It’s harrowingly difficult to be conscious and unbiased and still not be drawn to the events of the past week in Kenya’s political arena. Jokes have been told, memes and cartoons created in the typical Kenyan humorous ways, and on more serious notes articles written and social media posts done in this regard. The political orogeny created in and around the streets from what I’d call a very ordinary statement by the DP is amazing and hugely bemusing.
Granted, the
DP is the man of the moment politically speaking and his every statement is analysed
and reanalysed word for word by our ever hungry media vultures and erstwhile political
pundits, friend and foe, ally and adversary, expert and pretender, even smart
and silly. The DP is not a man without controversy. He loves the limelight and he’s
taking his moment with both hands and will definitely try to remain in the journalist’s
focus in the foreseeable future. I mean that is what politicians feed on. His bottom-up
proposal of an approach to economic management seems to resonate well with the majority
and, here’s expecting more fireworks!
In his statement,
the deputy president used the word WE, while making a clearly very general
and common statement on the constitutional reform process and the struggles that
be. And for that he has been castigated
by all and sundry from a no small pool of his non-supporters. Some well informed
and others following the wave even if they don’t get it.
What I find a little surprising is that people
who claim to own the process and some of our so called statesmen have joined the
fray in condemning the words of the Deputy president calling his a liar because
in their understanding, he has no right to claim the struggle because he was on
the side of a regime that was fighting against the second liberation. This is the
hypocrisy that I find both amazing and disturbing. The struggle for a new Kenya
was a struggle of all and for all. We don’t fight such battles for personal glory.
We do so for all— those who support the struggle and this who don’t. We fight to
liberate Kenya from the hands of her tormentors and while at it we use statements
like ‘Kenyans want this’ and ‘Kenyans have spoken' etc. This statements
do not refer to a section of Kenyans but to all Kenyans. The understanding is that
even those who don’t support the struggle need it even if they don’t realise it.
This mentality is supposed to be carried forward to eternity, long after the battles
have been won.
In the struggle for independent Kenya, there were
people who were collaborators of colonial masters. They were neither asked not to
join in either celebrating the victory nor prevented from claiming the struggle
because the statesmen of the time understood that they were fighting against physical
as well as mental slavery. Today we claim to have defeated the colonialists even
if we know we were born decades after independence was attained. We’re happy to
claim so whether or not our forefathers were collaborators of the colonialists.
The men who fought for independence did so with the knowledge that they may never
be alive to even merely witness the birth of an independent Kenya. But they knew
they’d be happy to see an independent Kenya for all Kenyans. Their struggle was
never for personal gain or glory even if we glorify some of them today.
The disgusting hypocrisy on display exemplified
by the unprecedented castigation of the DP’s words is on another level and utterly
disappointing. We’re all owners of the constitution of Kenya 2010 whether or
not we supported it. We owe our allegiance to that constitution and we have a responsibility
to defend it with the same passion and vigour with which it was fought for. And
now we know that it is facing greater threat from those who seem to personalize
both the struggle for it and the document
itself than from those who either did not support it or were not interested at all.
This is a document for us and for generations yet unborn. This constitution is ours
individually and ours collectively. We must defend it with the same passion and
dedication that the judiciary has.
And yes, William Ruto has as much right to
claim the struggle for the new constitution and responsibility to defend it as everybody
else. The idea that those who were core fighters in the struggle have more right
over our Constitution and greater say in what happens to it is as misplaced as it
is dishonest. It is like saying that those who did not support it or did not want
it altogether are not obligated to follow and uphold it.
We are unnecessarily vindictive and disrespectful.
While William Ruto is not a perfect man, he is a leader with some significant clout
and trying to exclude him is not a smart move whether we realize it or not. We
have to struggle honestly and we have to be less vindictive if we are to be true
statesmen. All struggle is for the good of the future generations. Our children
and their children and those of our adversaries. We know that we may not be there
to enjoy what we fight for or if we get there, we may be too week to enjoy it. We
fight nonetheless. Martin Luther King Jr in one of his speeches told Americans this
before he was assassinated, “I have been to the mountain top. I have seen
the promised land. I may not get there with you, but I promise you WE shall get
there.” This is a statesman’s mentality.
