Kenya is bigger than (its 2 big) presidential candidates

As I begin to type out this piece media reports reaching this part of the world state that counting at most polling stations is complete and that voter turnout was very high. That is certainly very uplifting.

However, latest media reports also state that the two big camps in this elections seem at the verge of declaring war, with their officials complaining vehemently about alleged suspicious activities. That is very worrying.

In many senses, Kenya is at yet another watershed moment where its patriots have been called upon to rise to the challenge, in this case the tough democratic challenge of choosing its next government.

Only 24 to 36 hours ago reports in Kenyan and international media were that elections were conducted in a very efficient manner save for a few incidences. However, only a few hours ago, reports changed pointing to the pockets of vandals emerging in different parts of the country, threatening to plunge the country into a dangerous downward spiral of violence.

While this may be the first time elections in Kenya have been this tight and stakes this high, its definitely not a world first. Citizens in other countries have walked down similar paths and, in many cases, portrayed maturity beyond expectation.

Only 7 years ago in the United States, George Bush and Al Gore were in the tightest election race that country had witnessed in more than 150 years. In percentage terms, the difference between the two candidates was 0.6% in the popular vote and using an electoral system, the votes were 271 versus 266. Bush won the electoral vote by a margin of 7 but lost the popular by a margin of 0.6% and yet was declared a winner. The stakes in the US were high, in many senses, much higher than in Kenya. Not only have democrats and republicans been political opponents for many many more decades (since the 1820s), but the winner of that election would then become leader of the the undisputed global economic and military superpower.

Even though there was much debate during and immediately after the announcement of the winner, did the country descend into chaos? No! Did people protest? Yes! Did they turn violent? No! Did they loot and plunder? No! Political opponents in that country, in the face of the most controversial election result in more than 150 years, displayed political maturity, having realized the nation was bigger than both presidential candidates.

Going even further back in history to the mid 1990s, in Tanzania, the ruling party at the time was going through a difficult transition period trying to choose it's next set of leadership. There was a very close contest between 2 party presidential candidates, so close it threatened the very core of party. The late Mwalimu Nyerere, at that time a retired president of both the country and party, stood from amongst the party electorate and proceeded to share some of his immense wisdom which eventually broke the deadlock and demonstrated that the internal party systems had enough political maturity to deal with democratic hurdles.

Over the last few weeks, the Kenyan presidential race has been compared to that of the recent ANC policy conference where Zuma allegedly trounced Mbeki. I say allegedly because the analogy has, in many instances, been overstated. For one, unlike our presidential election, both Mbeki and Zuma belong to the same party and have both been in the party for more than 50years, more than 30 of those in senior leadership positions. Secondly, they have both worked together very closely in various high-stake projects including, in the early 1990s negotiating with the Inkatha party during pre-election period. What may also not be common knowledge is that the ANC also (not so publicly) tasked Mbeki and Zuma to negotiate with elements of the Afrikaner military structures. Additionally, it seems most people don't realize that this close working relationship didn't end when Zuma lost his job as Deputy President of the country. In fact, every Monday since 1997 when they joined the ANC's top leadership, the two would meet with other top ANC leaders during the weekly Party's governing council meetings. Lastly, as demonstrated during the recent policy conference, the two individuals have the utmost respect for each other. Indeed when Zuma was announced the winner, they both spontaneously walked to the front of the conference hall and went on the hug before Mbeki left the stage. Of course, Zuma, during his closing speech referred to Comrade Mbeki as "a comrade, a friend and brother" This is confusing for many people who think they were sworn enemies. What they don't realize is that it was Mbeki that first taught Zuma how to use a gun in the 1970s and that the two, through the apartheid South African state's machinations, they and others were once caught in Swaziland and the two of them spent several nights in a cell together awaiting extradition and it was only through pressure from such countries as Sweden that they didn't end up South Africa. Had they been extradited, there's no doubt South Africa's liberation history would have been very different.

One of the key questions Kenyan wananchi are asking themselves is what is the way forward? Apparently the ECK has halted counting. Are we at an impasse? How long will it last? How will we survive? Does the country come to a standstill?

Kenyans have a thing to learn from Belgium which has definitely broken the world record at political impasse. On the 10th of June 2007, Belgian citizens voted in federal elections and within the next day or two it became apparent there was no outright winner therefore no new government. Immediately the first of what would develop into several rounds of negotiations began around forming a government. What was thought would take a few days, a week at most lasted more than 6 months! It is only on the 17th of December was an interim government put in place. Did the nation descend into chaos? No! Infact, save for European media houses, this remarkable display of political maturity was not carried beyond national boundaries.

How long can Kenya's political impasse last? A few hours? A few days?

Are we in danger of disintegrating into chaos? Yes! Should we? No! For the Kenya's sake we shouldn't.

There's no doubt the stakes in Kenya the highest they have been since independence. However, we must remember a number of things. First, even though politicians and their funders have put a lot of financial and other resources into the campaigns, the bigger issue to bear in mind is that all these resources were first and foremost used to facilitate the democratic process, albeit at high personal cost. Should any politician then not remember the bigger picture as they spew vitriolic utterances against real and perceived opponents, then we the citizens should realize they could be driven by personal rather than altruistic desires.

Secondly, it would seem that perceived ethnic differences have clouded many people's abilities for rational thought. Kenya has been independent for more than 40yrs, with several generations of its citizens having grown up in a multi-cultural and multi-ethnic environments. Yet as Philip Ochieng eloquently put it almost a month ago "Every time we approach the General Election, tribal emotion takes over and all our mental and manual energy goes into maligning, maiming and even killing one another. And what for? For the sake of individuals whose only service, when they enter Parliament, will be to clean up our Treasury and make us groan even more plaintively" This situation is highly undesirable. Kenya has already had painful episodes of ethnic clashes, albeit politically motivated, prior to every election since 1992. Yet the danger during this election impasse threaten to erupt into violence that would overshadow all previous incidences a thousand-fold.

Regardless of how high the stakes are for politicians, we need leaders who look beyond their interest to get into parliament and control national resources, and rather care more about the state of the nation.

We need leaders who will not incite people to taking up arms. There's a lesson to learn from the incitements by certain politicians in the early 1990s in South Africa, leading to more people dying of black-on-black violence in a period of a few years than all people dying from the apartheid machinery since the 1950s. Kenya needs a different kind of political leadership. We need leadership that is willing to, like Belgium, spend time negotiating for the future of the country. After all, many of these politicians, regardless of party affiliation are, at worst, cordial to each other whenever they meet in private and, at best, a few are actually business associates.

Kenya is not the first country in the world to experience tensions. Other nations have had years, decades and in a few of them, even centuries of tensions as a result of ethnic, cultural or religious differences that are played out in various political arena. South Africa, in the early 1990s was at a knife's edge for more than 2 years of the CODESA negotiations. This process broke down several times, witnessed the worst internal violence the country had ever and possibly ever experience and the shell shocking high profile assassination of Chris Hani. Yet, that country emerged from that tumultuous process with its first democratic election in April 1994.

Should we wait till people start burning other people's houses? Should we wait till there's a high profile assassination (as has just happened in Pakistan)? Should we watch as sections of the media spew ethnically incited vitriol? Do we remember what role the media played prior to the 1994 massacre, one of the worst incidences of genocide the world has seen in recent times?

Political maturity is realizing that we all sing the same national anthem. The second verse aptly reads

Amkeni ndugu zetu

Tufanye sote bidii

Nasi tujitoe kwa nguvu

Nchi yetu ya Kenya

Tunayoipenda

Tuwe tayari kuilinda.

Are we ready to defend, not just personal or partisan interests at huge cost to the nation? The 3rd verse reads

Natujenge taifa letu

Ee, ndio wajibu wetu

Kenya istahili heshima

Tuungane mikono

Pamoja kazini

Kila siku tuwe na shukrani.

Do we believe "Kenya yastahili heshima?" If yes, then we must go beyond partisan war mongering. We must learn from the painful lessons other nations have had to go through. We must start behaving maturely just like nations like Belgium have demonstrated.

After all, Kenya is much bigger than the sum of all its parties, and is certainly much bigger than its 2 big presidential candidates!