Political handshakes are rarely about mwananchi

In politics, they say, there are no permanent enemies or friends, only permanent interests.

Today, Kenyans are waxing lyrical about what Uasin Gishu Senator Jackson Mandago famously said when he was governor: Siasa husiweke kwa roho, weka kwa lungs. My friend Phillip Pope Koech says siasa toa kwa mwili.

Well, these are attempts to socialize Kenyans to the culture of letting go and moving on. But this is not right. Politics is about resources, both the allocation and distribution of resources and we need to interrogate the political class on what they call permanent interests.

When Kenyans take political positions, cast their aspirations and vote for certain politicians or parties they do so because they expect them to address their problems and lead them to opportunities that change their lives for the better.

Whether you’ve put politics in your heart, lungs or flushed it out of your system altogether doesn’t matter. What matters is whether what politicians allude to as permanent interests that either bring politicians together or tears them apart is consistent with public interests.

What opportunities are there for mwananchi in the interests of the politicians and how do the often, conflicting interest of truce-making address the plight of the people?

Speaking in Homa Bay last week, President William Ruto was eloquent and passionate about what he described as politics where there are no losers and everyone is a winner.

What does that mean to my people in Suna East for instance? Is the win at the political level or at the local level?

We can pontificate all we want about political truces and politicians burying the hatchet and always reminding Kenyans that we need to be wary of the differences politicians wedge among the people. But unless we interrogate political truces and what they have for us, we will always resign ourselves to Mandago’s advice.

No, we are an agile and a progressive democracy. We said no to violence after the 2022 elections and we need to stay woke and keep asking tough questions to make our democracy stronger.

But when the President talks of a win-win situation, to what extent has Kenya won?

Political pundits will tell you that a win-win means the political class has brokered a deal for themselves, often with an eye on the next election.

It is an open secret that these deals benefit only the political class. In the last regime, the win-win deal was used to run a narrative that demonised the handshake and fell the BBI.

Kenya Kwanza rode on the idea that the handshake messed up the country. The leaders managed to make many, through an orchestrated and well-oiled campaign, that the handshake was an elite and dynastic affair.

What is different this time round if they want to bandy the same win-win narrative garbled differently? The intentions of a politician is never close to their chest, but inside. The more things change the more they remain the same.

But as Kenyans what we need to ask ourselves whether the political changes are changing our lives. Are we going to have food on our tables and more money in our pockets? Will the security situation in this country change?

What is win-win if an MCA in Samburu can be killed by bandits? What is win-win if the Secretary General of KMPDU is injured by an overzealous police officer during a public demonstration?

Unless a win-win is a win for the wananchi, it should be dismissed as maneuvers that only serve political self-seekers.

—The writer is PhD candidate in Political Communication