President Uhuru Kenyatta is a leader under siege for deviating from the African norm and displaying rare statesmanship only exhibited in mature democracies. Not even the President’s three predecessors tolerated opposition leaders and that perhaps can explain the loud murmurs and jittery over the March 9 “earth-shaking” handshake between Uhuru and ODM leader Raila Odinga.
Uhuru, son of the nation’s Founding Father Jomo Kenyatta is not a cut, copy and paste of his predecessors. The other presidents were held hostage by their tribes and close confidantes, who expected to be shielded against injustices perpetrated against citizens by the politically correct.
Uhuru's gesture is rare in Africa’s emerging democracies. This is the second time in recent times that political foes are sharing a public platform after a hotly contested election and acrimonious verbal exchanges. Nelson Mandela, after 27 years in a Boer prison, is the only African leader who pardoned his tormentors and shared a platform with the white South African President de Klerk.
Some of Uhuru’s Mt Kenya brethren are not amused that he could extend an olive branch to a one-time political outcast and key opposition figure in Africa, where opposition leaders and their supporters belong in jail and their areas starved of development funds. Uhuru ceased to be a village elder and assumed a symbol of national unity role as soon as he was sworn into office.
The President is a product of the Kenyan electorate not a member of Gatundu South constituency or a representative of the GEMA community as Moses Kuria and his ilk would like the rest of Kenyans to believe.
Central Kenyan leaders claimed that Uhuru abandoned the region, where he received most votes but directs development and appointments to opposition zones. Developing any part of the country is not negotiable because infrastructural funds come from public taxes paid to the state not to a ruling party.
Gone are the days when local leaders assembled choir groups to flatter and had to go down on their knees to beg for projects from the president. In yesteryears checks and balances diminished as national resources were plundered with unmatched impunity because closeness to power provided immunity against prosecution.
The foregoing narrative bring us to the point many leaders dread talking about, executive structure and functions of the the dual occupant of head of state and government offices.
The question has been, and is, do we delink state from government for purposes of checks and balances as was the case in the early days of independent Kenya or continue the status quo without resistance?
One school of thought would argue for the status quo while right-thinking Kenyans would settle for the restructuring of the problematic and wasteful executive that has been manifestly unfair to taxpayers in opposition zones.
At Independence, apolitical Governor General, Malcolm MacDonald, was the head of state and Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces, while the then Prime Minister, Jomo Kenyatta of Kanu, was the head of government and appointing authority of Cabinet.
It is time Kenyans realised that the rain started beating us when regional governments were scrapped, senate and opposition dissolved, state and government merged and placed under one leader without going through an election.
For Kenya to get over its political problems, the state and government should be separate entities with different leaders assigned distinct functions. For instance, a head of state who will be the symbol of national unity should be apolitical, renounces party membership, arbitrates in political disputes and serves for a seven-year non-renewable term.
Another food for thought is electoral injustices. Endless political wrangles and campaigns can only be consigned to the dustbin of history if the present electoral format and process is overhauled and the country settles for completely a different system.
Proportional representation, I dare say, could be a panacea to voter bribery, chaos and ethnic chauvinism. It could also be a remedial to controversial gender parity that is almost impossible to achieve through an open election.
Two-thirds gender parity should be mandatory in parties' nomination lists filed with the electoral agency ahead of elections. In societies where voters choose political entities for a specific term, political problems are minimal and democracy thrives. Election petitions will be outdated in the choice of parties as opposed to individuals. The chosen leaders, like other public servants, should serve in any of the country’s electoral units.
For tranquility and inclusivity, the head of the triumphant party should head government and name a cabinet out of coalitions to help him or her run the country for the common good.
Spare Uhuru and Raila endless, baseless and pedestrian criticism that are an impediment to peace and progress.
Siaya Governor