Kenya's politicians have long stoked the coals of ignorance for their personal gain. This calculated perversion, in my opinion, is a great evil. While many are expressing a measure of surprise at the scope of violence that has befallen Kenya presently, it was most predictable.
This election was going to be close. There was going to be a winner and a looser. All parties should have been exhorting their constituencies to vote and, above all else, remain peaceful in the aftermath. The vast majority of Kenyans have done just that: voted and remained peaceful. A very small minority, however, have used a tainted election as an excuse for criminal behavior.
In my estimation, the behavior of the miscreants today has very, very little to do with the elections. There is a seething anger that lives within these people that only requires a tiny catalyst to burst forth. These are the very same people who hang "Cuban neckties" on thieves who steal a kilo of maize from a neighbor. These people like violence and look for opportunities to become violent.
What is this thing that grips humans and turns them into animals? Words are inadequate but photographs of the destruction and the faces of the perpetrators do a good job of defining it. Something sinister has gripped these people, and once manifested, is difficult to control. Furthermore, it is contagious.
Some commentary has drifted away from hyperbole and entered the land of fantasy. This is not productive, just entertaining - if not disturbing - reading. I refer spcifically to individuals who advocate insurrection as a legitimate response to a tainted election. Is a coup - or even guerilla war - a justifiable, constructive reponse? In my opinion, people are free to express their views, even if bizarre, but those advocating violence and illegal acts need to be islolated.
I've read in many articles and posts the notion that Raila must be installed as president as a precondition for satisfaction. I have yet to read a single response highlighting the critical, and in my opinion - fatal - flaw in this suggestion. It would be a coup. Raila would be "installed" as president outside of the legal and constitutional processes of Kenya. Really, is this a solution? The election of Kibaki was tainted. How do we know that it was tainted? We know becuase it went outside the boundaries of the election process that were legally and constitutionally established. These boundaries are the bedrock of free and fair elections for it is only by these guideposts that we can assertain whether an election was, indeed, free and fair.
What boudaries exist in a coup? I maintain that the installation of Raila as president based upon the perception that he was cheated is infinately worse for Kenya than a rigged election. Electorial mechanisms can be fixed, legally and constitutionally, by the people through their representatives.
In this present crisis, all who love Kenya - and particularly politicians - should be ceaselessly and tirelessly calling for peace. In my opinion, however, critical time was lost with Kibaki sitting on his hands and Raila seething and crying about rigging. Both had the opportunity to exert genuine statesmanship and both failed - with extraordinary consequences. When Raila should have been heading for higher moral ground and exorting his supporters to remain peaceful, he was instead promoting this absurd notion of a parallel government and being installed as the "people's president" via a mob of his supporters in Uhuru Park. If this was not enough, when the "coronation" was forbidden by the government for Tuesday Jauary 1st, the event was rebadged with a religious connotation and rescheduled for Thursday January 3rd. In my opinion, ODM calling for one million people in downtown Nairobi while passions were running hot and parts of Kenya were burning was blatantly irresponsbile, clearly unstatesmanlike and tantamount to thowing kerosene on a fire. It was selfserving and obscene grandstanding.
This crisis highlights my conviction that moving forward requires three things: 1. A concentrated campaign to extinquish ignorance. 2. Relentless economic development. 3. Time - not measured in months or years, but generations.
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