YVONNE: We are sliding down a dangerous path. As indicated by the Kofi Annan Foundation, we are assured of violence next year and it looks like we are already laying the ground with a fast-rising culture of political goonism.
LINUS: We are about to lose it, fellow Kenyans. This goons thing is no longer a light matter. Yet all we see is a blame game and finger-pointing between government and opposition figures. They are playing ping pong, and unfortunately, with real lives; lives of Kenyans.
JAMILA: It wasn’t me, they all say! But then a Kenyan is dead or injured; all victims of violent, motivated and presumably well-paid goons. For government, we must raise the flag of inaction or conspiracy. We asked here before, as we do again today; Are we losing our formal institutions and are these institutions being replaced by informal authorities?
SAM: Whatever the answer to that question; let us be reminded as Kenyans; we are not special and neither are we immune to pitfalls of political fallacy. We could VERY WELL head THE Haiti way, the irony of our peacekeeping mission there notwithstanding. There is Somalia and there is the Democratic Republic of Congo. Again we are not special! We are not immune and we have leaders perfectly capable of taking us there and faster than we can imagine
YVONNE: Our Politicians have demonstrated immense talent for disorder. They are gifted with perfect raw material necessary for the making of failed state. They come bold and reckless in their words and deeds. Whether up a sunroof or infront of a church congregation, our current crop of politicians have proved themselves a ticking time bomb.
LINUS: They speak so irresponsibly. We know they make television viewing in normal households an agonizing affair. They spew hatred and incite violence. And they have good reason to. The foundation of impunity in this country is strong and unshakeable. No one ever pays the prize for such in this country.
JAMILA: Courtesy of our solid state of national impunity, two things stick out tonight like sore thumbs in Kenya’s democratic story. The two things are force and violence. Both unfortunately appear increasingly entrenched and accepted almost as the norm in the conduct of politics.
SAM: Earlier today we witnessed both violence and force at play. With typical consistency, political players and elements of state agencies delivered yet again. From charged crowds supposedly manning or protecting polling stations to overzealous gun trotting security officers, the show of muscles took over from where the voters peacefully left early this morning. Olkalou has just joined Kenya’s list of case studies in what ought not to be.
YVONNE: indeed. And it is becoming a disturbing political culture, yet, we fear, it is a culture that is quietly celebrated especially in political circles. Goons are now becoming the norm rather than the exception. Politicians don’t admit it and neither does the state, but we know goons are valued political investments. Goons are not only paid, they are also protected. Protected from the law and they are protected from accountability.
LINUS: That is why; you may never know who was involved in the attack on a Linda Mwananchi convoy in Keumbu, Kisii County recently. And you remember army of armed goons marching towards a church in Kisumu recently? And that striking similarity with the marches of the genocidal Interahamwe militia in Rwanda in 1994 must be found particularly disturbing. As it is again, we are not special.
JAMILA: Fellow citizens, we are not living through the most responsible times in the history of our country. We are on a downward spiral with goons and fumbling formal institutions the signature of our decline. The question is who will stop this downhill rush?
SAM: Responsible Kenyan adults can stop this. The place of our formal institutions remains solid and intact in the pages of our constitution. We have a simple recommendation as a starting point; the National Police Service should immediately move to reclaim the ground it lost to goons. Police and not goons must remain the symbols of our national quest for the rule of law and order.
YVONNE: Still on that starting point, political leaders should abandon the ill-advised doctrine of force and violence. As a multi-party democracy, Kenyans must embrace persuasion as the only currency of political trade. Brain not blood, ideas not jembe sticks, institutions not goons and ultimately, votes not guns.
For Country, our joint first word.
