Martin Luther King Jr remains one of the most revered Civil Rights Movement leaders, because of the effectiveness of his non-violent and well-organised mass action techniques.
We can learn from him when organising or executing our demonstrations, and in measuring the success or realisation of the purpose of the same.
According to King, any person intending to hold or lead a demonstration must first demonstrate that they have a grievance; and that they don’t want to use the demonstrations to cause chaos, confusion and/or for revenge purposes.
In so much as we all, including the President, agree that we have challenges ranging from the high cost of living to corruption and unsustainable public debt, it’s very pretentious and insincere for any sensible Kenyan to believe or even suggest that deliberate street mayhem, economic sabotage, insurrection and blackmailing the executive can be the solution to those problems.
The starting point of long-term and sustainable solutions should be the legislature, from the county assemblies to National Assembly and Senate.
Why would we spend Sh44.6 billion on an election, waste billions in economic, environmental and social distractions and destructions, elect 1,930 people, only to aim our guns at one office?
As a Kenyan, when you elected six people, did you know their roles? Why elect six people constitutionally but expect or demand to be governed unconstitutionally through street and funeral proclamations where people expect laws to be proposed and passed on the streets and funerals; and people expect the President to personalise governance and government decisions?
Why do we elect legislators whose oversight role is well outlined in the Constitution, only for the oversight role to be a purported preserve of Raila Odinga?
Isn't it a mockery to Kenyans when the people purporting to fight the high cost of living are ghost workers who earn salaries while not going to work (Parliament), collect dubious allowances every day, and come to the demonstrations in fuel guzzlers fuelled by the taxes of the people they are purporting to fight for?
People who go home to sleep hungry after the demonstrations while the 'Messiahs' retire to their palatial homes with lavish lifestyles funded by the taxes of those they are fighting for.
Are Kenyans aware that over 90 per cent of their MCAs, MPs, woman reps and senators get paid for doing nothing, other than just getting elected? Go to Parliament on any day and you will be lucky to find even 20 per cent attendance, unless it's a matter that touches on their stomachs.
Secondly, King stated that the demonstrators must demonstrate that they have exhausted all the existing constitutional avenues and common sensuous methods of engagement; key in this case being the legislature that has the constitutional and paid mandate over those issues, numerical inferiority notwithstanding.
Has any of the 191 Azimio parliamentarians proposed any new bill to address the issue of the cost of living? Have they proposed any amendments or a repeal of any of the existing "punitive legislations" that are negatively affecting the cost of living?
Has any Azimio MCA or county assembly proposed any new law, or amendment or repeal with respect to the primary food issue that is agriculture, which is devolved?
Does it mean that of the more than 500 elected Azimio leaders, plus senior citizens and counsels like Martha Karua and Kalonzo Musyoka, nobody has the ability to generate an idea that can be proposed into a law to solve our problems? Why must all that burden be left to our grandfather Raila Odinga, who should be resting and nurturing young leaders?
Thirdly, upon exhaustion of the constitutional and common sensuous avenues of engagement and conflict resolution, that they don't intend to cause injustices to others who might not be participating in the demonstrations?
Is there a greater injustice than stopping someone from earning a living by robbing them of their stock, or forcing them, absent of any legal delinquency, to close their business or not go to work because of closed business; consequenced by rational precautionary measures to save businesses from savage looting and vandalism? What of blocking roads and stopping others from enjoying their right to movement?
Finally, King ably points out that the demonstrators must have a clear programme of salvaging the situation without creating other injustices to the same population that they are purporting to fight for; like the deliberate intention to devour our democracy and kill the spirit of competition and competitive elections; which gives everyone the right to victory, but with a corresponding obligation to accept defeat, as long as the acceptable constitutional provisions, processes and procedures are followed and decisions are conclusively made by the constitutionally mandated institutions, our personal desires notwithstanding.
Does Azimio have any sustainable alternative policy or legislative agenda that they can offer if the chance was given now? Why haven't they presented the process, and not just the result of solving the problems that they are verbally insurrecting against?
Why haven't the same solutions been presented, or an attempt made to present the same in parliament in the form of bills and amendments? Even if the numbers don't favour them, isn't it their job to bring those bills and amendments anyway, and let Kenyans judge for themselves who is for them and who isn't?
Who told Kenyan politicians that mentioning something at a funeral turns that idea into law without following the process in Parliament?
Political economist; leadership and governance enthusiast. [email protected]
