IF ONLY WE COULD GO THE AMERICAN WAY

It is Wednesday, the 7^th day of November 2012, chilly morning in Nairobi due to the long rains of December.  Thousands of miles away in Obamaland, the man from K’Ogelo has just been re-elected for his second and final term at White House. After a grueling and close run against his Republican rival, Willard Mitt Romney, incumbent Barack Obama managed to hold off the Republican onslaught in the race to White House. He has once again rewritten his name into the annals of history by being the first black America to be re-elected into office. Congratulations are in order for Obama, the Democrats and also for Romney and the Republican Party for humbly conceding defeat.

As a country, Kenya is celebrating Obama’s re-election and as protocol demands, President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga, among other leaders have sent him goodwill messages. But empty rhetoric from our politicians aside, have we as a country stopped for a moment and deeply given a thought about our politics? We are heading to the delayed 2013` polls and it seems that it is still politics the old Kenyan way, despite a new constitution that we have given so much hullabaloo about.

The unique Kenyan rule of ethnic-founded politics still holds strong.  Votes are still being sought on grounds of ethnicity, cash for votes is still prevalent. The punda na farasi storylines have become the latest political vocabulary as the race to State House in 2013 hots up. The race to succeed President Kibaki is slowly exposing the ugly under-belly of the Kenyan politics.

Politicians are changing parties, all in the name of seeking alliances with like-minded parties. But what they do not exactly tell us is the basis and issues that inform their party hopping. Parties are not founded upon any concrete ideologies and our politics are not issue based. What Kenyans are exposed to every other electioneering period is mudslinging, that sadly seems to attract quite a chunk of the Kenyan votes. Whenever candidates lose in their party nominations, they cry foul play, allege bias and election malpractices. They immediately jump ship to other parties, with their eyes fixed on the coveted seat that it seems nothing can stop them from acquiring.

Whenever on goes against the political viewpoints of the so-called political big men from his or her community, he or she is threatened with political brimstone and called names. Fierce castigations flow in from all directions. This is Kenya, the country where the ethnicity of a politician is apparently key than the issues and policies at hand. As a result, we have continued to abundantly fill our baskets with perennial disappointments from a political class, whose majority cares about its narrow self interests!

The Grand-Regency, Kazi Kwa vijana, Anglo-leasing and the Free Primary education funds scandals are some of the numerous scams and shameful tales that we, as a country have had to put up with. These are times when public offices have been turned into milking cows by selfish individuals, much to the chagrin of the poor Kenyan taxpayer. These are the returns that we reap as a result of poor decisions made at the ballot.

It is sad that politics in this nation have become a cause of constant pain and agony, tears and anguish. When will we ever get a Kenya where politics is the cause of joy at the triumph of democracy, for when a party loses to her rival in any election, democracy prevails? When are we going to get that country where Parliament and other public offices is not a milking cow to some few greedy individuals, but the basis and concrete rock upon which meaningful legislation and policies are enacted for the well-being of the ordinary Kenyan? When is it that the plight of the Kenyan electorate will become the rallying call of all honest politicians?

When will politicians be judged not how fat their purses are but by what they stand for? When will politicians engage in meaningful politics for the good of the country and stop the mudslinging? When will politicians garner votes not by the large tribal and ethnic blocks that they control, but by the policies and issues they stand for?

As a nation we must recollect our senses and borrow a cue from the issue based politics, conducted by our distant cousins in Obamaland and other countries, where politics are meant for the greater good of the entire nation. Mahatma Gandhi once said that politics without principle is one of the seven deadly sins. As a nation, this is what we have been doing every other election period. Our politics lack principles and issues in that matter.

Let us always be proud of Obama and also work towards replicating this decent form of politics in our beloved country. It is in our hands to either make or break our nation’s future!