Why we must all condemn political hooliganism

Kenya must not permit political competition to degenerate into political hooliganism.

As we advance deeper into the electioneering period, the violence witnessed in Homa Bay, Migori, Garissa and lately Embu ought to be unequivocally condemned by all and sundry.

Indeed, we must delineate a clear boundary between vigorous political contestation and the deployment of intimidation and hooliganism aimed at silencing dissenting voices.

Vigorous contestation is the lifeblood of any functioning democracy — it is the clash of ideas, manifestos, track records and promises that allows citizens to make informed choices.

What has been happening lately in political rallies across Kenya is profoundly disquieting. It signals not merely a breakdown of order at individual events, but a broader erosion of the norms that are supposed to govern how political actors treat one another and treat the citizens who come out to listen to them.

In Homa Bay County, the Linda Mwnanchi rallies degenerated into violence, with reports of assaults, loss of life and destruction of property.

Gatherings that were meant to be forums for political persuasion instead became scenes of fear, and the citizens who had turned out to exercise their basic democratic right to listen and to be heard were instead exposed to danger.

In Embu one person was fatally injured, and six vehicles were torched during chaos that erupted at a public meeting presided over by Deputy President Kithure Kindiki. That such disorder could erupt at a meeting presided over by so senior a state officer underscores just how fragile the current political atmosphere has become, and how quickly a public gathering can spiral out of control when the underlying culture of intolerance is left unaddressed.

These incidents coupled with what transpired in Garissa and Migori have justifiably provoked national disquiet regarding the trajectory of our politics as we approach the 2027 General Election.

When violence associated with political rivalry begins to engender fear, it ceases to be a mere local political disagreement but a menace to our national democratic culture.

This is not the Kenya we ought to be constructing. Every generation of Kenyans has had to answer, in its own way, the question of what kind of nation it wishes to leave behind, and the manner in which we conduct our politics today will be a significant part of that answer for the generation now coming of age.

We must strive for Kenya where every political entity is free to do politics and sell its policy in every nook and cranny unhindered. That freedom is not a courtesy extended by the powerful to the powerless; it is a constitutional entitlement that belongs equally to the smallest party and the largest, to the newest political entrant and the most established incumbent.

If a Kenyan cannot journey to another county to propagate a political idea without fear of assault, then every Kenyan's democratic freedom stands imperiled. The freedom of movement and the freedom of political expression are not abstract legal doctrines; they are lived, practical freedoms that either exist on the ground in every county or do not meaningfully exist at all.

As a party, the Green Congress Party condemns political hooliganism in the most unequivocal terms. We repudiate the deployment of gangs, hired mobs, intimidation, menace or physical coercion as instruments of political mobilisation. These tools have no legitimate place in a constitutional democracy, regardless of who deploys them or which side of the political divide they are meant to benefit.

We believe a political party ought to win the confidence of citizens through ideas, policy, integrity and leadership and not through fear. A party that must resort to fear to secure support has already conceded, in effect, that it cannot win the argument on its merits — and that concession ought to trouble its own leadership as much as it troubles the nation.

If a supporter of one political party cannot attend a rally convened by another without facing menace, then none among us can candidly assert that our democracy is secure. The right to attend, to listen, to weigh competing arguments and even to heckle peaceably is central to the democratic experience; when that right can only be exercised at personal risk, democracy itself has been narrowed.

The tragedy of Kenyan politics is that when political violence erupts, it is invariably ordinary young people who are thrust to the frontline, while their political patrons remain ensconced safely behind the scenes. This is one of the most morally troubling features of our political culture: those who bear the physical risk, the arrest records, the injuries and sometimes the ultimate cost of political violence are rarely the same people who benefit politically from it. This cycle cannot be permitted to persist.

Additionally, our message is addressed to politicians across the political spectrum: do not instrumentalise our youth for political battles. This appeal is deliberately non-partisan, because the instrumentalisation of youth for violent political ends is not the practice of any single party or coalition — it is a shared failing that has recurred across different political formations and different election cycles.

Kenyan youth should not be conscripted, remunerated or manipulated into assailing political adversaries or despoiling property.

 A generation that is taught, whether explicitly or through example, that violence is an acceptable form of political participation will carry that lesson forward long after the current electioneering period has ended.

And should political leaders come to regard violence as a legitimate demonstration of strength, we shall have failed an entire generation. Strength in politics ought to be measured by the quality of one's ideas, the discipline of one's organisation and the breadth of one's coalition — not by the capacity to muster a crowd willing to intimidate opponents.

The Green Congress Party holds that every Kenyan possesses the constitutional right to affiliate with a political party of their choosing, to attend political gatherings, to campaign for their preferred candidate and to articulate political opinions peaceably. These are not privileges to be rationed out depending on political convenience; they are rights guaranteed to every citizen regardless of where they live or whom they support.

Those rights cannot be contingent upon whether one resides in a political stronghold of the ruling party or the opposition. A Kenyan's enjoyment of their constitutional rights should not vary depending on the electoral map of the county in which they happen to live.

No county belongs to a political party and no community possesses a political territory. Kenya belongs to us all. This principle, simply stated, is nonetheless one of the most important in our national political life: it rejects, categorically, the notion that any part of this country can be treated as the exclusive preserve of one political camp.

It is for this reason that the political class must resist the temptation to transform counties and communities into political no-go zones. The moment a county becomes, in practice, inaccessible to rival political voices, that county has ceased to be fully part of the national democratic conversation.

The people of Homa Bay, Migori, Embu, Garissa, Nairobi and every other region of Kenya must remain at liberty to hear competing political messages and to render their own judgment at the ballot box.

We must also demand accountability. Condemnation in the aftermath of violence is insufficient. Statements of regret, however sincerely made, cannot on their own repair the damage done or deter future incidents; they must be followed by concrete, verifiable action.

The police must investigate incidents impartially, perpetrators must be brought before the law, and anyone who finances, orchestrates or facilitates political violence must be held to account irrespective of political connections.

Simultaneously, law enforcement agencies must guard against selective enforcement. Nothing erodes public confidence more swiftly than the perception that the law is applied unevenly according to political affiliation.

Also, other agencies, namely the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission, the Office of the Registrar of Political Parties, the National Police Service, religious leaders, civil society and political parties all bear responsibility for ensuring that the electioneering period remains peaceable.

But ultimately, accountability begins with political leadership. Institutions can investigate, prosecute and mediate, but they cannot, on their own, change the tone that political leaders set for their supporters.

We must abandon the rhetoric of incitement. We must cease rewarding belligerent crowds with political prominence. We must stop lionising politicians for their capacity to mobilise disruption against opponents. Each of these is a discrete, achievable commitment, and each is entirely within the control of the political class, requiring no new legislation or institutional reform to begin implementing immediately.

A leader who cannot countenance criticism is unfit for democratic leadership. A leader who requires violence to command attention has already exhausted his political arguments. And a political movement that believes its adversaries ought to be silenced rather than vanquished at the ballot box constitutes a menace to democracy.

Indeed, Homa Bay Governor Gladys Wanga herself previously underscored that political competition ought to be resolved through ideas and the ballot rather than confrontation or violence.

That principle should be elevated to a national political clarion call. That such a call should come from a leader in one of the very counties affected by recent unrest gives it particular weight, and it deserves to be echoed far beyond Homa Bay's own borders.

Above all, let us afford Kenyans the opportunity to choose their leaders freely, unencumbered by intimidation. That freedom of choice, exercised without fear, is the entire point of holding elections in the first place.

Kenya has paid a formidable price for political violence in the past, with the violence, deaths and displacements that followed the 2007 elections remaining as the worst scar in our country's history.

That period remains, for many Kenyans, a lived memory rather than a distant historical event, and its lessons about how quickly political tension can escalate into widespread violence should inform how seriously we treat every warning sign today.

We ought not to await another national tragedy before heeding the warning signs. The incidents in Homa Bay, Migori, Garissa and Embu are precisely such warning signs, and history will judge harshly a political class that saw them clearly and chose not to act.

As the Green Congress Party, we choose democracy. We choose tolerance. We choose peaceable competition. And we call upon every Kenyan political leader to do likewise.

- Hilary Alila is the Green Congress Party Leader