Saturday, March 26, 2011

Here Is How We Can Transform Politics


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Share/Save/Bookmark In the last few weeks our politics has deteriorated to a level that we did not reach even pre-2007. Since Luis Moreno Ocampo suggested that Uhuru Kenyatta, William Ruto, Hussein Ali, Henry Kosgey, Francis Muthaura and my friend Joshua Sang are the ones holding greatest responsibility for the 2007 violence, our politicians have literally lost all direction and focus. They spend all their time figuring out how to leverage the news into ammunition to fight their political rivals. They are not even trying to camouflage the political rallies over 15 months before the next election.
Our leaders, most of who are young educated men have thrown caution to the wind and are willing to take Kenya beyond the precipice they kept telling us we got to in 200, as they compete on who has more political clout, or followers, or influence, than the other. Tribal sentiments, ethnic stereotypes and vulgar insults never seen in the history of Kenyan politics are coming from people we thought knew better. Those not doing it are either funding those doing it, or sitting gleefully waiting for the country to burn up. What we are watching is tribal politics at its very worst, as 'tribal chieftains' pursue short-term supremacy agendas with an eye to 2012. The national agenda has been completely forgotten.
I find myself battling with these questions (i) Why would Ruto and Uhuru offer to support Eugene's presidential bid, when they are also running for President? (ii) Why would Kalonzo insist that a deferral is possible despite all indications that his is a lost cause? (iii) Why would Raila keep insisting on speaking about KKK despite all attempts by everyone, to move away from this term? (iv) Why would some sections of government suggest to the international community, that keeping the ICC cases on could lead to tribal violence? (v) Why would Kibaki keep silent as all these is going on? Then the answer hits me right on the forehead .... because they can! We have allowed them the space to do it.
Maybe we need to get into that political space that these 200 or so individuals believe exclusively belongs to them. Maybe men and women who love Kenya should step up and exchange words, in public rallies, in not-so-private spaces, and in private, with the Ocampo Six and their supporters, and with those using the ICC to fight the Ocampo Six. Maybe all this will provide an opportunity for a new set of men and women to step up and take responsibility, and take influence away from them, as we did in the Pre-Referendum Campaign, in the ICC Process, and in the nominations fiasco.
The 1.4 million Kenyans who signed up in support of the ICC process did not do so so that Raila, Kalonzo, Uhuru and Ruto, or others sitting by the sidelines, can use it to fight their personal political battles with each other, in their bids for President. The ICC process cannot be cheapened to this level. We support this process because we need help to start the fight against impunity.'We Can Do It!' may be an overused cliche but these are four powerful words. A small idea grew into a powerful campaign against impunity, and ensured that the ICC Process stayed the course despite terrible resistance from sections of our political establishment. We even provoked some sections of government to try and raise their own signatures! We achieved ALL this without a single politician leading us. From zero to over 1.4 million in just over 60 days!
It does not take much to get it done. From a campaign that started as a discussion between two individuals, we developed a process that reached millions of people locally and internationally. We could register on simple forms in tents or through volunteers in every part of the country, on sign up on online sites, or sign via SMS. We saw Facebook at work, tweets sent out, and emails circulated to make thousands of friends. We even tried out public demonstrations.
Can we come together and move this campaign to the next level? Can these Kenyans positively affect the political space that is being polluted by our current members of Parliament?
Do we have leaders amongst these individuals who can rally the rest of us, mobilize us into political rallies, get us to volunteer our time and resources, and unite us across our tribes, religions and economic structures, into a new constitution ideology?
Do we have enough individuals who can stand as Independent Candidates in 2012 as our representatives rather than representatives of retrogressive, repressive, directionless political parties?
My proposal is that we threaten the public/political space that they believe is their exclusive domain. Some of us who have never been politicians should go out and challenge them in their space. The agenda must be taken away from the Ocampo Six and/or their rivals because these guys will do everything they can get away with to achieve their ends.
Has the time come for a Network of Independent Candidates (NIC) to step out and freshen up our politics, to compete with the current brood of politicians, for our nation's future?
Could this be a good cause for our 1.4 million Kenyans to support?

Ngunjiri is Executive Director of Change Associates.

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