Monday, February 20, 2012

Kenyans must first reject ‘old wineskins’ to move forward



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By DOMINIC WAMUGUNDA 
Posted  Saturday, February 18  2012 at  20:20
There is a very important statement that Jesus Christ made, which if listened to carefully by all of us would be quite relevant to our current social and political circumstances.
It had something to do with the way they stored wine those days and it went something like this: “One does not keep new wine in old wineskins”.
From the little that I know, “wine” in Christian scripture is a symbol of joy. By saying what he said about wine and how it should be stored, the founder of the Christian faith must have been alluding to how the people he was addressing himself to ought to organise themselves in view of the good news he had brought to them. This good news required that they move from the old tired models, to which they were attached, to new ways of thinking.
I would want to relate what I am saying to our political behaviour patterns in this country. I do realise of course that some people may also want us to investigate the governance issues in the churches, which are perhaps more directly connected to what Jesus was saying. Let us make that a story for another day.
When a keen observer looks at what is happening in this country, it is quite clear that in spite of us having promulgated a new Constitution, there is still a good group of so-called leaders who have no intellectual or moral capacity to move to the next level.
The other day I followed the argument in Parliament between Prime Minister Raila Odinga and Eldoret North MP William Ruto.
As they went on, I remembered that at some point Mr Odinga was the Secretary General of Kanu. Mr Ruto was a key player within that same party not to mention that they were together when this country experienced our worst crisis yet after the 2007 elections.
Those of us who have always thought differently know that the model of political activity that was put in place by the Kenyatta regime and articulated by former President Moi is our biggest undoing as a nation. The Railas, the Kalonzos, the Uhurus, the Rutos, the Saitotis, the Mudavadis and others whose political induction was during the Kenyatta or the Moi era are old wineskins.
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Their perception of politics is intrigue, big money, doublespeak, tribal considerations and sometimes misinformation. Our new constitutional dispensation calls for a different type of a leader.
The type of new wineskins we need as we map out a new Kenya is an individual who did not see the constitutional debate as a tool in a political battle but who sincerely intended to make this country a truly civilised society.
Dr Wamugunda is dean of students and sociology lecturer at the University of Nairobi. wamugundaw@uonbi.ac.ke

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