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| The writer |
By Ngunjiri Wambugu
I recently finished reading the
book ‘Race of a Lifetime’, a book written by two distinguished American
political reporters on the intricacies of the contest between Barrack Obama,
Hillary Clinton, John McCain and several other candidates, on who would be the
44th President of America in 2008. The book offers interesting
insight into how America dealt with the issue of race during the 2008 general
election.
The Obama team ensured they avoided anything that suggested
Obama was running for President as a black American minority. Obama made it
clear that he was first and foremost an American, everything else after. At
some point just before the Democratic nominations Hillary Clinton’s team had to
do damage control when they were accused of trying to use the race card against
Obama. A month to the general elections it was the Republican Nominee John
McCain who had to back-pedal furiously after comments attributed to him and
Sarah Palin seemed to suggest that Mr. Obama could be a terrorist, because he
was called Hussein. In fact all through the campaigns none of the candidates
were willing to divide the country on racial lines, despite the advantages they
would have gotten, to beat Obama.
What worries me is that unlike America’s politics, Kenyans
and their political leaders have no limits to what they will do to win an
election. Over the last 4 years we have witnessed a growing narrative of ‘we’,
versus ‘them’. ‘We’ is defined as those who speak the same language and ‘them’
is those from other communities. Business leaders, religious leaders &
elders have all been sucked into it and they are also calling for members of
their ethnic communities to unite and support ‘one of our own’. There is also a
clear political strategy of ‘ring-fencing’ certain communities away from presidential
aspirants of other tribes. Finally we now hear of communities being declared
the ‘sole political property’ of certain politicians.
The Kenyan public is a participant in this despite clear and
present evidence of how dangerous it is for all of us, wherever we are. Luhyas
have accepted that when Musalia Mudavadi is ‘touched’, they must react first;
Kikuyus, when Uhuru Kenyatta is challenged; Luos, when Raila Odinga is
mentioned; Kalenjins, when someone undermines William Ruto. Same applies for Kalonzo
with the Kambas, etc. We have also accepted that we belong to URP, TNA, UDF,
WIPER, ODM etc because that is where ‘my tribe is’, rather than because we
agree with the party’s ideology.
In this scenario the political party that worries me the
most is Kenya’s youngest. TNA and it’s leader the Deputy Prime Minister of
Kenya Uhuru Kenyatta for example have no hesitation in celebrating the
defection of Hon Rachel Shebesh from ODM, over that of Hon Kilimo from Kenda,
because Hon Shebesh seems to have heeded the call of the tribe. This is despite
the fact that Hon Shebesh is nominated, while Kilimo is elected. TNA also seems
focused in ensuring they get all the Kikuyu politicians in ODM to cross over,
whatever the cost.
TNA is also aggressively consolidating all GEMA politics
& politicians within it. This has seen older parties like PNU being
literally forced to wind down. APK is struggling, and GNU is fading away. The
strategy is of course to get the GEMA vote in one basket so as to ably
negotiate with the 'owners' of other communities, maybe over lunch at the
Norfolk Hotel or some up-market boardroom, for who gets what seat in the next
government.
Unfortunately TNA has ignored the fact that Kenya has not
healed from the ethnic divisions and the Post Election Violence of the last
general election. Hon Kenyatta of all people must know that overt ethnic
political mobilization introduces a ‘1 versus 41’ narrative into the next
general elections debate, even by default. This is a very dangerous narrative as
he is aware of where the ’41 versus 1’ in 2007 left us.
America goes to the polls in 3 weeks united as one nation,
despite the power of the office the American politicians are competing for. The
politicians know there are limits to what the American public will allow as
political competition. Americans also still remember the cost of a civil war,
though it was centuries ago.
Kenya is five months away from an election that for all
intents and purposes will be as competitive as the American one. Campaigns for
this election are also happening within a background of inconclusive and highly
ethnically divisive general elections 5 years ago, that left millions of
Kenyans adversely affected. They are also happening within the context of
highly inflamed religious tensions following Al Shabaab attacks on churches.
However Kenyan politicians have no limits to how far they will go, to win. They
are even willing to orchestrate Kenyans to slaughter each other on ethnic lines
to get into power. Kenyans are letting them do it, having forgotten the PEV of
5 years ago.
Shame on us!
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