Post by kw on Nov 7, 2005 4:46:48 GMT 3
Kenya is bigger than Raila's ambitions
by KOIGI WA WAMWERE
Publication Date: 11/7/2005
We can define democracy as the will of the majority for the good of all. A majority "Yes" or "No" win in the referendum, therefore, will be an expression of democracy. Can an expression of democracy, however distasteful to some, be overthrown by force? Yes, but not in the name of democracy by dictatorship.
Overthrowing popular will in a referendum is also treason. A government of the people by the people and for the people has a duty and the means to protect itself and the people it serves.
Should democracy permit itself to be overthrown by dictatorship, it too will be guilty of treason - of failing to protect people and their sovereignty, a duty no one else but the President can perform.
Since its inception, this Government has been guilty of one serious fault - appointing and retaining in the Cabinet people who are disloyal. The most overt result of this has been rebellion in the Cabinet that has compromised Government cohesion and efficiency, and is now blocking the birth of a new Constitution. State security compromised At best, Cabinet rebellion has compromised State security.
Be that as it may, people have co-existed with compromised state security because its threat to their own is not obvious. With Cabinet rebellion threatening a military coup, however, insecurity of the State has now metamorphosed into the insecurity of the nation. And while we may grudgingly live with insecurity of the state, we cannot with that of the nation. It will consume all.
While the President has rightly warned those using the threat of a military coup to dare execute it, is intent to commit treason not actionable? Is calling Mr Raila Odinga and Mr Kalonzo Musyoka, "wapumbavu" (stupid) amidst roaring laughter enough to protect the nation? Is offence not the best defence?
For refusing to purge rebels from his Cabinet, the President has only fuelled rebellion to unacceptable levels. For two years now, the Moi-Raila rebellion has been growing and is now mature. Should the President nip the threat in the bud or wait to put out the coup when it happens?
Waiting for Raila and Kalonzo to try their coup first is playing Russian roulette with security of the people. In 1982, President Moi was aware of the impending coup against his dictatorship but chose to wait for it to happen, put it out, and use it as an excuse to purge the Kikuyu from the army. He was lucky to survive.
In 1973, Salvador Allende of Chile was not as lucky. He too knew of a coup being schemed against him but did not arrest the plotters. When it came, he could not stop it. It killed him, executed thousands, and installed into power one of the most frightful military dictatorships in history. Today, many Kenyans fear Western powers are hell-bent on supporting a similar coup in this country. But will they?
Today has no political justification or moral authority to try a military coup in Kenya. First, he will be trying to overthrow a democracy and not the Moi dictatorship as in 1982.
Second, he will not be liberating people who cannot express themselves as in Cuba under dictator Batista or in Uganda under Obote II, but to get power for himself.
Raila is neither Fidel Castro nor Kaguta Museveni. He is a Charles Taylor blackmailing Kenyans to create for him a powerful premiership in the new Constitution or suffer a military coup. In Liberia, Taylor blackmailed people to vote him president or face unending war. There, the people succumbed but will they here?
Raila no longer fights for people but himself. Recently in Parliament, he pressured Dr Adhu Awiti to vote against his own Motion calling for a limit to land ownership, and is fighting with all his might a new Constitution that enshrines affirmative funding for marginalised areas like Luo Nyanza and entrenches the right of poor people of all communities to food, healthcare, clean water, free education, housing and land.
When we fought the Kanu dictatorship, it is these rights we were fighting for. When we fought Moi, it was because his dictatorship would not let us speak, peacefully change government, have free and fair elections, or dream of having a referendum on a new Constitution.
Powerful prime minister Now Raila is in government. He can answer back his President without detention. Kenyans are holding a referendum to determine their own constitutional future. Surely, these are not reasons for which the current Government should be overthrown. Only dictators and enemies of the people will overthrow a democracy.
That, however, is irrelevant to Raila. To him, there is no democracy and a new Constitution is unacceptable if they do not make him a powerful prime minister. It is ironical that Hitler used democracy to overthrow democracy. Similarly, in Rwanda, negative ethnicity used newly won democratic freedoms to propagate genocide. Today however, neither German nor Rwandese democracies will allow propagation of anti-Semitism, negative ethnicity or genocide.
These experiences should inform Kenyan democracy not to permit propagation of negative ethnicity, genocide or its own extermination. Humans do not commit suicide in the name of humanity. Kenya's fledgling democracy should not commit suicide in the name of freedom.
The first duty of democracy is self-preservation. When one side in a national referendum says it will not accept defeat, the country is in very grave danger. Kenya must be saved from Raila's ambitions, Moi's fear, western countries' duplicity and the Samson complex of the trio.
by KOIGI WA WAMWERE
Publication Date: 11/7/2005
We can define democracy as the will of the majority for the good of all. A majority "Yes" or "No" win in the referendum, therefore, will be an expression of democracy. Can an expression of democracy, however distasteful to some, be overthrown by force? Yes, but not in the name of democracy by dictatorship.
Overthrowing popular will in a referendum is also treason. A government of the people by the people and for the people has a duty and the means to protect itself and the people it serves.
Should democracy permit itself to be overthrown by dictatorship, it too will be guilty of treason - of failing to protect people and their sovereignty, a duty no one else but the President can perform.
Since its inception, this Government has been guilty of one serious fault - appointing and retaining in the Cabinet people who are disloyal. The most overt result of this has been rebellion in the Cabinet that has compromised Government cohesion and efficiency, and is now blocking the birth of a new Constitution. State security compromised At best, Cabinet rebellion has compromised State security.
Be that as it may, people have co-existed with compromised state security because its threat to their own is not obvious. With Cabinet rebellion threatening a military coup, however, insecurity of the State has now metamorphosed into the insecurity of the nation. And while we may grudgingly live with insecurity of the state, we cannot with that of the nation. It will consume all.
While the President has rightly warned those using the threat of a military coup to dare execute it, is intent to commit treason not actionable? Is calling Mr Raila Odinga and Mr Kalonzo Musyoka, "wapumbavu" (stupid) amidst roaring laughter enough to protect the nation? Is offence not the best defence?
For refusing to purge rebels from his Cabinet, the President has only fuelled rebellion to unacceptable levels. For two years now, the Moi-Raila rebellion has been growing and is now mature. Should the President nip the threat in the bud or wait to put out the coup when it happens?
Waiting for Raila and Kalonzo to try their coup first is playing Russian roulette with security of the people. In 1982, President Moi was aware of the impending coup against his dictatorship but chose to wait for it to happen, put it out, and use it as an excuse to purge the Kikuyu from the army. He was lucky to survive.
In 1973, Salvador Allende of Chile was not as lucky. He too knew of a coup being schemed against him but did not arrest the plotters. When it came, he could not stop it. It killed him, executed thousands, and installed into power one of the most frightful military dictatorships in history. Today, many Kenyans fear Western powers are hell-bent on supporting a similar coup in this country. But will they?
Today has no political justification or moral authority to try a military coup in Kenya. First, he will be trying to overthrow a democracy and not the Moi dictatorship as in 1982.
Second, he will not be liberating people who cannot express themselves as in Cuba under dictator Batista or in Uganda under Obote II, but to get power for himself.
Raila is neither Fidel Castro nor Kaguta Museveni. He is a Charles Taylor blackmailing Kenyans to create for him a powerful premiership in the new Constitution or suffer a military coup. In Liberia, Taylor blackmailed people to vote him president or face unending war. There, the people succumbed but will they here?
Raila no longer fights for people but himself. Recently in Parliament, he pressured Dr Adhu Awiti to vote against his own Motion calling for a limit to land ownership, and is fighting with all his might a new Constitution that enshrines affirmative funding for marginalised areas like Luo Nyanza and entrenches the right of poor people of all communities to food, healthcare, clean water, free education, housing and land.
When we fought the Kanu dictatorship, it is these rights we were fighting for. When we fought Moi, it was because his dictatorship would not let us speak, peacefully change government, have free and fair elections, or dream of having a referendum on a new Constitution.
Powerful prime minister Now Raila is in government. He can answer back his President without detention. Kenyans are holding a referendum to determine their own constitutional future. Surely, these are not reasons for which the current Government should be overthrown. Only dictators and enemies of the people will overthrow a democracy.
That, however, is irrelevant to Raila. To him, there is no democracy and a new Constitution is unacceptable if they do not make him a powerful prime minister. It is ironical that Hitler used democracy to overthrow democracy. Similarly, in Rwanda, negative ethnicity used newly won democratic freedoms to propagate genocide. Today however, neither German nor Rwandese democracies will allow propagation of anti-Semitism, negative ethnicity or genocide.
These experiences should inform Kenyan democracy not to permit propagation of negative ethnicity, genocide or its own extermination. Humans do not commit suicide in the name of humanity. Kenya's fledgling democracy should not commit suicide in the name of freedom.
The first duty of democracy is self-preservation. When one side in a national referendum says it will not accept defeat, the country is in very grave danger. Kenya must be saved from Raila's ambitions, Moi's fear, western countries' duplicity and the Samson complex of the trio.