Commentary by X N Iraki - We’re pawns in political power game

Ref: http://www.eastandard.net/news/?id=1143980644&cid=190


Published on January 20, 2008, 12:00 am

By XN Iraki

By this time, Kenyans should have gone back to their businesses, unencumbered by the power games between Mr Raila Odinga and Mr Mwai Kibaki.

They are power games because both leaders have achieved most of their basic needs in life, getting power and toying with it is their life’s last ambition.

To these politicians, we are pawns in their power game.

None of the two leaders is ready to accept defeat, not because they cannot, but what do they tell their supporters, those who invested money in campaigns and are awaiting dividends?

This power game is not benefiting the country at large, it is eroding confidence in our institutions which will outlive all of us. It is making investors, the job creators, uncertain about their plans. It is discouraging investors from coming here. Soon it will stop talents flowing back with their money and brains.

But more serious, washing our dirty linen in public is offering the international community a golden opportunity to discover our soft underbelly, which they will use in future to further their strategic interests. We also seem not to worry about our children --—who will live with the fallouts from this polls violence and uncertainties.

The good thing about the current state of affairs is that we now know what we think of one another. We now know what peace is, we now know better that within us enemies of peace hide waiting for the right moment.

But we also know that we are ill prepared to solve our self-created crisis, preferring foreign mediators because we distrust our own neighbours and former classmates. Imagine Americans calling a foreigner to mediate between George Bush and Al Gore?

But ominously, from our headlines and pronouncements, it comes clearly how we have institutionalised pessimism. Enough digression, where do we go from here?

First, Raila and his lieutenants decided a legal option is not tenable. The next option is obvious. They believe that the masses are on their side and can sustain protests indefinitely.

The aftermath of the polls violence revealed an exhausted population, since most live on the edge even in times of prosperity and peace. The ODM group also has the media on its side and is determined to convince the international community that it was wronged.

Few can doubt that from referendum onwards, the Government either lost the propaganda war or thinks it’s too decent for that. ODM’s main weapon in this impasse is appealing to our emotions.

Kibaki has the Government and its instruments. He will try and use them within the legal limits. His strategy might be to move on politically, forming the Cabinet, making other strategic appointments, making coalition with like-minded parties, and make ODM see that soon, there might be no goodies remaining.

With the partial Cabinet appointed and key ministries given out, anyone getting into partnership with Kibaki will get leftovers. Kibaki may have another weapon, our national amnesia.

The two gentlemen are institutions by themselves, as persons they can even visit each other in their homes, but behind each are layers of interested parties, who see their presidencies as avenues to new lives.

Elections are not just rituals; in the aftermath, power, prestige and wealth change hands. In Kenya, where poverty is plenty, majority wait for this seismic shift. But in the long run, every political shift creates a new elite, even communism created one.

As time ebbs away, each party fears that political footnotes are not their place in history. But if each can tone down their ego, they may get more pages in our history books and in our national psyche. My belief is that this great nation will endure and future generations will pay tribute to any of us who will make any sacrifice to see peace flow like a river. What is so hard about talking Hon Raila and Hon Kibaki? This crisis is not a picnic, it is costing innocent lives.