In our usual element, the country has been dragged back into an electioneering mood barely 5 months after the last general election. It does not matter there will be no general election in Kenya until August 2027 under the Constitution.
The tragedy is not the politicians who are advancing their selfish greed for power, but the crowd that turns up to their meetings. It speaks volumes that idle politicians can easily mobilize such huge crowds on a working day.
I am yet to understand what agenda is on the table that will add value to the lives of ordinary people from these rallies other than making an already bad situation worse. Truth be told, the Azimio-One Kenya ran a shambolic campaign that cost them an election that was theirs to lose.
They had state money, and all known billionaires who bankroll campaigns were on their side; they had the entire security apparatus that could aid in ‘stealing votes’ on their camp if anything needed to be stolen. They never won even the polling stations where the Chairman, Deputy President Candidate voted and the opponent was very competitive where the Azimio formation Candidate voted.
How then can one ever convince a right-thinking person, even of average intelligence that you won such an election? Just how could it be possible when even before the Supreme Court they could not prove even a single 34A was incorrect? Are Kenyans to be taken for such a fool?
Of interest for me here, however, are the implications of these political shenanigans. Unfortunately, the only possible outcome will be to make things worse for Kenyans who are already suffering. But here is the thing:
- If you voted, you did your civic duty as required under the law – what you must do now is to focus on where you get your daily bread until the next election. That is the only legally possible time you can exercise your power of the vote again unless there is a by-election as provided in law. You may dance or shout as much as you want, but none of these political leaders will bring ‘unga’ to your house or pay school fees for your children;
- As you join them in the rallies, remember they are already enjoying huge packs funded by your taxes –the cars they are riding to the rallies are benefits from taxpayers and use fuel funded by your taxes. They are already at their workstation for politics in their trade. What is your trade?
- The current government has overwhelmingly underperformed –that is a fact as of now, the only thing we can do is to hold them to account for their promises. There are better ways of doing this as a citizen than going to the streets –at least as of now. If there will be a need to take to the streets, then we shall all know when that time comes, even without the push from the opposition leaders.
- We are living in difficult times as a country due to economic mismanagement over the last 10 years and the ongoing drought and famine – for most parts of the country, they have lost the crop for the 4th consecutive time. If a politician is not offering us a path to solve these problems, then let him/her go to hell. We have bigger problems than being told of stolen elections 5 months later –we accepted and moved on Ooooh!
- There is a time for everything under the sun –the wisest man to have ever lived in history taught of this very well. We are called to make the best out of every season –the best for this country and the Hoi-polloi for now is not ‘maandamano’ in the streets. I have no apologies to make on this –the truth is always very bitter, but it liberates you to see things in the right way.
As I conclude, we must think hard about what is a priority now at an individual level and collectively as a society. Political greed cannot be the reason for dragging innocent people to run errant for politicians.
Many of us have been brainwashed to think solutions to our problems and even for the country can only come from politicians –this is not true for a country like Kenya. If the current crop of political leaders had any solution to our problems, trust me, they would have done it during the past 4 decades they have controlled the country’s resources, politics, and administrative machinery.
Let no one accept to be used to satisfy anyone’s greed!