By MAKAU MUTUA
Posted Saturday, November 12 2011 at 20:00
Posted Saturday, November 12 2011 at 20:00
It’s a fact that fanatical “supporters” of Prime Minister Raila Odinga in Luo Nyanza are his worst enemies.
I call them “supporters” in quotation marks because they are a disgrace to his campaign for State House.
With “friends” like these, Mr Odinga doesn’t need enemies. Last week in Kisumu, these “supporters” set upon the convoy of presidential hopeful Raphael Tuju.
They savagely attacked Mr Tuju’s rallies and stoned his vehicles smashing windows and injuring dozens. Let me put it plainly.
There’s no room for such brazen terror against political opponents in a democracy. Mr Odinga — a democrat — must explicitly and unequivocally condemn the attacks on Mr Tuju.
Condemning the attacks without mentioning Mr Tuju by name isn’t enough. Mr Odinga has decried intolerance, but failed to come to Mr Tuju’s defence by name.
ODM secretary-general Peter Anyang’ Nyong’o implied that Mr Tuju had staged the attacks. This is wrong, evasive, and unfortunate.
Doesn’t Mr Tuju have a democratic right — just like Mr Odinga — to seek the highest office in the land? I must have missed the article in the Constitution that forbids two Kenyans from the same tribe competing for the presidency.
Nowhere is it written in the Constitution that only one person from Luo Nyanza — Mr Odinga — can seek the presidency.
The unruly and intolerant conduct of Mr Odinga’s Nyanza “supporters” smacks of dictatorship, and must be nipped in the bud. I offer four incontrovertible reasons why so.
First, Mr Odinga’s primary claim on the presidency is a moral one. It hinges on his argument that he’s a reformer and democrat.
He suffered unspeakable abuses under Kanu. But time and time again he’s been a catalyst for change.
He has fought and suffered — more than any other politician alive today — for the rights that Kenyans enjoy.
Barbaric attacks
He didn’t fight for those rights to enjoy them alone. That’s why he must defend the right of every Kenyan to seek elective office. That must, in particular, include Mr Tuju.
Mr Odinga mustn’t allow himself to be seen as winking at barbaric attacks on Mr Tuju. If he does, he’ll lose his moral claim on the presidency.
Second, Mr Odinga’s condemnation of the attacks on Mr Tuju would strike a blow against tribalism. That’s because tribalists believe that only one person from each “tribe” should contest the presidency.
This benighted argument posits that producing more than one presidential candidate from one community spoils or splits the ethnic vote.
The contention is that “tribes” must vote in blocs like unthinking herds. This is how tribal kingpins develop a siege mentality on their communities.
It holds ethnic groups hostage to thieving and corrupt elites who bargain for personal in the name of “their people”.
That’s why tribalism has remained rife in Kenya. It’s the reason those who don’t support “their” ethnic kingpins are branded traitors.
But it’s ethnic kingpins and their supporters who are traitors to Kenya and the idea of nationhood.
That’s why Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka and Water minister Charity Ngilu are always at loggerheads. Each wants to be the Kamba kingpin. They accuse each other of “splitting” the Akamba.
Mr Musyoka thinks Mrs Ngilu will divide the Akamba to deny him their full backing. Among the Kikuyu, Environment minister John Michuki has declared Finance minister Uhuru Kenyatta “muthamaki” — Kikuyu king — and asked other Kikuyu presidential hopefuls to line up behind Jomo’s son. He sees Gichugu MP Martha Karua, Safina Leader Paul Muite and Gatanga MP Peter Kenneth as “splittists” out to divide the Kikuyu and hand State House to a non-Kikuyu.
Mr Odinga must underscore his nationalist and reformist credentials by openly — and loudly — rejecting the balkanisation of communities into political monoliths under a single kingpin.
There’s no better and more effective way to do so than to defend Mr Tuju’s right to campaign for the presidency unmolested in Luo Nyanza.
Mr Odinga would convince Kenyans that he’s a true democrat who believes in fair and open competition, especially from members of his own ethnic group.
He wants to be the president of all Kenyans, not just his community. He must condemn the goons who attacked Mr Tuju.
He can’t condone a policy similar to “Kanu only zones” under which the Kalenjin Rift Valley was a no-go area for the opposition.
Third, Mr Odinga must repudiate Mr Tuju’s attackers to show that he’s a strong leader who is unafraid of challenge.
Leaders who egg on their supporters to pour vitriol on competitors or physically molest opponents betray an underlying weakness.
Those who would use violence to suppress opponents don’t believe that they can win a straight and fair fight.
Mr Odinga and ODM claim to be the party of ideas and change. If so, why panic and resort to political skullduggery and street thuggery?
Would Mr Odinga’s “supporters” molest critics and create a republic of fear were he to become president? That’s why he must condemn the attacks on Mr Tuju to convince Kenyans that he won’t condone dictatorship.
Finally, Mr Odinga has claimed that the 2007 election was stolen from him and ODM. We all know the failures before and after the election that brought Kenya to the brink of collapse.
Intolerance, ethnic baiting, and heinous crimes caused untold loss of life and unspeakable abuses. We mustn’t allow the pathologies that cannibalised Kenya to rear their ugly heads again.
Mr Odinga must lead the way and allow our better angels to emerge. He can’t stand by as folks recreate a poisonous political climate by attacking opponents.
Mr Odinga must lead the way and allow our better angels to emerge. He can’t stand by as folks recreate a poisonous political climate by attacking opponents.
Makau Mutua is Dean and SUNY Distinguished Professor at the State University of New York at Buffalo Law School and Chair of the KHRC.
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