Do not allow old political order to crush our new dawn of hope

By KABANDO WA KABANDOPosted Wednesday, February 23 2011 at 17:06

A common thread in allegory among many African communities encourages icons to triumph so as to encourage the youth to also look forward to great achievements of their own.

Kenya is in the throes of its first breeding with the appointment of the first key officeholders under the new Constitution.

This birth is not going well, and the family that is Kenya is terrified that her offspring may be scared off from the goal of representing the Kenyan clan and may not look forward to its role of founding a new family.

Could this be the aim of all this conflict concerning the appointments? Could it be that we are messing up our first birth on purpose so that we can kill the nascent hope and the promise of the new Constitution?

Could it be that we wish to tell Kenyans that “its business as usual” despite the new law so that reactionary forces can recapture the State and abort the new dawn?

Fellow Kenyans, we should not be deceived into thinking that the forces of caprice have disappeared just because of the mere act of promulgation of the new law.

If anything, the dark forces that for decades made Kenya into a cemetery of broken dreams and failed hopes dread the new dawn simply because it threatens to send them to pasture.

Lets not forget that this is the country where cries of hunger suffered by many were answered by a loud belch of a ravenous clique wallowing in surfeit.

Let’s not forget that the acrid stench we suffered from the atrophy and rot of institutions served as rich manure from which decorated leaders reaped a bountiful harvest.

The current contest surrounding the constitutional appointments should remind us that change is long in coming. To both camps concerned, Kenya is enemy territory on which to lay siege, attack, and pillage and take the booty to the granary of the tribe.

The most comical and contemptible part of this saga is the herding behaviour by politicians into ethnic palavers.

These tribal groupings are attempting to take us back to a value system that regards volunteer warriors in the battle for ethnic dominance as heroes, while those who defy the ethnic parleys are labelled traitors and sell-outs.

This is because we still have too many people, particularly in leadership, who still believe that attempts by the new law to foster a culture of constitutionalism wouldn’t amount to much in the end.

Others imagine or wish that Kenya would forever remain the land of the “Big Five” and “Big Men”. I have only one word for such people: You are investing in a declining industry.

The patronage industry, with its retinue of platitudes, rentiers, and courtiers who danced themselves lame as they ogle and salivate at morsels from the Big Man’s table is descending. It is time for Kenya to ascend.

President Kibaki and Prime Minister Odinga must remember that it is their respective extremist battalions that have in the past aggravated national objectives. Both Principals should rein in their respective party operatives. They must stop this charade.

The battles will not be over until President Kibaki and Prime Minister Odinga read and cite from the same hymn book.

And sing they must, or the torrents of national discontent will sweep them to the high seas of political oblivion. Breaking the current stalemate is but a small segment of the momentous reform agenda relying on the Principals’ synergy.

I reserve my final note to the persons who have been nominated. Gentlemen, we all presume you’ve been selected on account of your terrific reputations in your professional fields. I also guess you understand the law perhaps even better than many of us.

For you to sit pretty as meek beneficiaries of a contested process is a risky undertaking and is likely to stain your tenure should you eventually be confirmed. It may not be unwise to consider declining the appointment, even temporarily.

You risk getting your reputations mired in the ongoing political skirmishes. Be selfless and bold, and “chill” for Kenya! Or are you all saying “mta do”?

It is only by the selfless actions of the majority that we can ensure that the promise of a new dispensation does not become a new season of anomy.

Mr Kabando is the MP for Mukurweini and assistant minister for Sports and Youth Affairs.