Lessons from Kenya electoral crisis

*JAMES SHIKWATI | Friday January 18, 2008 00:00

The business sector suffers as religious leaders and middle class angle themselves for recognition from their tribal kings. What lessons does the Kenyan political situation give to Africa?

First Lesson; the essence of law and constitution ought to be to tame the insatiable, brutish human actions and instincts.

It is very clear that our constitution and legal system failed to recognise this basic fact and put too much trust on 'good people'...I even remember during the 2005 constitutional debate, some writers argued that President Kibaki was good and different from Moi and hence there was no need to change the constitution; now its clear that a human person is just that - human.

We must learn from the current crisis that our constitution and legal system ought to treat each Kenyan with great suspicion such that all our laws ought to be written with an express objective to turn devils into angels. Second Lesson; many commentaries are criticising tribalism as the main cause of the present crisis in Kenya.

Tribalism is innocent, why should it be a big issue when Kenyan consumers do not seek to find out which tribe manufactured what type of product? Political elites having strangled the democratic process and religious leaders having joined the company of political elites, common Kenyans have no other choice but to transform tribalism into a cultic movement.
The evil committed in the name of tribe is executed at a level where tribalism has assumed a cultic nature. Modern Kenyan tribes do not cherish the killing and destruction of property; after all they have intermarried and engage in business and are basically interdependent economically.

Kenya is faced with tribal cults as a resultant effect of having a corrupt constitution and legal system that trusts the good nature of man to such an extent that one person is given too much discretionary power, devoid of effective checks and balances. 

Third Lesson; it's the national cake - stupid! Our constitution is designed in such a way that the winner takes it all!

The current bitterness exhibited in Kenya is partly informed by the fact that whereas 36 million Kenyans bake the national cake either directly or indirectly; a community that produces a president hogs the lion's share of the cake.

The key lesson here is; we must creatively come up with a system to make individual Kenyans bake their own cakes instead of relying on central cake handouts such as jobs, and business contracts.

Alternatively, the constitution should be revised to enable all Kenyans to be seen to partake of the cake by putting restriction to a single group using the law to monopolise the cake of the nation.

Fourth Lesson; late last year I asked readers to help me understand whether one ceases to be African when he converts to Christianity or Islam.

I had wanted to know whose interests faith-based leaders represent when they appear in international trade forums to talk against profit! The Kenyan crisis has helped bring out the evil in the 'toga' clad individuals.

It is now clear that religious leaders have taken sides; they are even more tribal than the politicians - whenever any member of the clergy opens his/her mouth, you can guess what will spew out of his mouth by virtue of their tribal affiliation.

Now its clear why cultic movement rise up in trouble-torn parts of Africa; when men of God take sides, become agents of death and disharmony, the people seek refuge in alternative means of spirituality. Religious leaders have put God on trial!

Fifth Lesson; Foreign aid! If Kenyans were in control of the government purse, they could still exercise their democratic rights by starving the beast whenever one emerges from the political elites.

Political elites can only listen to the will of Kenyans if we successfully take charge of paying politicians' bills. 

All strategies on governance will come to naught if donors itching to release money keep subsidising poor governance in the name of development projects at the expense of ensuring that the Kenyan ballot is backed up by Kenyan tax.

Developed nations' focus on broader regional interests might find it strategic to disburse aid to a government whose people feel cheated. Africa shall never develop good governance if Africans do not pay for the upkeep of their governments.

'The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing' - Edmund Burke (January 12, 1729 - July 1, 1797)

James Shikwati is the Director of Inter Region Economic Network