by Orange Democratic Movement MPs to embrace and endorse him for 2022 could have been scripted from a soap opera.
But Kenyan politics is a soap scripted to keep you watching, talking and addicted.
It is a constantly changing series of scenes, games and plots that is all about self-interest and not about you and your future.
FRIENDSHIP
Forgive the scepticism but March 9 may go down as the day Kenya waved goodbye to opposition politics and ushered in a new era of grand corruption and land grabbing.
The handshake may reflect a new dawn and beginning but is more likely to represent the beginning of the end of dynastic, ethnic politics.
The caution with which Kenyans have received the new-found friendship indicates they know we have been here before and will not be fooled.
HOLY WEEK
Some pundits may even question if Cambridge Analytica did not engineer the Harambee House meeting as well as everything else around the 2017 election.
Put another way, as we approach the Holy Week, the words of Jesus that ‘unless a grain of wheat falls into soil and dies it remains a single grain, but if it dies it bears much fruit (John 12:24)’ reverberate.
INTEGRITY
At a moment when all seems hopeless, bleak and depressing, as the seed of the first generation of politicians dies, a people’s movement may well emerge that may bear much fruit and guide us on to the next stage.
There is an urgent need for people of integrity, ability and position to charter that new way forward.
The lack of decency, consistency, honour and respect in public life is frightening.
NEW GAMES
Muted media that allow the Executive to determine who writes and what content can be published must be resisted and exposed.
Kenyans have been fooled too many times and will not allow the same cast to continue with new games.
Mr Kenyatta and Mr Odinga have made peace. For that, the nation sighs with relief. That perhaps is their contribution towards change.
JUSTICE
They must now stand back from the ashes and the division that they and their followers have created and allow another generation to unite and build the nation, revamp its institutions and guarantee social justice for the poor.
That new beginning is also the message of the Christian Cross and Resurrection.
Fr Dolan is a Catholic priest based in Mombasa. gdolan54@gmail.com @GabrielDolan1
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