Bickering over primacy adds little value to governance

Story by LUKOYE ATWOLI Publication Date: 4/30/2008

THE PAST FEW DAYS HAVE seen Kenyans being treated to an unsavoury manifestation of the power-play that is at the very root of this country’s recent dalliance with disintegration. Politicians, academics and common citizens have exercised their minds on who between Prime Minister Raila Odinga and Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka is more powerful than the other. The feud has been prosecuted in the full glare of publicity and has even come in the way of the Government’s own efforts at reconciliation. The issue has become so emotive that it has become the proving ground for idle loyalists still stuck in the pre-election campaign mode. Every politician is seeking to prove just how loyal he or she is by shouting loudest about their man being the closest to the seat of power. THE TRAGEDY IS THAT THESE people are all supposed to be serving in the same government and working towards better service delivery for Kenyans. Their two ‘‘Principals’’ signed an agreement, which the MPs then endorsed in Parliament and entrenched in the Constitution. The continuing wrangles over who is the most powerful between the PM and the VP, therefore, exposes the politicians’ ignorance over the contents of the Bills they passed at the height of the crisis. After passage of the political agreement, Parliament was supposed to turn its attention to the more pressing matter of long-term solutions, including a review of the Constitution, land reforms and institutional reforms to fashion Kenya into a modern state with clear guidelines on what is acceptable and what is not. Parliamentarians were supposed to take the lead role in reconciling our warring communities and creating a framework for lasting peace through truth, justice and reconciliation. Instead, they spend their waking hours wondering how to prove their might to the ‘‘other’’ side. Even straightforward issues such as resettlement of internally displaced persons have become mired in the petty political squabbles and mistrust that pervades our political space. When the National Accord was signed late February, it was argued in these columns that the hard work was only just beginning. It was pointed out that the celebrations were all premature. These arguments are now being clearly borne out by the petulant chest-thumping our politicians are now displaying. It can now be surmised that for the politicians, it is back to business as usual. In their minds, Kenyans cannot have enough of politics, and every day is another day on the campaign platform, seeking to out-perform the political or ethnic ‘‘other’’. The clamour for a new Constitution has been abandoned for the next big thing, in this case the row over primacy between the PM and the VP. Dealing with the food crisis can wait, so that the President can clarify who is second to him. Our discredited electoral system can wait until one of the men is confirmed in no uncertain terms to be the most important. What is emerging is that as long as we put our hopes in the current crop of politicians (or indeed any politician) we are doomed to keep repeating the mistakes of the past. Like the proverbial lunatic, we will keep doing the same thing over and over, and expecting a different result with each repetition. These ‘‘leaders’’ are failures even before they begin doing whatever it is they are supposed to be doing for their electors. KENYANS ARE THEREFORE CALLED upon to begin searching for a new leadership paradigm that does not include excellence in politics or astuteness at accumulating wealth by stealing from the poor. Today, our public service is on the verge of collapse due to the sheer weight of incompetence and lack of vision that chokes the entire governance system. The poorest carry the weight of the rich, and when they grumble, they are told to wait a while longer while their terms are being looked into. The true leader stands at the head of the column, not at the rear. Our leaders must stop these childish games and face up to the challenge of leadership. This demand for leadership is even more urgent at the top than anywhere else in this country. Our very survival as a nation depends on it.

We should not make ECK a scapegoat for our failures

Story by LUKOYE ATWOLI

Publication Date: 4/2/2008

IN RECENT DAYS, THE CLAMOUR for the Electoral Commissioners to either resign or be sacked has reached fever pitch.

ECK chairman, Samuel Kivuitu, has even had to suffer the indignity of being booed and jostled in the streets of Mombasa.

And it seems clear that the public mood is such that he may not be safe anywhere else in this country.

The other commissioners are not safe either, and their existence has been reduced to a level below that of common criminals.

All this indignation and finger-pointing begs the question: What is it that the ECK did, that makes it more culpable than the ‘‘ordinary’’ Kenyan who used all sorts of weapons to kill and maim others for daring to be different in one way or the other?

Is Mr Kivuitu more responsible for the breakdown in law and order than the politicians with their inciting utterances, the warlords with their planned aggression, the police with their skewed response, and the common citizen with his machetes, projectiles and petrol bombs?

Examining the entire hullabaloo with a clearer eye unblinded by the ‘‘civil society’’ noise and rabble-rousing, one gets the impression that the ECK has been turned into a convenient scapegoat for most of the ills that are facing our society today.

From an independent stand-point, it is clear the ECK mishandled the elections on a huge scale, and this mishandling may have served to worsen the conflict, that was simmering below the surface amongst many members of the Kenyan society.

The ECK’s perceived malfeasance, therefore, only served to remove the veil of civility that has covered our social interactions since independence, and exposed us for the very uncivilised creatures that we are.

It may be right then to condemn the ECK commissioners for whatever role they played in the post-election fiasco, but the vilification must be tempered with the reality that the most heinous eruptions since the election were the handiwork of criminals in other spheres of society.

Politicians, media workers, opinion leaders, religious leaders and others must also be examined for the roles they played in the violence, together with the officials of the ECK.

For as long as we continue hankering after quick solutions to our problems, hoping that a few resignations and mea culpas will wash away our sins and help us start afresh, we shall continue brewing new subterranean hostilities which periodically erupt into barbarism.

The lasting solution will not be found at the door of Mr Kivuitu or the other ECK commissioners, but in the hearts of each and every Kenyan.

A COMMON STATEMENT IS THAT ‘‘Kenyans only fulfilled their roles in electing their leaders, and now they are living in camps as a result of leadership failure’’.

This refrain is repeated by all, including the politicians themselves. One is then constrained to ask, whom, therefore, is responsible for the appalling atrocities that continue to be meted out against fellow Kenyans?

Is it some foreign malignant force that has been unleashed to destroy our ‘‘island of peace’’?

At the height of the violence, a claim which has since fizzled out was made that Ugandan soldiers were used to quell riots in some parts of the country.

This only goes to illustrate further our search for convenient scapegoats, targets that can absorb all the blame and leave the rest of the country almost entirely blameless!

President Yoweri Museveni’s quick act to congratulate President Kibaki made him an instant villain among many politicians, further serving to confirm his culpability in our problems.

One question Kenyans need to ponder is this: Isn’t it just possible that the ECK did us all a favour (whatever it is they did!) by triggering a process through which we were forced to discard our masks and show our real selves?

The undercurrents of ethnic animosity they exposed may now be comprehensively dealt with through the formation of an Ethnic Relations Commission and the Truth, Justice and Reconciliation process.

The inordinate importance we place on individuals and not institutions has also been uncovered, and we now have the opportunity to create strong institutions that will outlive their occupants.

The weak base of our economy has been thrust under the examining glass, and we may yet learn some lessons in how to diversify our investments instead of depending on only one factor of production.

If the ECK is found to have committed any crimes by the Independent Review Commission, the commissioners must face the full face of the law.

But the same standard must be applied across the board to all Kenyans (and even foreigners!) who may have had a hand in the sad events that occurred around the December election.

Only then can we talk about justice and equity!

Dr Atwoli is a consultant psychiatrist operating in Eldoret

Enough of Jubilation; now the hard work must begin

Story by LUKOYE ATWOLI Publication Date: Daily Nation 3/14/2008

MANY KENYANS ARE STILL celebrating the signing of the political agreement between President Kibaki and Mr Raila Odinga. But amid all the celebration and back-slapping, I would like to be the voice of reason, or the wet blanket, depending on where one stands on this issue. Just before World War II, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain signed a deal with Adolf Hitler that was hailed as one that would bring ‘‘peace in our time’’. A few months later, Hitler’s forces were pounding the rest of Europe, and the British Isles were not spared. It is said that those who do not heed the lessons of history are doomed to repeat the mistakes. Soon after our elections last year, the country erupted into cataclysms of killing and plunder that were neither foreseen nor anticipated. Unless we want to believe that the key culprits, the forces behind the killings, were President Kibaki and Mr Odinga, then the status quo ante still obtains. THE TWO PRINCIPALS MAY HAVE suddenly become chummy, but the bitterness that drove someone to slash his neighbour and burn his property has not been wiped away by their handshakes. The anger and despair occasioned by the losses suffered by the survivors has not been assuaged by the agreement signed in Nairobi by people who are, for all intents and purposes, strangers to them. Even as we celebrate the political agreements and move forward with the creation of positions and rewarding of cronies, we must not lose sight of the key issues that need to be addressed as part of a lasting solution to our crisis. We must let the political developments to continue parallel to other peace-building and conflict resolution processes. A key issue is the creation of an environment that enables the displaced persons to find a place to settle, whether it is their original home or elsewhere. Dialogue between communities and leaders must begin in earnest if this is to happen quickly, and edicts from Nairobi directing people to return to their homes will just not do. Concrete steps must be taken to prepare both the displaced and their erstwhile tormentors for peaceful coexistence if this process is to succeed. People returning to their homes will find most of them ransacked and destroyed, and they will need assistance to start afresh. Their needs must be assessed and efforts made to address them if we are to avoid creating new refugee camps in the areas of return. In the meantime, it may be necessary to either continue serving the displaced within the current camps or create new ‘‘transit’’ camps to temporarily host people returning to their dwellings while they organise their affairs. Many of those displaced have suffered great physical and psychological distress, and steps must be taken to address their psychosocial needs even as their material needs are taken care of. Special attention must be paid to children and young adults, since their attitudes and lessons will form the basis of their future interactions with the rest of society. If their psychological needs are neglected, we will only have created a time-bomb that will explode again in the near future. Part of the people’s psychological needs will be met in the process of truth, justice and reconciliation, and it is important that mental health professionals be involved in this process. They can offer invaluable advice on what needs to be said, in what circumstances and by whom, to facilitate healing. The process itself does not need to wait for politicians to satisfy their power-sharing needs, it must start sooner rather than later. IT MUST TRICKLE DOWN TO EVERY village, instead of becoming the travelling circus many commissions have become. The Rwandese Gacaca courts, with all their imperfections, provide a poignant lesson on how to deal with local atrocities, and we may need to borrow a leaf from them. Finally, a reconstruction package that includes development of infrastructure, youth employment opportunities, and expansion of the education system must be implemented. Areas perceived to be underdeveloped must be given priority to prevent resentments that can grow into another conflagration in future. If these steps are taken, we will have ensured peace, not just for our time, but for all eternity. Dr Atwoli is a consultant psychiatrist working in Eldoret