Media must be active in scrutinising political formations
The coming General-Election in Kenya is living up to its billing: unpredictably predictable. Who would have predicted how new formations of political groupings were going to come up?
Yet, going by the past, one could have predicted that we would go to the elections in new parties. But Deputy President William Ruto and Amani National Congress (ANC)leader Musalia Mudavadi on one side would have required wild imagination.
Now there are three formations: Azimio La Umoja, Kenya Kwanza and One Kenya Alliance (OKA). But until the nominations, there is still no telling what the eventual tickets will look like. Will OKA move forward alone, or will it join one of the two other formations? Will the two formations remain intact, or will they morph and form again?
But this is what politicians owe the country. In their moving the political parts, often driven by selfish interests, that they would consider what would be good for the country. What is good for the country is political stability, a sense of continuity, and assurance particularly to investors and international partners , that we are a country that has turned its back on its murderous past elections.
We have had a history, since the 1990s, of having badly contested elections that always ended in bloodshed. The elections of 2007 are unique only because the scale of violence had gone through the roof.
Let history teach us. Let us not, as a country, ever forget the people burnt alive in a place of worship – their dying moment screams, the anguish they went through, the smell of burning flesh as the roof of the church came down on their writhing bodies.
Let us never forget the hundreds of other dead, the thousands who were displaced, most of whose lives never regained normalcy again, and the army of Kenyan refugees who ran to Uganda and live there to this day.
If anything, this past should inform the political formations emerging today. If we can avoid a close election, then by all means, let the country avoid it. Let fate favour this nation so that a clear winner will emerge with convincing votes, early in the process, and let the nation accept with humility the new order, wake up the day after and head to farms and plantations to carry on with the business of fending for our families.
Politicians, their bloated egos aside, owe the country this. The political formations may therefore be a good thing. The number of political parties registered in the country is now running towards the 100 mark. Most of these are obviously briefcase outfits designed to sell nomination certificates. But it is the same that will front presidential candidates of one shade or the other, most with no hope of winning even a county assembly seat.
The result would be bitter campaigns but with no clear outright winner – too much heat but no light. At least with the formations then the field will be narrower at the top. This should give opportunity to the media to scrutinise the outfits to enable the country to weigh the policies of these formations a lot more closely.
There are statements that political leaders make that give a clearer thinking within an outfit. In one of the formations, an operative dismissed the fight against graft, and said that if one had a problem with corruption, then the person should vote for the opponents.
There are a raft of promises already made during these initial stages of the campaign. Azimio la Umoja has summarised their platform into 10 points. We have journalists with expertise in each of those areas and should help voers understand whether we are being fed hot air or if indeed, the Azimio brigade can deliver on them.
The former UDA, now morphing into Kenya Kwanza, has promised billions to be set aside for this or that project, to continue with the four agenda items of the Jubilee administration and so on. Do they have the wherewithal to keep these promises?
Then there is the track records of these candidates. Kenneth Matiba had a slogan: kuga na gwika. Who can promise and deliver on the promise? —The writer is dean, School of Communication, Daystar University
