AS KENYANS CONTINUE TO WALLOW IN THE MIASMA OF POLITICAL INEPTITUDE, WILL OUR SPIRITUAL TRIBAL LEADERS EMERGE AS THE CONSCIENCE OF THIS NATION?

Luo Paramount Chief, otherwise known as Ker hit the nail on the head. Like millions of Kenyans he had had enough of divisive ethnic politics that has been the bane of social animosity and stagnation in this great country. He asked Raila and Kombo to be mindful of the welfare of Luhyas and Luos, the two communities that have coexisted, intermarried, shared culture, language, borders and trade for many generations. He implored them to unite rather than divide the two communities along hazy political lines.

This appeal is not only timely but also long overdue. More importantly it is an appeal, which should be given the national impetus to extend to all political leaders from every tribe in this country so that they may realize the perilous situation in which extreme partisan politics has placed Kenya.

Competitive politics, also known as multi party democracy has placed Kenya squarely where Moi had warned them it would. In his prophetic style, Moi predicted the return of divisive politics with the return of multiparty democracy. At that time we were too obsessed with Moi's disastrous autocratic regime that we didn't care whether he made sense or not. All we wanted was an end to monolithic KANU politics and Moi out of power.

Having gone through three multiparty elections since 1992, it is now an accepted fact that tribal politics has settled in and taken center stage. As we talk now, even a semblance of a coalition government that was ravaged by political vandalization into a government of national unity is a mere conglomoration of tribal political chiefs. Leading cabinet posts are shared among tribal political kingpins along with their leading supporters from their own communities, performance, suitability and competence not withstanding.

The culture of we and they politics is in control of our political landscape. As communities, we have barricaded ourselves into our little corners and found it safer to fence off others as outsiders who should never dare enter into our space. Our space is our special preserve only for our own tribes men. That is why Ford Kenya's Musikari Kombo must continue to see Raila as an enemy that cannot be trusted. That is why Kivutha Kibwana and Mungatana must slaughter a bull to celebrate the defeat of LDP- Raila's party in Kisauni. That is why perceived enemies of Karisa Maitha while he was alive had to be barred from attending his funeral. It is this political territorial fencing that prepared the bloody battles that protagonists had to contend with in Kisauni by- elections and the Kisumu West by –elections before it.

The sad part of this theatre of the absurd is that the leading lights of our political spectrum that this society looks up to and hopes to choose for the top leadership in the future are the worst perpetrators of this negativity. In broad daylight they preach one message. At nightfall it is a different message, more deadly. This doublespeak is the author of suspicion, mistrust, backstabbing and a series of betrayals that today dot our political landscape.

Our politicians have broken countless promises they made to each other, to the electorate and to any other constituency they might have promised anything. On the national level, the 500,000 jobs a year they promised, security for all, food security, poverty alleviation, a new constitution and zero tolerance on corruption have all been broken. At the personal level, equal distribution of cabinet and public service jobs, collective governance through an MoU and the Summit consultative leadership have all been dumped in favor of excessive centralized executive power.

The sheer number of consensus meetings on the constitution, whose outcomes have hurriedly hit the newspaper headlines only to come a cropper after subsequent backroom conniving and back stabbings have revealed endless naked betrayals in our midst.

In this kind of society such as ours, a few good, honest men and women are hard to come buy. When suspicion abounds, one never knows when the next snake is planted in his bedroom. We walk in fear. And as we make one step forward, we must continue to look behind our backs lest some enemy larking in the dark plunges a knife behind our backs. Ours is a tougher life than the life of inner city gangs in America's ghettos or Nairobi's Eastlands slums.

Yes, we beat Kanu at the 2002 General Elections only because several parties, fifteen of them combined to form a pre- election coalition. That coalition was nothing like we know coalition governments in civilized societies. It was an accident, a chance in a lifetime that may never be repeated again in our lifetime. It had nothing to do with the marriage of ideological beliefs. It had everything to do with tribal chiefs counting their ethnic votes they commanded and coming to the table to share the loot that we normally call the national cake.

At the end of the day each tribe clapped with glee that at last one of their own was at the high table eating and hopefully the crumbs would fall his or her way as the high table relished in rare wines, exotic spirits from far away lands and spare ribs of a tender kind.

Yes, as Kenyans continue to wallow in this miasma of political thuggery, tribal spiritual leaders like that great Ker of Luoland must come out of their cocoons in Ukambani, Luhyaland, Embu, Meru, Kikuyu, Masaailand, Girirama, Mijikenda, Taita, Pokomo, Turgen, Dorobo, Pokot and all the other tribes of Kenya and put sense and sanity back to our land. Left to the politicians, we shall as sure as sunrise, be heading for a bloody civil war in 2007. We cannot afford the balkanization of this country along ethnic lines as Musikari Kombo would want us believe.

On another note, how can such a strong party like LDP goof so many times in such a short time? Has something suddenly gone wrong with the party leadership? How could a party of that high visibility lose so many civic seats to its chief rivals including NARC and KANU?

But even more stunning and intriguing was the Vihiga fiasco where LDP's leading light, Musalia Mudavadi lost a chance of a lifetime to endear himself to his people just at a time when he was struggling to make a come back in politics. How could he let die a noble spirit of the Maragoli community that was the brainchild of his late father? How could he have debased such a unique cultural event that had carved a niche for itself in the national calendar simply because he had lost some parliamentary seat to another villager? If he thought his move was calculated to embarrass his political opponent, he was way off the mark. Those villagers, those ordinary peasants who had always looked forward for years to be entertained and feted once a year by the organizers of the festival will for ever remember Musalia's vindictiveness, not Akaranga's or Ligale's poverty or meanness. Some visions are too dear to be messed up in the quagmire of village politics.

And did I hear something to the effect that Hon Joe Khamisi never really supported nor campaigned for loser Joho in the Kisauni parliamentary by- elections? That Khamisi publicly or privately pressurized for LDP to back Mwaboza because Mwaboza was more popular on the ground? If that was the case, then LDP has a lot of soul searching to do and they had better do it fast.

In the last one month, LDP has created more enemies than they needed to create. At this rate there may be a need for a fresh look at the secretariat, the composition of its current think tank and strategic advisors to the top leadership. Either they have been asleep or have been busy misadvising or deliberately misleading the party leadership.

Time to crack the whip and effect drastic changes is now.

The writer is executive director of Infotrack, marketing and media consultants, Kenya. Discuss this article in Club Afrika Forums and/or comment below.

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