War mongers must be called out now as we head to 2027 poll

Perhaps we are not saying it loudly enough, or clearly. Perhaps we are whispering when we should be shouting. There are warning signs that Kenya could burn, if nothing is done today. As we travel towards August 2027, we have crossed many lines that should never be crossed. And we seem keen to cross several others.

Dehumanizing rhetoric is in high gear, all the way from State House, to the smallest corners in the Opposition. It is loud, tribal and hostile in nature. Political violence has been normalised, with the state in the lead. Criminal gangs and militias are now accepted as regular political instruments; again with the state in the lead.

The law is being applied selectively, especially by the police and Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC). Widespread distrust in state institutions is on the rise. Parliament, the National Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC), and the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC); all these have lost the trust and respect of the people. Reconstitution of key offices in the Judiciary in recent times has also generated mistrust.

IEBC is questioned all the time. The commissioners do little to regenerate confidence. It is as if they have accepted that they are someone’s lap dogs, and nothing else really matters. Hence, a commissioner cynically dismisses complaints against appalling voter treatment in the ended by-election in Ol Kalou. She says, “People do not lose their right to development, just because there is an election.”

So, maybe, we are whispering when we should be shouting? And the tragedy with whispers is that they are often dismissed as “partisan noise.” That is until they become impossible to ignore, and often rather late for anything useful to be done. They are also dismissed as “fear mongering.” It is, therefore, one of those difficult moments in history, when the voice of reason is suffocated.

Kenya has developed a troubling political rhythm. Elections are one-day events, as the political class keeps reminding the nation. But in between these events are five years of campaigns. They are a permanent condition. Governing and campaigning are the same enterprise. Every day, State House speaks to retain power. By the same token, the Opposition speaks to obtain it. Campaigns  have completely shrunk the space where governing occurs.

That space has been bridged with noisy hostility that is increasingly noisy, and ethnic in character. In government, especially, they are stomping the ground against an ethnic region. They are recruiting nationwide tribal support against a region. Recent joiners in government are particularly loud and verbally violent, perhaps out of the need to display their loyalty on the sleeve.

Sections of the Opposition counter by invoking the International Criminal Court (ICC). Gracious Lord! First, it is shameful that a foreign court – despite its international character – should be the only hope for peace and justice, for a sovereign state. Second, ICC is a useless scarecrow. Kenyans debunked the myth that is the ICC. They defeated it though politics, diplomacy, and witness problems. They can do it again. If one of ICC’s roles is deterrence, fear of punishment by this court is weak in Kenya. 

We can do several things, therefore. First, we must stop whispering about Armageddon. Civic organizations need to talk loudly about this slippery path. It is not enough to talk about which ethnic leaders, if combined with which ones, will romp into State House. War mongers must be called out.

IEBC needs to bite, and bite hard too. They will tell you that they do not prosecute. Yes, but they can lock out reprobates. The NCIC needs to step up to the plate. They should stop looking like another set of pampered lap dogs. EACC, for their part, should shed off their user-friendly partisan outlook. The police must serve the country, and not one political side. Above all, they must stop working with goons, no matter who is commanding them to do so.

The 13th Parliament, for its part, is beyond redemption. Citizens need to reclaim their sovereignty from this house of ignominy. Citizen forums can define the future, by sensitizing the people that they are not anybody’s guns. When crises emerge, politicians use ordinary citizens to raise the stakes, through greater violence.

At the peak of the violence, the politicos engage in elite power bargains. They agree on broad-based power sharing deals that leave out the people. Citizens need to place moral limits on the political class. Civil society, LSK, faith-based entities, KEPSA, Bunge La Wananchi, and other citizen forums, this is your time to save your country. Speak out and act today, for tomorrow may be too late.

-Dr Muluka is a strategic communications adviser. www.barrackmuluka.co.ke