A donkey is walking through the forest when he comes across a lion skin. Immediately, he puts this skin on and proceeds to walk around the jungle pretending to be top dog and terrorising and scaring the smaller animals.
Eventually, the donkey forgets his deception and begins to make noise, thus ruining his disguise and revealing his true identity. The lesson of this story is that the deceptive and false natured people in the world will always be found out one way or another.
Last week, some politicians launched a vicious attack on the Chief Justice for her role in the National Multiagency Consultative Forum on Election Preparedness. The politicians claimed that CJ Martha Koome’s involvement was likely to result in next year’s election not being free and fair.
Unfortunately this is not the first we have heard of these attacks as the same politicians criticised the role of Cabinet Secretaries Joe Mucheru and Fred Matiang'i in the same task force.
Every election, there seem to be politicians hellbent on discrediting institutions and individuals charged with poll preparedness.
Ahead of the 2017 election, the opposition launched attacks on the Judiciary and the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission. This raised doubt that the election would be free and fair.
On July 12, 2007, with former President Mwai Kibaki's re-election bid drawing close, ODM leader Raila Odinga went on national TV and claimed that the government was withholding identity cards from voters in opposition strongholds.
On December 22, 2007, opposition politicians made another sensational claim that the government was plotting to rig Raila out of the Lang'ata seat by using Administration Police officers. They also warned that there would be chaos if the government attempted to rig the 2007 general election.
The opposition went on to win the election but lost the highly disputed presidential poll to Kibaki and immediately all hell broke loose as chants of 'No Raila, No Peace' filled the air. Over the next six months, we lost 1,500 citizens and 650,000 others were displaced from their homes because Raila had lost the election.
We are seeing similar patterns as we head to the election. The attacks we are seeing on various institutions are not only dangerous but a subversion of the spirit of democracy.
Kenyans are not stupid and are watching keenly and will not allow their will to be subverted by politicians through undemocratic schemes. The Chief Justice and all other institutions, including the IEBC, must not allow themselves to be intimidated and bullied.
Article 160 of the Constitution details the independence of the Judiciary. The Chief Justice and the Judiciary are very key to the stability of the nation and no one should be creating doubts about them.
There seems to be a deliberate narrative being crafted by some quarters trying to discredit institutions mandated to carry out the transition of power. This narrative without a doubt is being placed as a conduit to discredit elections if they don’t go in a certain direction.
The problem with this narrative is that they are planting seeds of mistrust that will grow into flames of chaos. No one should be allowed to return our nation to what we went through in 2007.
When leaders start going at individuals and institutions, their followers do the same and the result is an endless politicking cycle that distracts us from more important issues.
At the end of it all, this political rhetoric will sow the seed of discord that will end up trapping Kenyans in anarchy, especially when the election draws near and politics becomes heated. Kenyans have lost a lot before because of simmering anger that arises from this kind of political talk.
