WHY WE NEED ELECTORAL REFORM IN KENYA

As any wise man will attest, no army in this world is strong enough to stop an idea whose time has come. Another variation is, “an invasion of armies can be resisted but an invasion of ideas cannot.”  This statement gained credence about 200 years ago when it was quipped by the famous playwright and poet Victor Marie Hugo. Another candid statement whose veracity shines ever so bright today as it did when it was uttered by liberal –minded American musician, activist and film maker Frank Zappa, ‘there is more buffoonery around than hydrogen unfortunately with a longer shelf life’. But I digress.

Kenya is a land of great dissimilitude and variance. On one hand we have quite a vibrant and highly educated population. Few are the countries in Africa that boast the kind of wholesome education that brings forth the all-round human capital as the one dished out in Kenya. For many years we have been known as the harbinger of ‘peace’ or rather ‘calm’. This wholesome reputation has seen many of our warring neighbours come to us to try to broker truces and sustainable peace processes. They even seek consultation on how we do it but being amiable guys we do not charge a fee, you only have to pay for your hotel rooms and cater for your delegation. Moreover, our economy has had more episodes of the upside rather than the downside and the Lord was gracious enough to embellish our land with a coterie of tourist attractions. The negative side is our unenviable record in the fight against poverty even for the employed, unemployment, free education that is free of learning and the conquering of a few diseases. A ruthlessly aggressive entrepreneurial culture that can aptly be described as capitalism without a human face is a norm for us. Others call it the man eat man phenomenon where as long as you make money without killing anyone or getting in jail then you have made yourself some smart money. Also rewarding of characters based on sycophancy-based loyalty sticks out for ridicule like a sore thumb. In a previous post I have mentioned all the virtues sacrificed by such a venture which I urge anyone interested to just track back and confirm. But where we fail miserably is our tackling of Electoral reform.

It hurt so bad that it literally seared off my conscience when I heard our apparently ‘democratically-elected’ president brush off talks about electoral reform with an un-statesmanlike flourish with a statement to the effect, “the election season is over, if you want to discuss electoral reform then do it with my duly-anointed successor in 2022.” This is a cause of malaise for me as I ask myself many questions. If a snake were to invade the sanctity of my bedroom, would I leave the house to the satisfaction of the snake or would I have driven it out? Why wouldn’t a democratically elected leader not want to further strengthen the credentials of a system which he is confident of and which duly gave him his mandate? What is our dear ‘Father of the nation’ engaging in that is so important that he cannot spare a day or two to mull the electoral future of a nation where he promises to be a honorable but still ordinary citizen after retirement? Does this guy really value a legacy? On the 8^th of August this nation went to the General Election. Despite the irreducible minimums implored by the opposition which were no doubt constructive additions being ignored, we still proceeded full speed ahead with an incomplete process. Consequently, the Presidential result of that poll was so tangled in a nebulous haze, unverifiable nay unjustifiable to such an extent that the venerable bench at the Supreme Court had no alternative but to call for a fresh presidential election.

The President-elect whose victory had been justifiably invitiated was beside himself with fury and consternation. At every twist and turn he referred to that bench created to referee our Electoral process as rascals, deviants, miscreants and a few other terms you can ill afford to utter in a ‘ruracio’ to describe either your future mother-in-Law’s facial appearance or mien if you are still in need of a wife! He threatened to deal with them after we finished going through the motions of the Elections. In adherence to the letter but not the spirit of the ruling he steam-rolled the IEBC urging them to finish ‘this thing’ fast so as to resume normal life. The part about adherence to the tenets of legitimacy, constitutionally laid guidelines and most importantly fix the errors that led to the nullification in the first place were of negligible consequence to Jubilee head-honchos. IEBC was prodded in the ribs. Opposition leader, Raila Odinga and his party saw this folly and chose to abstain, vacating the entire exercise. One Commissioner, a brave and conscientious lady, a laudable daughter of this land resigned when the allure of independence at the Electoral body varnished. The chairman appeared set to follow suit but ominously changed tune to assure that all was well. After that one could not statistically and with certitude ascertain where the ruling coalition stopped and the Electoral Commission began. A new petition to bar the poll was pole-axed by an incomprehensible and cosmetic ‘national holiday’ gazette just before the Election Day. The day came and went without as much as a whimper in the form of ceremony in many sections of the republic. As things stand right now the legitimacy of the president’s mandate is under question from large swathes of this nation, many who simply passed over the October 26^th event as an over glorified cassava harvesting day.  

As one who has even produced an entire video uploaded on YouTube urging all Kenyans to come out in force and make their voices heard electorally, egg is the only thing I have all over my face as commiseration for my troubles. We have heard allegations that despite no support from the census figures, a conglomeration of two mega-tribes and about three small ones usually suffices to yield an unassailable tyranny of numbers! What do the 38 odd ones form, a ‘tyranny of the willing down-trodden’? In token of that, and in good faith I sought to address the issue by making a clarion call to all adult citizens to never coop themselves up in the house on the material day but come out in force to assure of their futures electorally through the vote. Little did I know that the Election Matrix in Kenya had more elements than just the mere voter turn-out or the population size of the registered voters but other extraneous elements inclusive of but not restricted to weather, communication network reliability, integrity of transmission of raw data, will of the business community; the determinant of all being the guys tallying the results. To cut the long story short, we need Electoral reform not just for today but for posterity. Why should we waste whole days, running biro-pens rugged, putting marked papers into a bucket, have ink soiling our fingers then hold vigils waiting for a predetermined outcome? I am concerned that despite high intellectual acuity associated with many Kenyans, members of the winning side are usually blinded from both conscious introspection of the form and shape of their victory. They fail to ask this valuable question. Is this triumph the product of the same ballot papers they pain-stakingly queued to cast or just some cooked up statistics? In ecstasy they simply jubilate oblivious to an interrogation of the integrity of the figures they celebrate.  Are they not aware that the side of the towel that wipes your derriere today could be flipped over to wipe your face tomorrow?

As this is not the book of Lamentations penned by the under-appreciated Prophet Jeremiah, I will now give the reasons we need electoral reform:

• Despite the fallacies we hear out here about despotic, insecure and murderous individuals being called ‘strong-men’ in actual sense it takes an incorruptible, honest, God-fearing, loving, progressive and objective leader to run a democracy. One who is willing to freely and fairly accept the will of the populace without the need for bullying, cajoling, arm-twisting, intimidation, deceit and out-right violence to gain power. This can only be made possible when every incumbent makes it his principle agenda to improve on the previous system even in an infinitesimally small way.

•  There is nothing as important if not heart-warming as even the mere illusion of inclusivity. Kenya is currently a fractious lump of restless nation states with different tribal and cultural identities. We need reform to convert our election process from an ethnic census to an objective and policy-based initiative.

• ·       We need to greatly reduce the powers the current dispensation ‘arrogates’ to the Presidency. Consequently, the attainment for the presidency has become synonymous with the proverbial ‘reaching the promised land / Canaan.’ Thanks to our winner-takes-all system coupled with the inordinate love for primitive accumulation of wealth and the allure cast by affluence devoid of enterprise; strife for this singular seat takes on diabolical meaning. Winning becomes the chance to reward cronies, dish out positions to allies and ruthlessly punish all who did not vote for you even with economic extinction. This is a zero some affair as we cannot foster universal growth by segregation in improving regions in isolation instead of as a whole unit.  Historically, blood-letting has become the only predictable outcome of the presidential election in Kenya bar the 2002 one. Funerals are no way to grow a nation. Yet we continue cling to such puerile politics and still lay claim to wisdom!

• It is a Constitutional obligation as per Chapter 7 Article 82 to continually improve and foster the autonomy of the IEBC. So let no one purport that it is PR for him to engage in this much needed noble venture. It is not a body cast in stone and ought to be dynamic to flow with the times and as per the wishes of the citizens of the republic. An important point to our leaders is that the law was made for the people and not the other way round.

• As stated above large sections have of this country feel so left out of their rightful share of the national cake as to mull the possibility of secession whether amicable or otherwise. This is usually a painful process but the threat of pain is scant intimidation to one who feels he has nothing to lose. Instead of the no election reform talk, a responsible president would seek to heal rifts in the nation after such a divisive process.

• The parity as envisaged by the gender-rule is yet to be attained. Deliberations and a serious plan of action need to be formulated to this end.

• Electoral malpractices need to be clamped down upon. Abuse of state resources, campaign rallies led by civil servants, intimidation and beguiling of voters are ills that have to be seriously and in actual austerity dealt with. Incitement to violence should not just be frowned upon but be grounds for disqualification from elections forthwith ‘por-aeturnum’. As one Nicolo Machiavelli once averred, “For humans only punishment and enforcement can engender good behavior.”

•   The move to both an electronic and futuristic voting system is something that has to be accorded the solemn gravity it deserves. Nations near and far are modernizing to have Electronic polling systems. Kenya, the market leader in many aspects cannot afford to be a pedestrian in this regard as her peers motor ahead to modernization if not digitization. Every system like a suit of armour has chinks. We should work to improve on our fallibilities so as to improve our credibility rating. We should not just procure systems and arrogantly seek to abuse the attendant Super-Administrator status on offer to subvert the will of the electorate. For the non-ICT practitioners, the Super-admin has the privilege to alter anything and everything including the data in a computer networking system. It is this immoral behaviour, callous in form that is the real reason perennially our presidential poll becomes a macabre blood bath festival.

As a means to secure his legacy, I would urge Mr. Uhuru Kenyatta to expeditiously call to table a multi-spectral forum on Electoral reform. As such is an ultimate surety, it would augur well for him to mid-wife the process because as surely as day follows night reform will triumph over conservation of the status-quo. Back in the day slave trade, apartheid and colonialism flourished but they all crumbled. We the august Catholic Church resisted ecclesiastical reforms but Martin Luther ringed the changes in our evangelism. Your political mentor, Daniel T. Moi entrenched a de-jure one-party state which eventually capitulated and the purveyors of democracy had their way. Belligerence consequent to majority notwithstanding, we must accept that electoral fraud can never be a conduit to yield leadership that befits the image of our heritage of splendour.

THE DAY OUR HSC LOST ITS SHINE

H

SC is an acronym for the Head of State Commendation. It is recognition awarded by the President of Kenya as reverence for outstanding or distinguished services rendered to the nation by individuals in various facets of society. This is ostensibly on advice of a National Honours and Awards Committee in the President’s office. No less the current president is on record offering profuse yet pedestrian lamentations about corruption cartels even he is powerless to act on in this same office. However, this may be a minor blip not meant to debase the integrity of this committee. Memories of the Greek legend Sisyphus who was condemned to a bog-standard life of pushing a boulder uphill only to watch it without ceremony do the downhill slalom comes to mind.

The day was the 12^th of December 2017. It is the Independence Day for the Republic of Kenya, popularly known as Jamhuri day. Chronologically, this one was our 54^th. This is quintessentially supposed to be the most important day in the Kenyan national calendar, but events this year have only to be confined to the nadirs of living memory. This year the day had many peculiarities, not less the low turn-out of Kenyans many who feel they may not have gained anything from this independence. Historically, our forefathers were in the struggle for independence with the aim to get out of Poverty, Illiteracy and disease which they felt had been let rife on them thanks to foreign occupation. Their land was seized and all factors of commerce were delivered to them only in a trickle. To most intents and purposes these aims have not been achieved. Many Kenyans feel disenfranchised because their voices had been doused electorally by the announcement of a not so popular incumbent as their president for a fresh mandate. I shall not pay credence to the absurdity that occurred on the 26^th October as I risk engaging in an unavailing discourse on a nullity. I would rather discuss King Julien day or fly a kite!

Electoral fatigue had seared every muscle and sinew of the populace of the Republic. Many enterprises had been pushed to the limits of existence by the politicking. Many could not let go the chance to take their much deserved rest. In recent times they have had to deal with innumerable upheavals. What with the weekly burying of kinsmen, innocent victims of disproportionate, callous and extrajudicial execution by the same Police service tasked with their protection? For the survivors teargas, burning tyres and barricaded motorways had become the staple. Also the opposition leader; who many feel was the real victor in the Electoral race was busy threatening to either constitutionally or otherwise swear himself into power, the 5^th President of Kenya. To add to that unemployment which has left many disillusioned, vulnerable, restless and destitute. Everything that could go wrong just obeyed Murphy’s Law to add impetus to the simmering cauldron that was the careening of this day into the deeper echelons of the absurd.

Everything that I have described above pales in comparison to the spectacle that transpired on the material day. Everything was tailored to script and all that had to be pretentiously applauded was. Then came the time for the award of the Head of State Commendations where everything tapered to a hot mess. Shock and consternation is the only emotion that greeted anyone who awaited acts of valour, patriotism and enterprise to be rewarded. We had deserving candidates like Fatuma Zarika and Joshua Oigara who were awarded this high honour based on great achievement and celebration of merit. We cheered those to no end. Those are surely not the grouse of this piece.

President Uhuru Kenyatta in shock at the list presented before him

The raison d’etre of this post was the list of awardees rife with undeserving characters who I will not denigrate this piece by mentioning in name. Every cadre of the abysmal was exalted to high heavens. For all I could gather, that list reeked of the acrid stench of ethnic chauvinism. An inordinate number of individuals were feted for merely just being in politically correct tribal groupings at the right time. Who really chose where they were to be born anyway? Characters whose only claim to fame is preaching for ‘peace’ without Truth and Justice were cream of the crop. Others were people who suffer from incorrigible amnesia of the facts of nationhood. Hypocritical, conniving and chameleonistic men and women were commemorated as the true sons of our soil. Not to forget characters who vociferously in text dabbled in the mighty abomination of attempting to publicly embarrass the few venerable practitioners of the legal profession in the nation, possessing the grit of heart and mind to do what is right even against the grain of insurmountable opposition from the incumbency. We adjudged to be honest the very intellectual dishonesty that is the scourge of this nation. Others were feted for being parochial ideologues and sycophants basically regurgitating the will of the ruling coalition whether to the detriment of Kenya or not. On that fateful afternoon, we reveled in mediocrity and apotheosized primitive accumulation of wealth without enterprise. We in negative faith worshiped at the altar of nihilistic vanity. We virtually etched in marble the chronicles of a guy who was nursing a hangover on the polling queue while stuffing his face silly with a puree of maize and beans. Collectively, we profaned the name of the Lord by apportioning honour to religious leaders who preach anything else but the authentic gospel of Jesus Christ. We reviled heroism choosing to carouse the cowardice if not indignity of morally reprehensible characters. We chastised professionalism choosing to proffer song and dance to the agents of favouritism, tribalism and malice. We built a shrine in honour of injustice and cremated our national values, pilfering those ashes to the four winds of the earth. We were so lost in raucous cheer of those who sharpened their weapons to protect cabals & cartels that suckle the life-blood of this country rather than trumpet the feats of unsung heroes; teachers who whet the minds that build commerce and industry. We castigated service all the while fanning the self-effacing flame that is the grandeur of the big-man syndrome. It was a great dishonor to our heritage of splendour to accord any kind of honour to such undeserving characters.

I have so many questions which may not all get asked in the bounds of this piece:

1.      Where in this scheme was the award for the brave, distinguished and conscientious Kenyan lady Roselyn Akombe who did the unheralded singularity in Kenyan public life? She unflinchingly resigned from a constitutional commission in neglect of attractive perks and all, an oddity in Kenya.

2.      What award was given to the young ladies who selflessly gave up their own lives in a heart-rending attempt to save their colleagues from the inferno that engulfed the dormitories at Moi Girls High School, Nairobi?

3.     Were the Malkia Strikers feted?

4.     Where was the award to the faceless majority who braved hunger, cold, snakes, hyenas, tribal militia to turn up at the polling stations twice in 60 days?

5.     Where was post-humous pride and honour for the unflinching souls that defied police bullets to protest the malaise that we all admit is the undoing of our electoral system?

6.     Where was the award appropriated to the Chief Justice and three of his Supreme court colleagues who in good conscience refused to uphold the unverifiable and totally entangled if not nebulous results of a bungled poll?

7.     Now that we were celebrating the bizarre; where was one for the slay-queen of the year, the bank tunnel-diggers, abominable narco-preneurs and all the teeming shisha-heads?

8.     Where were awards for techie Kennedy Kachwanya, The No-chills-blog guy or Cyprian Nyakundi guys who blog on issues of importance to the down-trodden proletariat?

9.     Have Baimungi M’ Marete and General Chui ever been singled out to be celebrated for the sacrifices they gave to liberate this nation and afterwards calling out the nascent government of the day for disproportionate land allocation system post-independence? They were basically the first opposition entities this country has known.

10.  Where was an award for Miguna Miguna, the unrelenting live-wire opposition battering ram and a voice of reason?

I could go on and on but what will be the wisdom in that? Is the institution of the Presidency still a symbol of Unity for this country or just a conduit to solemnize and cajole the egos of cronies? To enjoy with partisan friends the largesse of state power while you still have it, with limited regard to the taxpayer bank-rolling it and all. This is a detrimental and fatal flaw in our ‘winner-takes-all’ political system. What happened was an absolute travesty of the reward scheme, utterly incomprehensible and deemed abhorrent by any Kenyan of good faith. The problem with such a reward proposition is that it breeds a dearth of excellence. Laziness is labeled exemplary, responsibility is not and blame is to be shared and thrown around like dodge ball. People will feel that the only way to get ahead in life is by playing harlot to the ‘big man’ and hope that the crumbs of good fortune fall from his table to their own.

There will no longer be any need for enterprise as you will ultimately end up where you started if you are not well-connected so to speak, a phenomenon I personally find nauseatingly as repugnant as the worship of idols. Young men and women will no longer cherish the value of hard work, smart investment and timely action instead engaging in some asinine stunts in social media with the goal of attaining fame & fortune to nobody’s benefit. Short time pecuniary gain has gained greater traction as opposed to the toil and sacrifice of building a long-term, sustainable and replicable system for success. The draw of composing and performing patriotic songs will be in abasement at the altar of short-term, money-spinning deification of mere mortals whose character is not even worth the amplifier in the studio where those songs were recorded. People who are steeped in virtue will be shunted aside as they watch their undignified and feckless compatriots get ahead. Impartiality and objectivity have become foreign attributes and the butt of jokes in the current Kenyan political dispensation; which to all patriots is a shame, testament to the deplorable depths we have allowed ourselves to sink as a society.

You must have been embarrassed silly and thought you were watching a cringe-worthy horror movie. The Black, Red, White and Green lights of our flag were nullified by the day-long eclipse of the bilge on show. Nevertheless, you live in Kenya my man. Peculiarities and idiosyncrasies are the standard-bearer everywhere and defiance of logic a badge of honour. Take heart my friends as here; more often than not fact is stranger than fiction.

WHAT DO NASA RESIST?

I

{Credit to Dreamstime.com}

 pen this piece full of my own personal apprehension about the destiny of Kenya as a republic. Both in overt public declarations and in hushed tones there has been public discourse about secession of sections of Kenya from the whole. No less than the coastal region has had their foremost leaders come out strongly to assert that the coast no longer feels as a part of Kenya. I do not blame them as I’m reminded of what occurred in Biblical times. Joseph who came into Egypt as a slave, bought by Potiphar – captain of the Egyptian army and eventually imprisoned for some falsified accusations by the captain’s wife. By the Supreme Deity’s grace he flourished, giving a prediction that saved Egypt from a great 7-year famine by building great reserves of food in times of opulence. When lean times struck, nations travelled from far and wide to come and try to buy supplies from Egypt. Such was the splendour of the land at the time that even the nation of Israel; God’s own chosen people, via its primordial eleven sons were attracted there to save their lineage. With Joseph - their blood; an insider in the Pharaoh’s palace, the Israelites were given laissez-faire even to settle in the land and engage in agriculture and other forms of enterprise. Several generations later, a new Pharaoh emerged who knew not of Joseph and his acts of saving grace for the Egyptians. All he saw were how great the Israelites had prospered in his land, multiplying greatly and each of their enterprises faring better than his own people’s. The age old ‘green-eye’ set in and he decided to enslave the Israelites. Egyptians proceeded to ride roughshod over Israelites. Years of servitude ensued and ultimately; there arose Moses who was tasked with leading the children of Israel back to their ancestral land. This request felt like a bad joke to the ears of the Pharaoh of the day. He flatly declined; accustomed to comforts afforded by the Canaanites’ free labour. The afflictions of the ten plagues did something to ease the Pharaoh’s resolve but immediately his erstwhile slaves left he felt a tinge of regret. Despite freely allowing them to leave he changed his mind and decided to pursue them headlong. But I digress, because I have never laid claim to being a preacher.

I will try to demystify the gist of Kenya’s National Super Alliance (NASA) grouse with the incumbency. They have become so aggravated that they have now converted to a resistance movement. I do this both for Kenyans of good will and those blinded by ethnic and political affiliations so that if they truly love Kenya, then they will understand the reasons why their compatriots do what they have to do.

Lack of commitment to Electoral reform by the incumbency. The Incumbent government in Kenya does not seem to have any interest in electoral reform which piques many members of the populace. This is despite the fact that they come out in force every electoral season to vote for their candidates of choice. But when the time for result announcement comes around many are no doubt shocked by the results. The majority has lost! Any electoral system even in the more developed countries is often regarded a dynamic system, fully living and a work in progress. However, when this system does not possess any quantifiable evidence of improvement that is cause for alarm. I wrote in a previous post that an electoral system is supposed to be simple, free, fair, efficient, accurate and verifiable. How many boxes of these can the Kenyan system contrive to tick? Add to these woes technology failure, corruption in procurement and the age old problem of manipulation then you find yourself with a ghastly mix. That we have an ICT based electoral system which lacks a senior IT official in the higher echelons of the organization can only speak volumes of how much we regard the value of those professionals.  Add to that the fact that our electoral results have to be transferred to a server hosted in a foreign country with the hosting company blatantly refusing to release those figures even at the inquisition of no less than the Supreme Court is telling. I could harp on and on castigating such utterly reprehensible and predictable flaws but to what end? What is the wisdom of complaining to a frigid and dispassionate entity, fatally flawed? And why should I as a Kenyan expect any less efficiency from a system procured so dearly with my tax payer’s funds? What is most disturbing is that these transgressions are only discernible to one party with the other choosing to turn a blind eye with the incumbent being liable of the latter commission. I will not even be drawn on the Electoral commissioners themselves taking incessant polls to determine issues of basic commonsense and principle of operation. For the October 26 election, why was the poll allowed to go on despite admissions that the basic thresholds for verifiability, freedom and fairness had not been achieved. Despite a major player vacating the election the poll still went on. It ended up carrying all the hallmarks of a sham and meaningless exercise soulless and desolate. The Supreme Court unfortunately upheld the result of this exercise leaving limited avenues for redress.

Police brutality and inordinate use of force by security operatives. In the current election cycle the police look prepared to execute a predetermined script. Despite Chapter 4 Article 37 of the constitution of Kenya which bestows upon all citizens the Right to peaceably and unarmed, assemble, demonstrate, picket and to present petitions to public authorities. Apparently the security operatives seem to be operating from a point of vindictive bile against members of the opposition school of thought. They criminalize the very act of dissent. They violate Article 244 on the conduct of the National Police Service with ruthless abandon. Enjoyment of these freedoms is usually curtailed by such violent suppression as to seem vengeful at best and a form of ethnic cleansing of groups deemed ‘politically-incorrect’ by the Government of the day at worst. Whatever happened to the much vaunted ‘Utumishi Kwa Wote’ mantra and maintenance of law and order? If you attack unarmed citizens of a nation aren’t you the greatest impediment to their adherence to Law and Order? Intimidation of countrymen and behaving like terrorists against the people you are supposed to protect will only foster bad blood between the citizenry and yourself. Those demonstrating are in the same vein fighting for your rights too as security operatives yet you treat them even worse than the lowest of beasts. Unfortunate of all, the deliberate maiming and killing of fellow men in the guise of protecting property and investment is just diabolical, macabre & barbaric behavior. Malicious targeting and execution of small children and claiming stray-bullets is so callous I will not even comment about it here objectively or in passionate emotion. May the souls of all these people find eternal repose! (Sic) Many lives were lost to attain the freedoms we now desecrate and that is unacceptable and a reasonable grounds to resist.

Economic disenfranchisement, entrenchment of mediocrity, run away corruption and tribalism. The current government has made it a routine to engage in the practice of playing the game of hot-potato with responsibility on important challenges and matters of State. With musical chairs the order of the day, nobody is willing to take responsibility on any act of omission or commission but all are keen to be glorified for achievements attributable to others. It is not rare to see government officials taking glory for projects that may even have been launched in colonial times and put them under their portfolio of achievements. That kind of dishonesty is what is causing consternation among so many and pitting them firmly against government. Worst of all is the run-away corruption which no less than the Head of state himself is on record claiming surrender and abject failure in his efforts to tackle it in his very own office. Is that presidential talk? I unabashedly doubt it. So there is a cartel so strong that they send jitters down the Head of State’s spine? I am too perplexed to go on but I have to. And it seems sections of the populace are equally culpable in promoting mediocrity. I have personally spoken to some fellows who I have great affection and respect for as friends and intellectuals of no mean repute only to gain insight I now wish I did not. They claim that in the heartland of the president’s own home county there are people who walk bare-foot to the level of becoming jigger-infested and imbibing in so much liquor as to become a liability to society. Their argument is that regions external to the president’s backyard have no moral authority to complain about disenfranchisement as this is the prevailing situation countrywide. I totally and unapologetically differ on such a sinister premise. This appears as an abject failure of government to implement its agenda and shortchanging the people they vowed to serve and protect and it should be called as such. That as asinine a vice as ethnicity is worn like a badge of honour in many state departments is utterly repugnant. This is nothing to be proud of in our nation that claims heritage to many cultures. It an indictment even to one’s cognitive faculties to think you are better than somebody else based on origins, sex, religion and any kind of affiliations. As a wise man put it, ‘Brilliance is evenly distributed while Opportunity is not’. The fortuitous simplicity of the sagacity of that statement should not be lost on anyone. Our political rallies overflow with the youth who are less than gainfully engaged. Consequently, they are vulnerable to manipulation and for a trifle commit great atrocities only but to vent out their frustrations on the wrong entities –their compatriots from another political party or tribal grouping. The right villain to train their sights on is that villainous entity who robs the government in broad daylight, hacks the IFMIS system then carts 60 million shillings in sacks to a quarry in the dead of the darkest night, but I will be queried on who I am to cast the first stone? 

As an act of civil disobedience. Chapter 1 Article 1, Section 2 of Constitution of Kenya empowers the electorate with the authority to exercise sovereign power either directly or through representatives. Kenyan democracy is built on the blood, sweat and tears of many freedom fighters and reformists which we cannot allow to be washed away by malicious, abhorrent and reprehensible entities just by intimidation, connivance and for ethnic convenience. If the side in power elects to misunderstand or refuse to follow some provisions of the law then what moral authority do they have to ask the populace to obey the same? Talk of entitlement based on their role in fighting for independence is pure hogwash. The previous election had no place for the reward of meritocracy choosing to proffer entitlement by other parameters too nebulous to be conjured by the ordinary mind. Also with a situation where an undeserving party has a majority in all houses of Parliament; our goose may well have been cooked. As we are deemed unworthy for recognition of hard-earned achievement, then we can only do what is constitutionally mandated to us which is exercise our sovereign power directly.

The boycott of certain consumer goods. These firms are not guests to privilege for currying favour to the government of the day. Consequent to this; a feeling of superiority, entitlement and generation of super-profits is their modus-operandi. In token of all this insensitivity, arrogance and indifference has crept in to sections of the entrepreneurial class. They blatantly support inequality, marginalization, blindness to historical injustices and political strife. In consort with our Government they exhort them to treat such as norms handled only with the policy of leaving them to the creator! Some were in good faith used as conduits to transmit election results due to their above average reliability as network service providers to servers abroad and mysteriously leave not even a log to assist in the verification of whatever data was transmitted. Others choose to offer an endorsement of the government chiding the opposition as ineffectual and an insult to the Kenyan psyche. The other is a popular milk processing firm owned by the first-family of the day. We have borne witness to a broadcasting arm that pays lip service to the first-family, that only parrots the views by ideologues and narrow minded apologists and sycophants of the government of the day all the while goading a venerable opposition leader who their only aim is to see retire into oblivion in sinister motive. We have been treated to the ‘theatre of the absurd’ by people vowing to evict opposition members who find habitation in their rental houses but choose to go against the grain of the land-lords tribal chiefs. Others talk of the ‘matatu industry’ predominantly controlled by one group threatening to stop opposition elements from boarding their conveyance. To counter against such abominable and obnoxious palaver members of NASA have taken it upon themselves to boycott these companies as they do not appreciate the value of their consumers to their success and this until at such a time when the same is forthcoming. Sentiments of economic sabotage and threats of job loses are no doubt moot as you cannot lose what you never had in the first place.  

The government treatment of the civil service has been appalling.  Politicians in the government side go around boasting of their good fortune while on the opposite side of the mouth lamenting a lack of funds to pay essential members of the civil service in the Health and Education departments. Professionals are left to engage in industrial action for lengthy periods; hence, woe on to you if you can ill afford private facilities.

Insufficient support to the county government is an item of lamentation. The central government claims to value devolution even appointing a fully fledged cabinet secretary for the purpose who may as well be a tree stump! Counties are so poorly financed as to perpetually live in eternal dependence on the national government. With only 15% allocation of the national budget they are so underfunded as to virtually serve at the discretion of the national government and any impression of deviance from the official Government line may result in funds being frozen.

The government’s foreign policy is wanting. African entrepreneur extraordinaire and billionaire Aliko Dangote was set to open a cement factory in Kenya early last year. Plans were in such full gear that Job advertisements were already being circulated in various online and print media outlets.  His intentions were noble but according to the grapevine were met with head winds when his kick-back valuations to the powers that be fell far below what is required to open shop in Kenya. Is that our national policy on foreign investment? How are we to create the 100,000 jobs per year for our youths? How are we to get any future foreign investment in? Despite years of regional cooperation, when our livestock cross into a neighbouring country and are auctioned and there is not as much as a whimper from our foreign affairs docket. 

Engaging in Intellectual dishonesty about constitutional interpretation really hurts. When seasoned constitutional lawyers and Professors choose to sacrifice many years of erudition and experience at the altar of privilege and ethnic convenience , they expose themselves to ridicule. They are in full spirit a liability to humanity. Instead of providing valuable insight and edify the layman these ‘fellows’ are busy throwing more mud to roil an already turbid interpretation of our ambivalent and obscure laws. They start their statements with “The Law is clear” then proceed to muddle a further complicated concoction. Religious dishonesty to the levels that have been witnessed in the country can only be well viewed from the prism of the paranormal. What use is an imposition on our conscience called ‘Corporate Prayers for Peace and Unity’ when this same characters preach with amnesia to truth and justice? Enough said.

Land reform failure among other issues also gnaws at their conscience. As patriotic Kenyans of good will we cannot stand back and watch all we are proud of go down the drain right before our eyes. Kenya is truly at the cross-roads. These are only a microcosm of the reasons why NASA resist.