Sunday, June 29, 2008

Kenyans must continue to do and talk more politics

Many have argued that the Kenyan society is over-saturated with none-stop political actions and discussions from one election to another and is unhealthy for democracy.

Looked at casually, this argument can be plausible.
From a keen business point of view, such none-stop politicking often accompanied by toxic innuendo is unhealthy for business and growth as it often creates a climate of uncertainty and unpredictability.

But there have been other fraudulent arguments advanced against continuous politicking by none other one than pnu. However, there call is openly disingenuous and masks their intent of impunity, deception, grand corruption, tribalism amongst other ills. This has clearly been demonstrated by their disregard of the rule of law, Anglo-leasing, Mobitelea, Grand regency, and the disrespect of the displaced people sagas which have pushed Kenyans to the peril of self destruction.

This brings me to the reasons why Kenyans must continue to do and talk more politics.
For those enjoying the current democratic political and business environment and those that might have forgotten how it came about, it is worth re-visiting the early 80’s up to the late 90’s and observe that this era was driven by none-stop politicking.

Most recently the Kibaki government attempt to impose an illegitimate constitution against the people was thwarted by Kenyans none-stop political actions and discussions. Similarly, the attempted theft via Anglo-leasing and the intentions of the international mercenaries(Armenian brothers) were halted in the same manner.

The current Zimbabwe’s predicament is also another reminder of why in Africa doing and talking politics notwithstanding the likely damage to business and development is actually healthy. Zimbabweans are described to be generally easy to accept people. From the time Mugabe begun to ruin their country few stood up to him and even now when the country is on its knee even fewer are willing to bit the bullet for the masses. Majority are said to be disinterested in politics and this has been blamed as one of the reasons Mugabe has got away with it for this long.

You need not revisit our former colonialist 17th Century political battles and debate to understand the benefits of none stop politicking to shape up the country. Just as late as the 1980’s often referred to as the Thatcher era, it was characterised by unionist strikes against government control. During both periods the British people were politicking none-stop.

Back to Kenya, another significant reason for none stop politicking is the failure and bias of the greatly compromised governance institutions i.e. judicial, legislature and the civil society i.e. churches. The purpose of such functioning bodies is to safeguard against the government excesses.

Thus, due to institutional failure and compromised civil society and notwithstanding the short-term damage to business and growth, more political action and discussion is good for Kenya and Africa at large as this mitigates against bad leadership and more importantly provides an autonomous forum for the masses political empowerment and consciousness elevation.

3 comments:

tornado said...

Brilliant article and good to have an open view to our ailing country and continent. Many people have failed to criticise ills and even support them due to their political affiliations. At this rate Kenya is on the path of self destruction with the bloated egos of our leaders talking about economic growth.

MainaT said...

I think like all walks of life, talking is only good if its relevant. Politicking or rather talking politics is useless if its not aimed at finding solutions to our myriad prblems.
Especially when this is a investment blog...

John Maina said...

Tornado, i belief the majority of Kenyans do see how our leaders drive them down and want better thats why many were voted out in the last election but the current systems tarnish even those with good intentions, despite making two steps forward and one back the country is getting there albeit slowly.

MainaT Kenyan political discourse has evolved quite well considering the countries young democracy though not at the pace and level accepted by all. The progress has so far been more positive than negative in opening up the democratic space.

The article takes a political angle and does not dilute the blogs content but broadens topical discussions relevant to business and investments.