Do you support the handshake and has it changed the development of the country?
In July 1990, Kenya experienced a momentous political development that not only shaped the present political scene, but also laid a strong foundation for the 2010 Constitution.
The trend has been collision and confrontation; government versus opposition or the President versus the Opposition leader.
Former Cabinet ministers Kenneth Matiba and Charles Rubia, and then political activist Raila Odinga, were arrested and detained on July 4 of that year for demanding the re-introduction of multi-party democracy.
At that time, the repression by President Daniel arap Moi’s regime was at its peak.
That approach has had its successes, including the coming of multiparty politics itself and the promulgation of a new Constitution in 2010. But the gains have often come at a great cost, including lost lives and entrenched divisions, mostly along ethnic lines, that have tended to threaten the very gains made.
On March 9 the Handshake happened, and the way the country conducts politics changed. The Handshake changed the way the Opposition and the Government seek to influence each other and realise their agenda. For the first time in Kenya’s history, the Government and the Opposition are supporting each other’s agenda.
The Handshake and the support for it that followed, was a demonstration of our determination as a nation to learn from the past and prepare to be great. I am glad that our academic institutions recognised it and have moved fast to honour it. #JOOUSTGraduation #MbelePamoja 4/4 pic.twitter.com/8ExXtRb9Ip
— Raila Odinga (@RailaOdinga) December 14, 2018
But because the model has long been that the Opposition pushes its agenda through street battles and generation of much heat in Parliament, even if that heat generates nothing useful in the end, the change that came on March 9 is being labelled as the death of the Opposition and a blank cheque for the Government.
This thinking misses the point in a major way.
In a world where traditional underwriters of ideals such as democracy and human rights are increasingly looking inwards and sending mixed signals, different societies are struggling to come up with homegrown solutions to their problems. There is a general acceptance that traditional approaches inherited from colonial powers are not working in a country where what gets accepted or rejected depends on who is talking or originating the idea.
Full-bodied debate, the type we have been used to that generates a lot of heat, has brought us this far. But it is not the only way to get around our problems. The decision by Kenya to opt for a model that allows the country to jointly advance the various issues the Government and Opposition hold dear may not be what the British willed us. But it seems to work for us.
In fact, it is the only approach that has ever worked in Kenya. Kenya has only moved forward each time government and Opposition agendas have merged, as is the case today. Unfortunately, many times we have had to get to negotiations via a cataclysm. We have tended to begin every facet of the change we need as if the country is ready for a revolution.
The handshake is doing a very commendable job,Imagine Raila not being given a chance to speak during Jamuhuri Day Fete but nobody is complaining??????? pic.twitter.com/jAL1qfJDCK
— yoana kimwele (@kim_yoanakim) December 15, 2018
If there are people Raila ought to have paid a visit by now since the handshake are the people of Kibera and Mathare. God knows these people paid a hefty price for him to have the AU job. But as it is now, it’s been a year since Raila went back. Voting machines. Kutumika vibaya
— Lord Abraham Mutai, #ConsumersBeware (@ItsMutai) November 26, 2018
In the end, it is the negotiated, evolutionary processes that have carried the day and pushed Kenya forward.
The merged Opposition and Government agenda has been summarized into the nine issues currently being debated and that will be taken to all the 47 counties for the citizens to share their views on. The issues have been isolated as ethnic antagonism and competition, lack of national ethos, inclusivity, corruption, devolution, safety and security, divisive elections, shared prosperity and rights and responsibilities.
A number of these, if not all, were initially seen as Opposition issues that were always the subject of bitter and partisan debate. Now they are national issues whose solutions are being sought jointly by the Government and the Opposition.
There will always be emerging issues. But in a situation where government is pledging collaboration with the minority, where CSs are being encouraged to facilitate dialogue with the Opposition, Kenya stands a better chance of realizing practical solutions rather than much heat that delivers little light at a very high cost!