If you consider the broader neighbourhood within which Kenya is located, we Kenyans have a lot to be grateful for.
Our Judiciary may currently be locked in an epic struggle for dominance with the Executive, but it is a war fought largely with words. We do not see individual judges having to flee into exile for fear of their lives.
Then there is the somewhat entertaining spectacle of the President and his inner circle daily undercutting the Deputy President’s dreams of ascendency.
This is a struggle for power being conducted through large public rallies (despite the well-known Covid-19 protocols) and on social media. Once again – the only weapon deployed is words.
In at least three nations — not all that far from us — that I can think of, any such terminal falling out involving the two top men in the Executive would have brought into play rival militias armed with AK-47 rifles, rocket-propelled grenades, and other anti-personnel equipment.
As long as the terms of reference for this struggle is confined to words, we ordinary folk have nothing to fear.
I am well aware there are Kenyans who are moved to incandescent fury by such comparisons to other nations in the region, which are, essentially, failed states.
They demand that we should only compare ourselves with Singapore; with South Korea; or at the very least with Malaysia – all countries that have risen to great prosperity within living memory.
They insist that judged by such a standard, “Kenya’s experiment in independence” has been a miserable failure, with nothing to celebrate or be grateful for.
But that is a discussion for another day.
For now, I will just note that as concerns the political pushing and shoving that will continue without a break all the way to the 2022 General Election, a clear pattern has emerged.
For the team fronted by President Uhuru Kenyatta, the problem is that he has far too many leaders of national stature in his camp. And so, in absence of the Building Bridges Initiative being successfully carried right through to the creation of more top positions, there is every chance that this political coalition will in the end break up.
And this breakup will play into the hands of Deputy President Dr William Ruto, insofar as joining him would be the logical thing for any disgruntled leader to do after walking away from the President’s coalition.
DP Ruto’s current problem is the diametric opposite of the President's – where Uhuru has too many top leaders in his “big tent”, the DP’s tent has only relatively minor political actors, with himself as the only really big fish.
It is by no means obvious why this is so.
By now he should have had at least one former presidential candidate, who put up a credible performance in the past, and who now recognises that there can be no room for him in the Uhuru-Raila coalition.
But more significantly, even if he had one or more of them, would it really translate into widespread electoral support?
Did we not see DP Ruto welcomed by delirious crowds all over Central Kenya for months earlier this year, only for Central Kenya county assemblies to turn around and vote overwhelmingly in support of the BBI, which he was understood to oppose?
Whatever the case, what lies ahead seems clear enough.
The President must strive to keep his large group of ambitious and impatient leaders firmly in his camp.
While the DP will have to hope that in time, some of these top leaders see sense in finding common cause with him and leave the President’s team.
Remember that in 1992, the united opposition that had the support of about 70 per cent of the country, broke up into three main parties and thus effectively facilitated the victory of President Daniel Moi.
While 10 years later in 2002, what had initially seemed like a hopelessly outmanoeuvred opposition managed to unite and beat Moi’s chosen heir (Uhuru Kenyatta) by a landslide.
So, this can still go either way.
For as the Book of Ecclesiastes tells us, “The race is not always to the swift; nor the battle to the strong”.
