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Has Kenya become a nation of hecklers?

By: Jerry Okungu

[ Posted On: 2006-08-24 ]

If there is any issue that evokes the worst in Kenyans and makes every Onyango, Kamau and Mutiso come out of the wood works, it is an animal called the constitution. This is the one subject on which every Kenyan enjoys expertise; from the peasant Wanjiku, Atieno, Mueni and Khadija to mention their male counterparts in the slums and villages of Kenya.

This constitution has given Kenyans a most unparalled civic education in the affairs of men. Since the street battle days of the Kibwana and Njoya convention council that was derailed by the parliamentary IPPG of 1997, when the likes of Kamau Kuria and James Orengo breathed fire and brimstone, it would appear like the latter day heroes of another breed have emerged and are bent on denying us breathing space to re-evaluate ourselves. They have sworn never to allow us space to hear fresh ideas from any corner of this society.

Is it possible that Kenyans are incapable of talking sensibly to one another without shouting? Is it possible that Kenyans have been consumed in self-importance such that they are no longer capable of giving one another a chance even to explain themselves?

Why is it that every time there is a new initiative to jumpstart the constitution review, we all stand up and start jumping and kicking in all directions? Have we become a nation that can only thrive in chaos? Where is the guided and tamed intellectualism that should inform such important discussions like the constitution review?

In this game of reckless backwardness; in this gave of intellectual ineptitude, the media has unfortunately become the major culprit. It has become the fodder that feeds garbage and filth that that we must be fed with from the tongues of pseudo- intellectuals of our time day in day out. The media has made it a point to look for the worst in public utterances by our so called self- styled opinion leaders and experts in constitution making.

They will never miss a point if Martha Karua, Raila Odinga, Mwai Kibaki, Ali Makwere or Kalembe Ndile says something that looks hostile to one another.

They will never miss a point if Paul Muite seems to be veering from the predestined path to have a second opinion on how to move forward with the constitution. To the media, Muite is a permanent Banana sympathizer. Any time he leans towards the ODM even if it is on the basis of reason, common sense and fair play, the media will pick it up for exploitation.

They will never miss to highlight in slow motion, and repeatedly on prime time TV, if Raila comes from Australia and says there must be minimum reforms before the next elections should the full review process not be realized.

To the media, it is not that there should not be minimum reforms. The story lies in who first says it. If Raila says that there must be minimum reforms before the next general elections, the media interprets it as a demand and a threat to the government. Others will go further than that. They will make it look and sound like Raila is spoiling for a war with Kibaki.

The media has repeatedly used this tactic to fuel political animosity in this country for the better part of the last decade. They have applied the same games on Kiraitu Murungi, David Mwiraria and Chris Murungaru when they were in the cabinet.

They have not spared Kalonzo Musyoka, William Ruto, Nicholas Biwott, Uhuru Kenyatta, William Ole N'Timama and Charity Kaluki Ngilu either.

What follows is rather predictable; they will look for comments from Kalembe Ndile, Musikari Kombo, Danson Mungatana, Raphael Tuju and possibly Otieno Kajwang or Ayiecho Olweny to prepare a cocktail for another round of political acrimony.

The media has become combative, insensitive to the national crisis and has continued to behave in a manner likely to incite people to fight, or cause a breach of the peace or both.

I say this for a simple reason: Who among us is a stranger in Jerusalem not to know that the referendum left this country badly wounded and therefore needed healing and reconciliation? Who among us here is still a stranger in Jerusalem, unaware that our ethnicity is at an all time high and on the verge of pitting brother against brother, sister against sister? Who among us is unaware that competition for power and control of the economy along with state resources is an ethnic struggle in our society today? These are the realities that the media has chosen to ignore.

This week, Martha Karua took the cue from Raila Odinga and Paul Muite to convene a consultative meeting on the review process. Despite a different signal coming from President Kibaki in the Coast regarding piecemeal reforms, Martha Karua as minister for Justice and Constitutional Affairs, found it prudent to convene an all political party consultative meeting to discuss the way forward.

That meeting finally materialized despite earlier protests from a section of the political elite and the ever all-knowing-all-righteous civil society.

On the eve of the meeting, one of the most influential political outfits; the ODM, called a press conference to announce that they would be represented at Martha Karua's meeting.

The following morning, the scene at the venue was a most hilarious one to watch. A number of some of the most malignant, most abrasive civil society groups had literally gate-crashed Martha Karua's meeting they had been vilifying the whole week! And true to Karua's style, she barred them from attending the meeting! They were uninvited guests and were therefore unwelcome!

Did I hear something to the effect that Prof. Kivutha Kibwana was opposed to the Karua meeting because it was not representative of the review stake holders? Now that tells you have low we have fallen. Today we are ants building together, tomorrow we are rats sniffing and biting at one another's toes! Do the likes of Kibwana understand even the basics of collective responsibility in governance? How can a fellow cabinet minister call a press conference to denounce the efforts of a fellow minister simply because Kibwana was neither consulted nor included in the process?

To the Kibwanas of this world, if they don't lead the initiative then it can't be right!

Let the truth be told; the derailment of the Bomas Draft was orchestrated by Kivutha Kibwana when he and his bunch of so called constitutional lawyers and religious heretics fought tooth and nail to ensure the Wanjiku constitution never saw the light of day because of the phobia of Raila Odinga. When Kibwana cried tears and walked out of Bomas after being insulted by delegates, it was because he had provoked them and had tested fellow delegates' patience to the limit.

Since the referendum in November 2005, nobody among the vocal activists had the guts, the courage or the where-with-all to give Kenyans a new direction.

The only group that tried to do something; give some sense of recovery from inertia was an amorphous group called Sayari that met several times to figure out how polarized Kenyans could be brought together to talk to one another again. The referendum had alienated Mt. Kenya Kenyans from the rest of the country. Something had to be done to bring them back to the fold

The Sayari meetings took the better part of December 2005 and the early parts of 2006 culmination in the first National Dialogue Conference that took place in Mbagathi in early June. Despite the NDC being termed a national stake holders' conference, it was obvious from the appearance of delegates that whoever they were, they were a lot of no consequence; a group that would never write even a village constitution.

For this reason, the appearance of Ambassador Kiplagat and Martha Karua at the meeting gave the NDC the much needed recognition it was dying for. Without these two characters, the chance of the NDC enjoying a media blackout was a real possibility.

Ambassador Kiplagat's presence at the NDC meeting was understandable. He had just concluded a controversial appointment with the government on the same constitution fiasco.

When he was appointed to lead a new team by President Kibaki to define a new path towards attaining a new constitution, he was vilified and branded a systems guy before he even took office. Now the NDC was in progress; a real possibility that finally the civil society was reinventing itself to take the lead in process.

Ambassador Kiplagat came there to put his case to the civil society and, to tell you the truth; he not only made a good account of himself but ended up steering the meeting.

When Karua came to attend and address the meeting on the second day, she confounded foe and friend when she declined to disrupt the programme and instead offered to listen, have lunch with delegates and then address the gathering in the afternoon. As if that was not enough, the lady stayed for an hour to field questions from the delegates. And believe it or not, the same belligerent civil society groups applauded her not once, not twice but countless times. That is the irony of Kenya's political landscape.

In her speech at the NDC, Karua commended the organizers and promised to use its resolutions to move the process forward. She did not say she would use the resolutions to move the process together with the NDC and whoever organized it. She as part of the government would do it her way according to the law.

However, when she carried out her pledge two months later, there was hue and cry how Martha Karua had taken the meet from the mouths of the NDC organizers and ran with it! That Martha Karua had robbed them of their intellectual property! Some intellectual property indeed!

If we want to have a new constitution, let us learn to listen to one another. Let us learn the art of patience and tolerance. We have to avoid this grandstanding mentality which makes us think that we alone have the monopoly of knowledge and wisdom.

Being a human rights activist, a lawyer, a priest or a former political prisoner is no ticket to make us all slaves to your twisted view of the world. We need breathing space to decide our destiny as much as you need yours. But for heavens' sake, don't shout at us because we stopped listening a long time ago!

Article Source: http://www.afroarticles.com/article-dashboard

Jerry Okungu is a freelance political analyst based in Nairobi, Kenya. Jerry also serves as a Board Director at The Kenya Broadcasting Corporation. Jerry has written extensively on issues affecting Kenya and the rest of Africa over the years. Other articles written by Jerry Okungu are available at this location

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