THE year 2012 is here. It is a year some of us have been waiting for, for the last 4 years. It is also the year when the rest of the world will be watching us to see whether the experiment of the National Accord, worked. By the end of this year we will know whether all the local, regional and international effort that went into holding Kenya together in 2007 was worth the trouble. We will also know whether the miracle of the new constitution that we passed in 2010, was overrated. This year we will learn whether we now have the capacity to resolve our political differences without resorting to violence.
As all these eyes are on Kenya another country will also be going to the poll. This November the only super power in the world decides, again, who amongst them will lead their country for the next four years. I bring America into this otherwise Kenyan discussion because as Kenyans were struggling to reconcile themselves to what we had done to each other under the guise of political competition in 2008, Americans went ahead and did the previously un-imaginable; they elected the first black man ever, to the White House.
During his swearing in the main comment on everybody’s lips was how this son of a Kenyan from Kogelo in Nyanza would have had absolutely no chance of being elected in Kenya, had he run for presidency in the land of his father;-I completely agreed!
However we learn from everything and I picked several lessons from the Kenyan and American elections. One was that the presidential election in Kenya was driven by the interests of the political elite, while the 2008 American election was driven by the interests of the average American citizen. Another lesson was that whilst Kenyan candidates campaigned on how the ‘national cake’ would be divided, their American peers competed on who was best able to deliver ‘cake’ to the widest group of the American public.
Then there was the fact that in Kenya our election was guided more by fear that things would get worse with candidate ‘x’, while the Americans were driven by hope that candidate ‘x’ would make things better. As Kenyans fought about which tribe would take over from the ‘Kikuyus’ in state house the Americans searched for the individual American best placed to take their country where the Americans wanted it to go after George W Bush.
In essence whereas both elections had the usual political mudslinging, drama, tension, lies, voter profiling, etc; the American election was guided by a search for the best ‘American’ to put in the White House at that time in America, while the Kenyan one was about which tribe’s candidate was better at the Helm of Kenya. The reason for this was simple: America had defined a value system for what made a ‘good American president’; we had not which meant our politics could not go beyond the ‘best tribe’ to lead.
I am one of those Kenyans who believe that there is no better nationality than what I am. We are a special people, even in God’s eyes, and we live in the most beautiful country in the world. In addition we have achieved in the 4 years what even the only super power in the world today would not have achieved in 50: a complete overhaul of our constitution, peacefully.
During the last Kenya National Dialogue & Reconciliation Conference Madam Graca Machel challenged us as Kenyans to find our ‘DNA’-that distinct ‘thing’ that tells us apart from other nationalities, that we share across our diversities. 2012 is our opportunity to do this and all we need is a critical mass of voters to discard ‘Siasa Mzee’ the same way over 60% of us discarded the old constitution.
This group, that could be as little as 100,000 of 40 Million, will commit themselves to use their time and resources to shame and denounce anyone who attempts to use tribalism, 50/- or narratives of ‘them’ versus ‘us’, to win any public office. We will then replace them with ‘Siasa Mpya’ politicians; aspirants whose politics are about hope, unity, nation-hood and ‘Kenyaness. Public officers whose policies will be driven by the interests of the average Kenyan Voter.
My call to action this week goes out to those Kenyans privileged to shape public opinion. Media personalities, religious leaders, private sector moguls, ‘celebs’, etc; if you have some influence over another Kenyan your country needs you. Let all of us also do something else that Kenyans are known for. Let us pray for our nation every day this year. Finally let us step out believing that what we hope for is real: and that which we cannot see, exists.
In 2012 we will show the rest of the world what it means to be ‘Kenyan’: define for them what we stand for, who we are, and what we can do. We will prove, yet again, that Kenyans are a special ‘kinda’ people. This is Siasa Mpya. Be part of it by writing to info@siasampya.com.
The writer comments on topical issues.
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