Is Raila such a monster that his democratic right to go to court to challenge Uhuru’s victory should be absolutely opposed; yet he said “Kibaki tosha” and his father Jaramogi Oginga Odinga said: “without Kenyatta’s freedom and leadership there would be no independence for Kenya,” both in favour of Kikuyu presidents?
Either people are completely ignorant of history, democracy and need to defend rights, and therefore need civic education on democracy, or having forgotten the horrors of one party dictatorship, the less informed members of society are hankering for a second dictatorship led by one of their own. My experiences with dictatorship however taught me that however imperfect democracy is, nothing is worse than dictatorship. I must therefore always stand opposed to it, even if everyone else in Kenya supports it. Dictatorship – even of opinion – has never been and will never be an option for me.
Whatever I think of the merits and demerits of Raila’s petition to court, I must defend his right to go to court because I cannot bear the thought of living in a society where Raila or anybody else is not free to go to court if one wishes. A country that does not legally allow its citizen to go to court or whose society pressurizes anyone not to go to court merely because it disagrees is not a country or society I would like to live in. Even if we think Raila’s petition is too weak to win, he must be free to take and lose it in court. My first reason to support Raila’s right to go to court is that we just came out of a hard fight for democracy that should allow Raila as a citizen of this country to go to court and challenge anybody there.
The second reason is that Raila has a God-given right to challenge Uhuru, IEBC or anybody else, which is the first right we exercise at birth when we cry. Third, though I am Kikuyu and Raila Luo, in defending his right to go to court, I also defend my own right to defend Raila’s right to go to court without anybody labelling me ‘traitor’ or ‘enemy’ unless we want to go the Rwanda way. Indeed, I define, claim and defend my Kenyan-ness by defending Raila’s democratic rights as a Kenyan and human being. Fourth, Raila has a right to go to court because for eight years, he fought for this right and now is the time to enjoy it. One cannot invest so much time and suffering fighting for a right and then be asked to give it up. The greater tragedy is that this right cannot be given up without giving up democracy itself.
Fifth, taking one’s electoral grievance to court is part of our electoral process as provided for in the constitution. Therefore, asking Raila not to go to court is violating our constitution and making it impossible to have free and fair elections. Sixth, when Raila takes his complaints to court, he does not only do the right thing legally and constitutionally, he also does the right thing morally by avoiding calling his supporters to the streets where they could unleash and provoke violence. Seven, if Raila feels aggrieved but unable to go to court, we would have to admit the rule of law is dead.
This admission would carry with it terrible consequences. As the Kikuyu proverb says, “one who is beaten into losing a case forcibly comes back when stronger, but not so one who loses a case justly.” Five years ago, our youth took their anger and frustration to the streets because their leaders said they could get no justice in courts. Eighth, in supporting Raila’s right to go to court, one is not making a conclusion about his petition one way or the other.
Whatever laymen feel about Raila’s petition is irrelevant because it will be up to judges to adjudicate on the matter one way or the other bearing in mind they have the heaviest responsibility to do justice which we must all accept. Ninth, when people are reluctant to support other’s right to complain against whatever they consider unjust, it reminds me of a story called: “Mtego wa panya hushika waliokuwemo na wasio kuwemo.” A farmer had put a trap in the store to catch a rat. One rat saw it and sought help from a cow, a goat and a cock all who refused to help saying it was none of their business. Ultimately, the trap caught a snake that bit and killed the farmer when he went to check. As people mourned, the cock was slaughtered for them.
After the funeral, the goat and the cow were also slaughtered for more mourners, making the rat’s problem, everybody’s business. During the Second World War, something similar happened when Pastor Niemoller would not speak for Jews, communists or trade unionists because he was not one of them but had no one to speak for him when he was later arrested by Hitler’s Nazis. The culture of instilling fear and silencing dissent is creeping back. Those of us who suffered dictatorship in the past must remind others that political intolerance is not something we can allow back without terrible consequences. In his book, “The Man Died”, Wole Soyinka says when we see an injustice and keep quiet, the man in us dies. When somebody tries to silence Raila and we say nothing, we let the man in us die. Individual silence is our collective suicide.
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