Opinion and Analysis
By Mike Eldon
In Summary
- While major public campaigns that wag fingers at our politicians and hold us back from violence are necessary, they are unlikely to be sufficient. If our excited leaders are to move away from agitated politics towards calm and visionary statesmanship, there will – as before – also need to be serious behind the scenes talks.
I recently participated in a Kenya Private Sector Alliance (Kepsa) breakfast meeting for the launch of a report titled, “The case of the 2013 election cycle” that describes the peace-building role the private sector played around the time of the 2013 elections.
The report was funded and organised by the One Earth Future
Foundation, and among those presenting were Dr Victor Owuor, the
report’s principal researcher and author, and Lee Sorenssen, one of the
foundation’s leaders.
The report, which draws on interviews with leaders
from the business community and literature on private sector
peace-building, concludes that our private sector was influential in
preventing election-cycle violence last time round.
The study demonstrates how the potential impact of
violence motivated the private sector to take action through
conflict-prevention activities. Not surprisingly, it found that the
power of the private sector is enhanced when it acts in a collective and
coordinated fashion, and when it works with other sectors of society.
The private sector’s 2012-13 peace-building
initiative was organised through the Mkenya Daima campaign, and there
was general agreement that it accomplished its objective by contributing
to a peaceful election.
Shaken by what happened in 2008, the private sector
moved from being reactive to proactive, with the thrust of Mkenya Daima
being to have us accept that each of us is an owner of the country, and
that we must not leave everything to government and “others”.
Together with civil society, religious groups,
student leaders and the media owners, the private sector under Kepsa
used its great convening power to undertake a sustained, systematic, and
comprehensive peace building campaign, defying the temptation to take
peace for granted.
Inevitably though, the peace-building role of
business has been dormant for the last year. But given the rising
political temperature (in Kenya it never falls much below boiling point)
it is reassuring that business has decided to re-engage.
“Politics is the narcotic of choice of Kenyans,”
said KAM chairman Polycarp Igathe at the meeting, “with politicians
grandstanding and playing tough.” The toxins are rising again, we see,
as a result of which we can’t just leave politics to the politicians.
It is for the private sector and others to engage
with government leaders and have them draw back from the brink. But in
keeping with Kepsa’s normal respectful approach, it was emphasised that
we must do so constructively, not talking down to the politicians.
Ken Njiru, who leads the Uunguana Initiative, told
us that having worked on the “hardware” of the Constitution, we must now
focus on its neglected “software”, as laid out in the sections on
leadership and integrity and on national values.
Mr Njiru is convinced that following the first
phase of the country’s development – led by nationalists – and the
second – led by civil society and faith-based leaders – this third stage
is in the hands of business. For ultimately, he said, it is only
businesses that can transform nations, being the creators of wealth and
jobs and the promoters of corporate and hence national values.
At one table sat a collection of current and former
student leaders, among whom several had been active in promoting peace
around the time of the 2013 election.
Tom Mboya, now a practising doctor, remembered that
in 2007 the young people were “mouthpieces for hire” who carried out
the acts of terror but that by 2013, they had become a force for peace.
During that time, he said, the student leaders developed friendships
with one another, became accountable to one another, and “proved the
power of small groups”.
I contributed too, introducing myself as a “peace
addict”. I went back to my involvement in the 2004 private sector
political mediation that tried to get the political leaders to relaunch
the power-sharing MoU between Mwai Kibaki and Raila Odinga.
No comments :
Post a Comment