By Jerry Okungu
Nairobi, Kenya
January 23, 2013
I didn’t like the mayhem
that was visited upon us most of last week in most parts of the country. If it
wasn’t happening in Kisumu, Homa Bay and Siaya it was happening in Kajiado,
Mombasa and Othaya. And the mayhem, destruction and business disruption was in
equal measure. Old tyres were the preferred choice of expressing our
displeasure against whoever had wronged us.
I have this strange
feeling that elections as we know them are as alien to us in this continent as
those who imported them into our region. In better days, in those days of my
grandfather and my father, their democracy was a simple process. It did not
require lorry loads of imported voters to come and confirm that so and so was
the people’s choice. It did not require elaborate long queues of people losing
their sleep over an election only to remain in the cold, sun, rain and still
return to their homes because some clever chap diverted their voting papers to
the other corner of the country.
Our forefathers were a lot
cleverer than us. They did not need democracy as we know it today to run the
affairs of our society. We had elders and wise men of the village who had taken
ages learning from their seniors the art of governance, conflict resolution and
even meting out punishment to criminal elements in our society. In extreme
situations those who committed murder, rape or incest were ostracized from
their communities and word spread to neighboring communities not to give them
shelter. The tag itself was punishment enough. The same elders had the added
responsibility of recruiting new ones in to their ranks such that continuity
was ensured.
Looking at what happened
in recent elections in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Ivory Coast, DR Congo,
Nigeria, Senegal and Egypt, one gets the feeling that this thing called
democracy is not working for us. We have to find another way of electing our
leaders. In any case the very people we strive to elect in to offices are
normally the first ones to break the rules of engagement. That is why elections
materials are hijacked and destroyed as happened in Murang’a and Homa Bay during
primaries. In some constituencies like Nyando, Muhoroni and Kisumu West, they
were not so lucky. Voting materials arrived four good days long after the
elections were over. Of course considering that these constituencies are all in
Kisumu County with an international airport, one assumed that since the voting
would start at 6am on January 17 through to 6pm on the same day, a good
elections planner, if he cared to succeed would fly in all the materials on the
morning of January 16 and ensure they are all distributed to constituency
election supervisors. This was not to be.
Prof. Nyong’o himself a
victim of this latest fiasco in our election process wrote an interesting
article in the local press where he competently cited mature democracies such
as Britain, France, Israel and the USA. In all those states he quoted, local
party officials have the powers to nominate state representatives, national
assembly representatives and councillors.
It is the reason we never hear of primaries
for senators in the USA or Lords in Britain. That is the work of party managers
who have all the data on all members including their competence either as
legislators, senators, governors or county representatives. We only hear of
them when they are competing in general elections. It was the reason Obama’s
replacement as Senator of Illinois was not contested. It fell upon the sitting
governor to nominate a replacement.
To some extent, what Prof.
Nyongo’ was vouching for on the eve of our disastrous primaries was actually
being implemented by Narc, Narc Kenya, UDF, New Ford Kenya, Reclaim
&Restore Kenya. Ironically, those parties that take pride in large
following were the worst hit by this wave of violence. The big guns fell on
their swords because they failed the test right from the beginning.
If what Mr. Gichuki Mugambi,
the Othaya aspirant is saying is true; that in Othaya nursery school, goons and
Administration police led by one of the aspirants invaded a long line of voters
at 7pm, put out the lights and chased away voters, why would any civilized
person do such a thing in the President’s backyard? It can only mean one thing;
these thugs simply don’t understand the kind of democracy the society is trying
to impose on them. This ignorance was displayed everywhere in the strongholds
of popular parties. This flagrant abuse of the process was more obvious in URP,
TNA and ODM voting areas. It was the reason there were riots in Kondele, Yala,
Rodi Kopany, Homa Bay, Mombasa, Eldoret, Kericho, Muhoroni, Bondo, Siaya and
Ahero.
It is time we changed
cause if what we have cannot work for us.
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