Post by adongo12345 on Dec 12, 2005 23:56:14 GMT 3
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By Karanja wa Ng'ang'a (Monday Standard 12/12/05)
These are interesting times. After years of civic education, decades of political struggle for democracy and winning real democratic space, we have woken up to a new political dawn in Kenya. Where the citizens' expectations are in the next century and the ruling elite is in the last century.
We have witnessed how an opposition consisting of second generation intertribal politicians has humbled the Government by defeating a referendum on the proposed constitution. We have witnessed a desperate President firing the whole Cabinet. We have seen a third of politicians reject Cabinet appointments.
A few years ago, none of these things would have been possible. What is happening and how did we get here?
There was a time when the Constitution would be changed in minutes. The vote would be unanimous not because the Koigis and Orengos of the time liked it, but because opposing it would have landed them in jail.
Those were the days of wapende wasipende. We were a nation of sheep and the mtukufu rais was our feared and revered shepherd. We had a political culture where we obeyed because we feared. This made the job of the President very easy. So long as the instruments of repression, that is, the police and the army were well looked after, the ruling class would sleep well.
I was in Parliament the day they changed the constitution to make Kenya a one-party state. After the unanimous vote, it was Njonjo who spoke. He said: "We shall now sleep in peace". It was a short-lived peace, for the December 12 Movement was secretly contemplating a few nightmares for Moi. And soon there would be a military coup attempt in 1982, Mwakenya in 1986, and clamour for multi-party democracy in 1989.
Radical change
Intense civic education transformed us from political sheep to people who could say "no" to the ruling elite. The end of the old order came when Moi was forced into accepting the return of multi-party politics.
The authorities later reformed the electoral process, eliminating the opportunities and loopholes, which made vote rigging possible. Then came 2002.
After Moi, Kenyans had changed radically. They had tasted freedom. We had new TV and radio stations, all adjusting to this drama of new freedom. The intelligentsia, which had been muted, found its voice. Information, which once belonged to Government, became a tool of choice for FM radio presenters. And the Government was unable to deal with this new power of the press and the power of the people.
Remember a Cabinet minister's shock when she was caught by the press in dubious circumstances? And this, as we all know, was the heart and soul of radio talk shows. And they had a field-day at her expense — a Government minister with immense political clout.
Yet, neither the court nor the ministerial flag on her car could save her. The radio presenters had her and the more she struggled, the more the presenters went gaga.
Why was she fighting a losing battle? Because she did not understand the new power of the Press, the very power she had fought for. She was trapped in an institution of Moi style governance when a minister could shut anyone up.
Remember also Lucy Kibaki’s vigil at the Nation Centre? In the presence of a senior police officer and TV cameras, she stormed the newsroom, harassed journalists minding their own business and confiscated cell phones.
What did she want? She wanted respect for herself and the President. She did not understand why the media could not kneel at the altar of State power. She belonged to the past where Kenyans sang and danced for the President and when the role of the press was to make the President look wise, clever, powerful and impregnable.
Sharing the spoils
The problem with 2003 revolution was simply this: We replaced Moi with his friends who had had a last minute conversion to ideals of good governance and democracy. Inside them was the Kanu bug, alive and active. They were all Moi clones. Yet, we built a mountain of hope on them, believing that they would deliver us to our political nirvana.
No doubt they soon started the fight that has wounded us the most, MoU. The Memorandum of Understanding between Raila’s ex-Kanu outfit renamed LDP and the Kibaki-led NAK was an agreement on how to share the spoils. It was based on the old politics that people get into politics to "eat" and that the best way to do so was to share Cabinet positions in a way that vested power in the members of the winning coalition.
The MoU should have been based on the implementation of political programmes arising from ideologies of the political parties. In other words, Raila’s group would say: when we win we shall eradicate poverty by the following method. Then they would get positions in Government to implement those strategies.
And for me, the crisis we are now in is not very different. The Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) has no stated ideology or development plan. People join it not for what it is, but for what they hate in Kibaki’s Government.
And there is a lot to hate in Kibaki’s Government. The strength of the chain is its weakest link. So Kibaki’s Government is characterised by his inability to stop internal bickering; his "see, hear and say nothing" practice; the arrogance of Kiraitu Murungi and the repugnance of Chris Murungaru.
And for the poor and dispossessed, the contradictions of an unending daily struggle for the basics while some people earn a salary of Sh2.5 million a month. At the core of his problems is the failure to understand the personality of the new Kenyan citizen, who said goodbye to Moi and the old order.
Kibaki, Karume, Nyachae and Michuki were schooled in the ways of Kanu. The bug is alive and active in them. We need ODM to dissociate itself with those infected with the Kanu bug.
The only way to do that is to lift the discourse from the level of personalities to political ideologies and programmes. Are they up to it or shall we wait for another generation of the grandchildren of Kenyatta and Odinga?
The writer is a Kenyan living and working in Toronto, Canada
By Karanja wa Ng'ang'a (Monday Standard 12/12/05)
These are interesting times. After years of civic education, decades of political struggle for democracy and winning real democratic space, we have woken up to a new political dawn in Kenya. Where the citizens' expectations are in the next century and the ruling elite is in the last century.
We have witnessed how an opposition consisting of second generation intertribal politicians has humbled the Government by defeating a referendum on the proposed constitution. We have witnessed a desperate President firing the whole Cabinet. We have seen a third of politicians reject Cabinet appointments.
A few years ago, none of these things would have been possible. What is happening and how did we get here?
There was a time when the Constitution would be changed in minutes. The vote would be unanimous not because the Koigis and Orengos of the time liked it, but because opposing it would have landed them in jail.
Those were the days of wapende wasipende. We were a nation of sheep and the mtukufu rais was our feared and revered shepherd. We had a political culture where we obeyed because we feared. This made the job of the President very easy. So long as the instruments of repression, that is, the police and the army were well looked after, the ruling class would sleep well.
I was in Parliament the day they changed the constitution to make Kenya a one-party state. After the unanimous vote, it was Njonjo who spoke. He said: "We shall now sleep in peace". It was a short-lived peace, for the December 12 Movement was secretly contemplating a few nightmares for Moi. And soon there would be a military coup attempt in 1982, Mwakenya in 1986, and clamour for multi-party democracy in 1989.
Radical change
Intense civic education transformed us from political sheep to people who could say "no" to the ruling elite. The end of the old order came when Moi was forced into accepting the return of multi-party politics.
The authorities later reformed the electoral process, eliminating the opportunities and loopholes, which made vote rigging possible. Then came 2002.
After Moi, Kenyans had changed radically. They had tasted freedom. We had new TV and radio stations, all adjusting to this drama of new freedom. The intelligentsia, which had been muted, found its voice. Information, which once belonged to Government, became a tool of choice for FM radio presenters. And the Government was unable to deal with this new power of the press and the power of the people.
Remember a Cabinet minister's shock when she was caught by the press in dubious circumstances? And this, as we all know, was the heart and soul of radio talk shows. And they had a field-day at her expense — a Government minister with immense political clout.
Yet, neither the court nor the ministerial flag on her car could save her. The radio presenters had her and the more she struggled, the more the presenters went gaga.
Why was she fighting a losing battle? Because she did not understand the new power of the Press, the very power she had fought for. She was trapped in an institution of Moi style governance when a minister could shut anyone up.
Remember also Lucy Kibaki’s vigil at the Nation Centre? In the presence of a senior police officer and TV cameras, she stormed the newsroom, harassed journalists minding their own business and confiscated cell phones.
What did she want? She wanted respect for herself and the President. She did not understand why the media could not kneel at the altar of State power. She belonged to the past where Kenyans sang and danced for the President and when the role of the press was to make the President look wise, clever, powerful and impregnable.
Sharing the spoils
The problem with 2003 revolution was simply this: We replaced Moi with his friends who had had a last minute conversion to ideals of good governance and democracy. Inside them was the Kanu bug, alive and active. They were all Moi clones. Yet, we built a mountain of hope on them, believing that they would deliver us to our political nirvana.
No doubt they soon started the fight that has wounded us the most, MoU. The Memorandum of Understanding between Raila’s ex-Kanu outfit renamed LDP and the Kibaki-led NAK was an agreement on how to share the spoils. It was based on the old politics that people get into politics to "eat" and that the best way to do so was to share Cabinet positions in a way that vested power in the members of the winning coalition.
The MoU should have been based on the implementation of political programmes arising from ideologies of the political parties. In other words, Raila’s group would say: when we win we shall eradicate poverty by the following method. Then they would get positions in Government to implement those strategies.
And for me, the crisis we are now in is not very different. The Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) has no stated ideology or development plan. People join it not for what it is, but for what they hate in Kibaki’s Government.
And there is a lot to hate in Kibaki’s Government. The strength of the chain is its weakest link. So Kibaki’s Government is characterised by his inability to stop internal bickering; his "see, hear and say nothing" practice; the arrogance of Kiraitu Murungi and the repugnance of Chris Murungaru.
And for the poor and dispossessed, the contradictions of an unending daily struggle for the basics while some people earn a salary of Sh2.5 million a month. At the core of his problems is the failure to understand the personality of the new Kenyan citizen, who said goodbye to Moi and the old order.
Kibaki, Karume, Nyachae and Michuki were schooled in the ways of Kanu. The bug is alive and active in them. We need ODM to dissociate itself with those infected with the Kanu bug.
The only way to do that is to lift the discourse from the level of personalities to political ideologies and programmes. Are they up to it or shall we wait for another generation of the grandchildren of Kenyatta and Odinga?
The writer is a Kenyan living and working in Toronto, Canada