Can there be a free and fair election against the backdrop of conspiracies, murders, deception, fraud, violence, blackmail, exile, betrayal, oathing, protests and treachery?
The politicians who have turned Kenya into Sodom and Gomorrah are the ones seeking divine intervention. The conflict of interest is a tempestuous test of God’s magnanimity.
The priority is this: Kenya needs a return to reason and the rule of law. The vainglorious politicians must sacrifice their appetite for power, wild passions, desires, and perversions for the greater good.
Aristotle tells us, “... he who bids the law rule may be deemed to bid God and reason alone rule, but he who bids men rule adds the element of the beast; for desire is a wild beast, and passion perverts the minds of rulers, even if they are the best of men.”
The desires of men have overshadowed the democratic gains of the 2010 Constitution. Politicians are destroying ethnic relations to retain state power. Injustices cushion the status quo against forces of change. If there is no justice for the people, there can be no peace for the rulers.
The local Church is indifferent as injustices flower. Kenya bemoans the dearth of reason and the rule of law. Political correctness is a new religion. Patriotism has been calibrated as sycophancy.
One of the VIPs Raila Odinga consulted during a recent trip to the UK was the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby. Welby is the leader of the Anglican Communion.
President Uhuru Kenyatta should also have visited the Vatican. A soul-searching and contact with Pope Francis may have reoriented his world view during the season of rancour. Uhuru is yet to take a pilgrimage to the Vatican, but he called for national prayers last week. Archbishop Cardinal John Njue, the local spiritual head of Uhuru’s Church, is yet to address these divisive issues.
The public is not privy to the discussion between Raila and Welby. But he may have made his position on contentious issues known to the leader of his congregation.
It is possible the former Prime Minister sought spiritual advice on Kenya’s 21st Century Tower of Babel. People are talking at cross-purposes. No one is listening. NASA is talking about a free and fair election. Jubilee is protecting its full loaf of bread. Reason is dead.
On the day the Supreme Court ordered a ‘fresh’ presidential election, NASA called for administrative reforms to level the playing field. But NASA did not start pleading with the IEBC on September 1. It was repeating what the Supreme Court directed the IEBC to do when it nullified the August 8 presidential election.
A week later NASA published ‘irreducible minimums’ that would make a fresh presidential election free of illegalities and irregularities. On September 15, NASA placed a one-page advert in the Daily Nation, stating what it would take to level the ground.
Weeks, and months later, the IEBC has not addressed these administrative issues in any transparent way that could restore confidence. One of its commissioners, Roselyn Akombe, fled into exile, citing threats to her life.
Meanwhile chairman Wafula Chebukati is shaking like a leaf in a storm. He needs prayers for courage to do what is right for Kenya: Courage to know there can be no free and fair election when about 10 million voters are disenfranchised.
NASA presidential candidate Raila withdrew from the race after knocking behind closed doors for months. The simple plea was, the IEBC should create an electoral infrastructure that supports free and fair elections.
The country is hurting. The flock hurts when the Church and other faiths are lukewarm, neutral, or indifferent. Archbishop Jackson ole Sapit, the local head of the Anglican Church, has spoken on these issues. But his voice has not rallied the Church into finding a solution.
The players in the mess are tithe-paying Christians. The clergy have some authority over these people. Reprimand them. Call them to reason.
The Church has a duty to help reclaim the rule of law and reason in this ‘God-fearing’ and ‘peace-loving’ country. Take a stand - to be indifferent is to be partisan.