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Mon, 14 Jan 2008 14:47:04 +0000

FEATURED ARTICLE: We have heard Raila and Kibaki; let's hear from the Kenyans too

Letter to a Kampala Friend | Muniini K. Mulera UGANDA MONITOR Newspaper

We have heard Raila and Kibaki; let's hear from the Kenyans too

The irony rips through the heart.  The double-standards are astounding.  A public servant allegedly steals a few million dollars from the public purse to pay his bills. As usual, the victims, the great mass of the Wretched of the Earth, remain silent, accepting their fate. But politicians and scribes, diplomats and money lenders, and the blessed custodians of public morality call for his immediate dismissal, prosecution and just punishment.

A sitting president of a said country corrupts state organs to help steal an election and a government.  The victims of the crime, hungry for democracy and change, take to the streets in protest. The genuine winner of the stolen election, claiming what is rightfully his, refuses to recognise the usurper in the State House.  The masses, shocked at the betrayal, filled with explosive anger, with an unstoppable desire to lynch the traitor, lash out at his ethnic kinsmen, and presumed political supporters. Violence breaks out.  The cameras are rolling.

Images of blood and human corpses are brought into our living rooms.  Local and regional economies are threatened. Investors suffer panic attacks. Their profits are in peril. Neighbouring lands suffer the indignity of fuel shortages. 

So the same politicians, scribes, diplomats, money lenders and our blessed custodians of public morality call for peace, an end to the hostilities and reconciliation. The victims of the crime, especially the man whose presidency has been stolen, are told to humble themselves before the one who stole the election, and negotiate a settlement.  Why, they even imply that the victim of the crime will be held responsible for the violence!

Not that they are ignorant of the facts. They know, better than most, that the usurper at the State House has committed armed robbery.   Yet they will not call for his immediate apprehension and prosecution.  There is too much at stake to dwell on small things like democracy and justice, morality and fairness. So the din of voices calling upon Raila Amolo Odinga, Kenya's president-elect, to negotiate with Stanley Emilio Mwai Kibaki, the coup-leader in the Kenyan State House, continues unabated. A flurry of high-profile diplomats jet in and out of Nairobi. Their mission? A search for a peaceful resolution of a criminal act by one who swore to uphold the constitution.

First it is Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa, well travelled and experienced a peace-maker all can trust. He says his piece, and urges negotiations.  Kenya burns.    Then it is Dr Jendayi Frazer, representing US President George Bush, he who promised years ago to stand in solidarity with citizens, anywhere in the world, who search for freedom and democracy.  The good lady from America urges Mwai and Raila, the rival presidents of Kenya, to negotiate a settlement, that includes power sharing. She leaves with her head down. Her mission is incomplete. And Kenya burns.

Next is Ghanaian President John Kufuor, Chairman of the African Union, imposing and graceful, a man who looks like his blood is made of peace.  He urges an end to violence, and dialogue between the two rival presidents, but soon gives up like the rest, and returns to his turf in Ghana. And Kenya keeps burning. Kofi Annan, former chief of the UN, arrives this week to urge Raila and Kibaki to search for a settlement that should include  power-sharing. Soon he will be done, and Kenya may keep burning.

Trouble is that these distinguished messengers of Kenya's elusive peace are yet to ask the Kenyan people what they really feel and what they really want. We know what Kibaki wants. We know what Raila wants. But what do the Kenyans want? And whose claims to the presidency enjoy the popular support of those who ought to choose in freedom, their leader and how they are ruled? Yes, we have heard from the violent ones.

 Their machetes have served their demons, of ethnic hatred and cleansing. Kenya burns and bleeds anew, with each day that dawns and sets. And our hearts are rent apart by man's destruction of man. We have heard from Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK) Chairman Samuel Kivuitu, a sad man who continues to distance himself from the election "results" he read under great distress.

But the silent majority of Kenyans are yet to be heard from, for nobody has asked them what they think and wish to do. We know they spoke loud with their votes on December 27, 2007. But their voices were betrayed.
Some seek to give them voice through a recount of the December 27 ballots.  Others still talk of an audit of the now infamous Form 16-A, where the tallied votes were recorded. 

Truth to tell, the ballots have been corrupted.  Ghost votes abound. A recount will not make them genuine. The Form 16-As have been corrupted, with fraudulent totals that exceed reality. The election was a farce. The only solution to the betrayal and the violence that has engulfed the land must surely be to give the people of Kenya an opportunity to express their collective opinion and judgment on their political crisis and leadership question.

Forget the economy for a moment, be it of Kenya or the neighbourhood.  Think of the stolen rights of the Kenyan citizens, to choose their government and governance. It is a human right that must be restored without delay.  The only sure way to do this is to hold another presidential election, this time under the aegis of the international community.

 It is a win-win proposition, for Kibaki and Raila, and for Kenya most of all. If Kibaki is the popular man he says he is, Kenyans will re-elect him by the millions. If the truth is the other way round, he will retire to his farm and wealth, and be saved, along with Kenya, from the disaster that awaits him should his stubborn streak get the better of him. This is the message that Kibaki needs to hear, not just from Raila and his party, but from all who claim to care about Kenya.

-- mkmulera --