Harun Muhumed Igalow, Strategic management consultant/HANDOUT
When elected personnel are put in positions of power by the people to preside over the affairs of government, there are certain standards expected of them by the very people who put them in positions of power and authority.
These expectations and perhaps trust are violated when elected officials use this same power to squash opposing voices and make themselves the greatest enemies of free speech.
It is bizarre, to say the least, that the system can be abused in the punishment of opposing voices just as easily as it had been in the 1990s, with no consequences whatsoever.
The lack of consequences has always been the greatest enabler of the dearth of the rule of law in our country, and consequences only happen when the opposition is as powerful, if not more powerful, than the people in authority at any particular time.
This is more so in the political sphere, where the opposition, having tasted power before, is relatively familiar with the loopholes and pitfalls in navigating the political space.
It is, therefore, baffling that while the ranks of the opposition swell in leaps and bounds in Kenya, there is no concomitant swelling in the ability to provide checks and balances in the system.
Strong opposition parties such as DCP, Wiper, and DAP-K are particularly guilty, as their voices are rarely ever heard unless they have to do with the propagation of their politics or elections are around the corner.
When any criticism of government policy is offered, it is neither thorough nor sustained. Experts in the area being criticised are rarely engaged, and superior alternatives are rarely offered.
The reasons are not far-fetched, and the impression given to the electorate strongly suggests that the opposition is not as passionate about fixing Kenya as it is about winning elections.
Naturally, winning elections is very important and is, in fact, the raison d’être of a political party’s existence. All the party ideology in this world is of little use if political power is not harnessed in order to bestow it on the rest of us. Y
et political power cannot be gained unless the proper distillation and channeling of ideas is done, as this is what will endear the electorate to their ideology. If the cart of winning elections is put before the horse of convincing the people that they have their interest at heart, why would the people give them a chance? As complex as the Kenyan political space is, it is really as simple as that.
Meanwhile, the DCP has shown itself more guilty than others of putting its hunger for power before its liability to its electorate. This is probably why political pundits have declared that the party is joking in its bid not only to unseat the incumbent at the presidency but at the various seats as well.
The former DP’s hunger and desperation to get back power are so glaring that they have become a complete turn-off to the electorate.
Unknown to the leadership of the political parties, the criteria that will influence the electorate in 2027 will be significantly different from what they are prepared to serve.
With pressure from youth groups and the young at heart, as well as women’s pressure groups, the nucleus is shifting and the power dynamics are being altered significantly, but ever so subtly. Lining up a business-as-usual crowd of as many accomplished and elite politicians as possible as alternatives to the incumbent is the joke of the century.
One factor that has not changed much is that we desperately need the opposition to function in our favour, but most unfortunately, we have generally been bestowed with the worst opposition possible since the beginning of multi-party democracy.
While they may nurse the ambition, as with any other opposition, of unseating the ruling Kenya Kwanza government, I had thought they would work in collaboration with the government of the day through regular advice and criticism that does not ooze hatred for the government at the centre and unnecessarily overheat the polity.
While some quarters may want a change of government, they are no fools to subscribe to a change without convincing signs. That is not the kind of opposition Kenyans need.
They need an opposition that will distinguish itself from the ruling party and build a political movement from scratch, however long it takes. Not one that hobnobs with the same people it seeks to unseat for parochial gains.
Doing so puts a big question mark on the principles of such a movement. It shows a morbid greed for power, which must be actualised at all costs. It is immaterial whether it defeats their sworn principles and contradicts their entire ideology of change.
Certainly, this is not the type of opposition Kenyans need. We need an opposition that does not think change can only be possible if it wins the government at the centre.
We need an opposition that constantly keeps the government of the day on its toes through constructive criticism and suggestions of better ways to handle national issues, to prove to Kenyans that it has the capacity to do better if elected into power, and not one that takes pleasure in the misfortune of the country and goes ahead to score political points from it.
We don’t need an opposition that plays into the hands of the West at the risk of our national integrity just to mimic our president and present him as incapable before Western elements elsewhere for international endorsement.
In the final analysis, the clock seems to be ticking for the United Opposition. It has huge image laundering to do if it intends to win the forthcoming 2027 general elections.
To do so, it must desist from its consistent rabble-rousing and politics of bitterness that only make the masses develop more love for Kenya Kwanza, and focus more on steps that put it in the light of a political messiah, divinely designed to change the country.
But certainly, what they have put forth thus far bears no relic of the kind of opposition Kenya needs. We warn.
The writer is a strategic management consultant.
