In 1967 after the famous Selma-to-Montgomery march and the follow-up extraordinary congressional passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, events that were followed by riots in Watts, Los Angeles, championed by disillusioned and disgruntled youth, Dr Martin Luther King Jr took a trip down to Jamaica.
In solitude, King deeply reflected on the new American world that he and the freedom movement helped create. He realised he had to confront a very difficult set of emerging American realities, specifically the nonchalance by young black Americans towards his movement that demanded his best prophetic interpretation and his most creative proposals for action. The result is what has been described as the glowing spirit and sharp insights of King all compressed in a book: Where do we go from here: Chaos or community?
I was introduced to King and his non-violence doctrine during my inception and later service at the echelon of student leadership as secretary general of Sonu by the likes of Wafula Buke, Fwamba NC Fwamba, Makokha Wanjala, Kabando wa Kabando, Irungu Kang'ata, James Orengo and Ciddy Otieno, among others.
At my inception, I pensively listened to the legendary student leaders of yesteryears recount their experiences shaping national and regional political discourses, including their nefarious attempts to push for social, political and ultimately regime change using unorthodox means just like the youth of Watts.
In that time and age, mastery of Socialism and Communism slurs of Vladimir Lenin, Karl Marx, and Fidel Castro punctuated with revolutionary quotations of Malcolm X, Louis Farrakhan, Che Guevara, Thomas Sankara and Kwame Nkrumah, among others, was a prerequisite for political candidature. Those were the good old days when ideological politics reined. Today, we stand for nothing and stand a chance of falling for anything.
Kenya is just recovering from a closely contested election, peaceful but with a twisted comprehension of democracy. Throughout the campaigns, candidates have rich stories of their experiences with the electorate.
Concisely, there seems to be a twisted symbiotic relationship between the politician and the voter where the voter receives handouts in exchange for his/her vote guaranteeing the politician unfettered and unbridled access to public resources upon assuming office. Despite how glossy and flossy the manifestos were, the new Kenyan voter time and again put the stomach before the mind.
A sneak peek in both houses of parliament reveals an eclectic legislature devoid of any ideological underpinnings punctuated by a clash of ideology and personalities, several ‘career’ MPs serving third terms and a sizeable fraction of what pundits would call political novices, typical greenhorns who in any other jurisdictions would not stand a chance in elective politics.
Apart from a handful, it is indeed very difficult to tell what the majority of the members stand for and their political subscriptions. Are they centre left, or right? Are they conservative or liberal? How many are social democrats?
Sadly, our peculiar democracy is at a point where anything goes. Suffice it to say that the blame has to be shared between the politicians and the electorate. At the National Assembly, at least 166 out of 290 members lost their positions, representing sixty per cent.
For the last three elections, this seems to be the trend, demonstrating plausible displeasure, disillusionment and disgruntlement of Kenyans with their representatives in the august House.
Ironically, every cycle the number of causalities grows. Is it that as a people we have an issue with the execution of duties of the office bearers or probably it is a case of different monkeys in the same forest? But if that were the case, how long will it take the eagle to learn to fly without perching now that the hunter has learnt to shoot without missing?
Gradually Kenyans, in the words of National Assembly Speaker Moses Wetang'ula, have redefined the duties and responsibilities of MPs from representation, oversight and legislation. We have surreptitiously expanded them to include, "funeral undertaker, midwife, extension officer, vet, a counsellor on social issues and the local ATM."
Needless to say, we have commercialised our politics to ignominious levels. Men and women long regarded as political clowns, social misfits, criminals and fraudsters have become MPs, their magic achieved with what Martin Luther King Jr called a witch’s brew of bigotry, prejudice, half-truths and whole lies. It will be interesting to watch the performance of some of those who were reading out their oath of office akin to filing sudoku.
Despite the many routes that were used to get into Parliament, it is instructive that wisdom and rationality must prevail for these personalities and eclectic views to converge at a central point to focus on the betterment of the living standards of all Kenyans.
As the world stares at a looming economic recession, the men and women in the 13th Parliament must rise to the occasion and diligently carry out their conventional duties and responsibilities; represent, legislate and oversight, and act as our last legion against an unbridled lash of brutality and coarse degradation of our livelihoods to be occasioned by the impending economic hardships.
This will definitely demand patriotism and selflessness at the expense of the easier route of political expediency. In the inevitable difficult times, our politicians have to rise above and beyond party lines and personality whims to put Kenyans first if we are to resist the pangs of the hard economic ravages yonder.
Amidst the ideological clash, the Black American community asked a question that humanity must persistently pose to self and to country as we explore the way toward our best possibilities. “Where do we go from here?’ For Martin Luther King Jr the answer was simple, “lift America high, that’s where we go.”
Our country is not going to be great if our leaders don’t roll up their sleeves and do that which is right. Our country is not going to be great if excellence will not be our guiding principle, if greed will be our creed and if meritocracy is sacrificed at the altar of mediocrity. Kenya will only be great if we take a solemn vow to do the right thing because it is right to do the right thing. Let the politicians lead the way and lift Kenya high.
Public policy expert and political scientist