THE COSTLY FAILURE OF DIALOGUE.

Sammy Frank.

The 2007/2008 Kenyan Post election Violence is a clear indication of a nation whose mechanisms of effecting dialogue amongst its people have failed. For that failure, more than 1500 lives were lost and close to a million people displaced in a short three weeks of intense madness.

Four years later, I am sad to report that we have learnt very little from the episode of our collective insanity. If the recommendations of the electoral and boundaries commission are going to be followed, this great nation will go for general elections in December 2012. My concern is the presidential ballot paper. There is nothing that will be indicative of national failure of dialogue like when that ballot paper is printed and contains anything more than four names. Of course more than 10 candidates have declared their intention to run. The phrase ‘my name must be in that ballot paper’ is being dished around cheaply. Makes our presidency look like common-place maandazi…

Let’s tell the bitter truth: tribe is still going to be the determining factor in the outcome of the presidential vote. I wish this was not the case. But I don’t want to face the things as I wish they were….I will face them as they are. If you are not comfortable with that fact, better learn to live with it.

We saw how much tribe is dictating how different people interpret national affairs recently. On the indictment of four Kenyans at the ICC, a group calling itself  the Gikuyu council of elders placed adverts in local dailies with insinuations that their tribes men were being persecuted and challenging the wisdom of the Hague-based court.

Some people argue that it is the democratic right of the aspirants to run for whatever position they wish to run for in this country. If that be so, then lets allow the more than 50 aspirants go for their rights if they so wish. My point is that for a stable Kenya, political brinkmanship is a thing of the past. Shall we just allow competition for its own sake? I don’t mind competition but I really mind the poisonous nature of politics that descends on the country in every electioneering season since 1992. Name-calling, killings and racial profiling. How long must we put up with this?

It is in the interests of this nation that we reduce the number of competitors for the top seat. Let it be left only for those whose credibility we can vouch for. I know I will be told that the current president of the United States Barrack Obama was a non entity at the beginning of the race and he ended at the hose on the hill by the end of it. That may be it but closer scrutiny reveals that Obama underwent a period of thorough grooming by the Democratic Party lasting more than 4 years! Some of the people who are scouting for the presidency of this country have never held a political office at all. Is our presidency this cheap that we shall dish it around to smother the bloated egos of attention seeking political neophytes? We must preserve the dignity of the jewel of the house. Our politicians must learn to speak to each other.

I am aware that the pre-election pact of 2002 evokes bitter memories to some politicians in Kenya. However, that not with-standing, politicians must be made to learn to reach out to their opponents for the greater good of Kenya. I repeat, to me, should we have more than 4 candidates for presidency that will be a shameful verdict of our political process.

I don’t consider it my duty to try to dictate who should settle for what role in the next government. All what I know is that Kenya cannot afford to have one group of people feeling sidelined by the ruling class. We shall not tolerate the dictatorship of the majority over the minority…neither shall we accommodate the oppression of the majority by the minority.

But our dialogue must go beyond the political arena. We need to have a functional economic set-up that encourages fair play. We cannot afford a nation where the greed of an elite clique threatens the very existence of the masses. Run-away poverty and inequalities is the surest indication of failed dialogue between social classes. I am fully pro-markets, I must declare here. I however know that under the guise of ‘markets’, some people have plundered Kenya shamelessly in the past.

We badly need tactical leadership in the management of the economy in the coming years. We have already drowned the cotton industry by allowing cheap imports in the country. In the near future, Kenya’s sugar and wheat sectors will be on the scales facing unprecedented competition from COMESA and EAC markets. We will have to shape-up or ship-out! Either we get cheaper methods of production or we seek for new area where Kenya shall develop comparative advantage in.

One of the most distressing events of the recent past has been the ‘death’ of the Kenya Anti-corruption Commission. In this case, I will not talk of failure of dialogue since no attempt was ever placed to institute dialogue in the first place. By the decision of a small group of people, albeit the representatives of the people, the institution that is supposed to be the soul of the nation was rendered a devastating beating leaving the welfare of the nation at the mercy of the gluttonous. We must fight for truth and justice in the governance of this country. The alternative will certainly bleed us to death.

Education is one of the surest tools for spreading equality in a country. I’m however worried at the recent trends in the sector. In the form 1 admissions this year, the government preserved 65% of the seats in the national secondary schools to pupils from public schools. This has raised the cry from the various stakeholders from private schools. This is injustice perpetuated to a given section of the population. Professor Ongeri, the current minister of education is determined to institute his own opinion in the ministry regardless of the views of other stake holders. How far can we go when we keep every year leaving behind a portion of the population seething in the pain of injustice perpetuated by the state?

Kenya needs progress. But we need like a crab to carry everyone on-board in our progress. We cannot withstand the wrath of a marginalized group of people. Let those who are still living in the past be informed that Kenya is above that!

Sammy Frank is a student of International Studies at the University of Nairobi.