Excessive
charity and forgiveness towards self and allies versus lack of charity and
harsh judgement upon opponents – this has been the outstanding tone regarding
the County Revenue Allocation Bill.
It’s
no wonder the Senate has failed a record 9 times to agree on a way forward
regarding how much counties will receive from the exchequer!
And
yet the legislative process and debates of any honorable house must never be
laced with tones of hatred and malice.
This
attitude of acrimony and vengeance to teach each other some lesson is juvenile
and unproductive.
Ordinarily,
a Kenyan on the streets would not bother to forcefully teach another a lesson.
All
you’d get is a warning to be careful when walking on certain parts of downtown
Nairobi at particular hours.
However,
the political class are accorded certain power by the constitution which they
would want to wield in a show of might and not necessarily to promote public
good.
The
public do not need to feel how powerful you are if they cannot get the service
delivered to them.
In
fact, all power is an illusion until it brings about a tangible accomplishment
to its subjects.
But
this attitude of revenge and pay-back has a historical background to it.
In
the pre-multiparty days, the powers-that-be
would pounce on a political opponent not with blows but with arbitrary arrests,
repossession of property and all manner of threats.
The
party position was law and was not to be questioned but followed.
This
is a trick from the old book on “how to
deal with your enemies”
Those
that have suffered previously at the hands of political tyrants should be at
the forefront in rejecting all forms of injustice – injustice anywhere is s
threat to justice everywhere - Martin Luther King Jr
Yet
politics is about advancing ideologies, which must be convincingly sold to potential
converts.
You cannot beat an idea into an
opponent!
And
the beating I am referring to here is two-fold. One is physical, like the flimsy
cases and illegal arrests and the other has to do with withholding a vote from
the opponent to pass a message.
In
my considered opinion, the political class has behaved badly across the divide.
The
advancement of public good should always supersede individual, party or
sectarian interests.
When
the focus is lost on why public servants are elected into office, we end up
with this kind of unnecessary drama.
Let
them that are in political positions know this, the Kenyan out there does not
care how many blows you throw at each other; if you’re not serving public
interest it’s all futile.
There
has been a very false and myopic argument going round that because a certain
part of the political class passed the infamous
security law in 2014, they deserve to suffer for its consequences.
But
who knows who will be in power tomorrow? Furthermore, if our primary motivation
is to always get even at the next turn how can we build a nation?
These
public displays of vengeance from elected leaders are what drive the mental
psyche of the electorate. Each electoral region sees the whole nation through the
views of its local leader.
If
and when that view is biased and lopsided against another group, you can be
sure that the rhetoric will align to the same.
Political
power is like shifting sand but laws are what form the fabric of a nation’s
values.
Playing
around with the latter in an effort to drive a temporal point and score political
mileage is a game of fools.
Yes,
that infamous security law was passed and its supporters may not have imagined
its full impact then as they do now!
But
since we are in the same country, we might as well begin to imagine ourselves
suffering under the same law at some point because there are no two laws for
one country; except may be in Hong Kong!
Therefore, let
the majority have their way and the minority their say, but also let the silent
have their peace!
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