We see each other as a potential threat; If you had power, what would you change?

ODM leader Raila Odinga (in white) with with other Kenyan politicians during the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) rally in Mombasa on January 25, 2020. The momentum around BBI has changed. PHOTO | KEVIN ODIT | NATION MEDIA GROUP 

In Summary

• We cannot live as though we see each other as a threat.
• There is strength in numbers and even greater strength in diversity.

By NERIMA WAKO-OJIWA
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Was there ever a time that Kenyans owned public debate? Controlled what politicians talked about and gave them sleepless nights? Whatever train we are on at the moment, when did we board and how does one get off?

In just a matter of days, the momentum around Building Bridges Initiative has changed. We had opponents, and people holding parallel meetings.

Now most people are singing the same tune. It feels as though you are watching a television series and someone deviously changed the channel with the same characters to see how long it will take you to realise.

Kenyans are politically fatigued. And the kind of fatigue that they are experiencing from one political change to another, and subsequent developments occur so quickly.

Then there are some constants like the recent BBI report where we are left to constantly guess its intentions while different signals are shared during rallies with secret meanings that are made for the public to interpret. There is a lot of talking that comes from politicians and a lot less from the people.

If you had a magic wand and had the power to change anything, what would you change? And why?

What would you select if there was an option? That was a question I was asked once at a round table discussion with colleagues from the civil society. And I found it an interesting thought.

“What would I do with my magic wand?” I thought to myself. I answered I would go back in time, and perhaps change how we dealt with some things in this country, specifically land. Since we cannot go back in time, what would we do today?

IMPORTANT MOMENTS

We have sections in our community that played such an important role during important moments. For instance, in the 90s we repealed section 2A in our constitution and perhaps celebrated multi-partyism too soon. As newspaper cartoonist Gado says, “we need to always remain vigilant.”

We won the battle but we lost the war, and we let our guard down. During that time the church was at the fore front pushing for issues and we were not afraid to be battered by police. Looking at those scenes, today, it is hard to imagine that was Kenya — hardly 28 years ago.

CIVIL SOCIETY

But it was not just the church, it was opposition political parties, it was students, it was civil society, jointly working together — this was the wave that was unstoppable. But most of all, young people were involved and part of the process.

These days, having the courage to go out on the streets is rare. As a matter of fact, the scent of tear gas chases us in the opposite direction.

Today, the church has taken the back seat when it comes to politics. Many churches are grounds for politicians to hold campaigns on Sundays. We are not sure who opposition is at the moment.

And even those who were in civil society are now in government. They have become the very people that they were fighting in the 90s.

And as for the youth, considering the kind of complexity involved and their intentional exclusion, there is no space for them to engage meaningfully.

There is a current debate as to whether the youth ministry should be devolved from the national government, because currently it is difficult to get an understanding of which office addresses youth matters because every county is different.

Before we can have an agenda controlled by the public, those that engage them occasionally need to find ways to rekindle their long lost partnership that was strong in the 90s.

But for there to be any agenda controlled by the public, there needs to be a marriage between experience and new ideas or innovation.

We cannot live as though we see each other as a threat. There is strength in numbers and even greater strength in diversity.

People say that power is not given, it is taken, but looking at the moments that power is taken, there is bloodshed. Are some processes here to stay? Even though everything around us appears to be changing.

Nerima Wako-Ojiwa is executive director of Siasa Place. Twitter: @NerimaW