Kenyans are fast getting used to violence,
intimidating anti-riot police gear and machinery, teargas filling the air and
running battles between law-enforcers and demonstrators.
It has become ‘official’ that Mondays are
action-days as the Coalition for Reforms and Democracy (CORD) mobilizes
ordinary wananchi to drive the Independent Elections and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) home.
On Monday, Kibera slums burnt. In Kakamega, Senator
Boniface Khalwale was arrested as demonstrations turned violent. The Coastal
County of Mombasa was no different.
The police have severally been captured on by the
media breaking up demonstrations using excessive force and archaic tactics.
This seems to have strengthened the resolve in CORD and
supporters to take to the streets.
The opposition, perhaps frustrated by the lie of
‘Tyranny of Numbers’ that has ruined the 11th Parliament decided to
use mass action to force IEBC home.
The government’s response has been appalling;
unleashing police to clobber the demonstrators is a major goof.
It has played into the opposition’s trap and strengthened
the calls to hound home the electoral body.
Two wrongs never make a right and both JUBILEE and
CORD should know better.
The violent demonstrators and equally barbarous
police, backed by the latest anti-riot machinery are ruining our image, scaring
away investors and serving no good to this great nation.
We are on a self-destruct mission on this sensitive
matter of political power as 2017 draws near.
A team of nine commissioners is no big than Kenya,
legal means must however be used and the law should not be brutalized.
For any elections to be free, fair and results
agreeable to all competitors, the referee must be beyond reproach, just like
Ceasar’s wife!
IEBC has failed this test and the questions around
its conduct can never get enough answers.
Kenya has never healed from the tribal animosities
of the divisive 2007-08 elections and any signs of violence should be addressed
in time before 2017.
JUBILEE must tone down on its intolerance and
sanction the security forces as the sitting government. CORD must step down
from the hard line position.
The ordinary wananchi must desist from ethnic
poisoning as the political temperatures rise.
The signings are worrying as 2017 draws near.
