Case for supporting political parties

Kenya has 68 fully registered political parties. These range in membership and influence, commanding significant following in their strongholds. Through their firebrands, parties have filtered down their philosophies to the ordinary mwananchi, to the extent that one is perceived as a threat to public interest if they hold a different view from that of the regional party leadership.

While many continue to question the value of parties in a democracy such as ours, political scholars have begun appreciating parties’ critical role in shaping Kenya's future.

A case in point was during the inevitable breaking point in our country’s history. The safe non-controversial approach of diplomacy could not end the stalemate of the warring communities. This required blunt reformers who had firsthand experience in balancing power, politics and public interest. In other words, the advent of Kriegler’s Commission of Inquiry following the 2007-08 post-election violence gave the much-needed import of parties as necessary intermediary links between individual citizens and the state.

The perception of political parties is essentially built around two broad strands. The historical foundation of political parties and the “end” of this “historical foundation”. Historically the origin of Kenya’s political formations, which we call political parties today, can be traced to the last days of the colonial era. Then, different community leaders marshalled their clansmen to fight the colonial masters.

These leaders, and the formations they led, inadvertently defined the culture of political parties that we see today; we continue to carry the burden of that legacy. It’s no wonder then that most parties have a tribal base.

In 1963, Kanu achieved its historic mission of leading Kenya to independence. This win gave birth to two distinct philosophies: that parties are formed to compete, win elections and form governments, which inherently is a basic democratic principle.

The other, and the mother of all our problems, is that a ruling party must display and demonstrate hegemonic power in its “stronghold”. This domination not only blurred the vision of party leaders but also made members think that only their leaders knew what was good for “their people”.

The evidence is clear: devastating consequences every five years. Leaders of small and big parties have elbowed their way into the fight of grabbing power. Ali Mazrui calls this “democracide”, the consequences of which Ake Claude called “political underdevelopment in Africa” or perhaps what Christopher Clapham termed “a shadow state”, where the preoccupation of leaders is to get and hold onto power by denationalising the state and its diplomacy.

At the heart of this discussion lies the rallying call that parties should be acknowledged, celebrated, supported and institutionalised. A healthy democracy is essential for furthering a country’s economy and development goals. While this fact is acknowledged by many citizens, sometimes there is a perceived blurry line between the historical political culture that we are used to and the new democratic thinking of party politics that Kenya must adopt.

This is not to deny that the new thinking is gaining momentum, thanks to the commitment of party leaders to abide by the rule of law. It is of great importance therefore, to have the capacity of all party leaders increasingly enhanced. Once we strengthen the capacity of the party leaders, parties must also be supported to implement the much-needed reforms of building accountable democratic institutions.

This needs resources and it calls for Parliament to pass the requisite legislation to allow for the funding of those parties that play their rightful role in entrenching democracy in Kenya.

As citizens, we must rally and champion the creation of an environment where political parties can dialogue and seek consensus on critical national issues. For us to achieve that, there is a need for a fundamental shift, both on the part of individual parties and on the part of electoral stakeholders.

On the whole, parties that aspire to form government should be reminded that opportunity to rule is not for purposes of spreading hegemony in their “strongholds”, as this cannot work in the 21st century.

Chairperson of the Political Parties Liaison Committee.