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Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Big Fat Kenyan Politicians: They Just Don’t Get It, Do They?

Although none of them will admit it, all major political parties are in a crisis of sorts after the recent fiasco that some of them are calling party nominations.

What everybody is missing is the reason for the crisis in the first place. Before I go into that it is important for Kenyans to note that this is not a petty issue that can just be brushed aside. After all these are the same politicians promising us all sorts of goodies and the word “change” which we all crave for is on all their lips. But we need to ask ourselves a simple question. If these guys were not able to foresee the nomination crisis that was so obvious and forestall it, how the hell do we expect them to lead us with the increasing problems that we are facing as a nation? Chew on that one.

The reasons for the current nomination crisis include the following;

i) Contempt of voters by leaders of political parties and especially presidential candidates who do not want to respect the will of the people. Don’t even dare mention the word democracy.

ii) A determination by incumbent MPs to hang on to their political seats at all costs. The huge sums of money they have fleeced from tax payers in the last 5 years has blinded them to believing that they can fool the people and get back to parliament. These guys will do anything and I mean anything. Including murder, violence rigging, cheating bribing, witchcraft etc. These guys who have been a major thorn in the flesh to Kenyans over the last 5 years will not go quietly and are still a major pain (you know where) even as we go to the polls.

iii) Lack of proper planning by political parties despite the fact that some of them have collected hundreds of millions of shillings in nomination fees. Where has all; that money gone? Into people’s pockets, most probably.

iv) ODM stands accused because the party’s top organs were well aware that they had many contestants in most constituencies and they would therefore need to be the best organized to get through the process successfully. Instead they assumed that they would do the same thing they did with the National rainbow Coalition in 2002. Sorry guys the clear message from the people of Kenya is that they are much wiser than they were in 2002 and they have had enough nonsense and will not take any more.

Many Kenyans are now no longer convinced that ODM has what it takes to run a government and fulfill even a fraction of their promises. How can they when they can’t handle a much simpler task like internal party nominations?

Interestingly even the incumbent MPs who have lost at nominations by several thousand votes and are still defecting to other parties in an effort to ensure that their names are in the ballot box. This is really sick. Don’t they get it? Don’t they get the message that the electorate are passing to them loud and clear? Why not cut their losses and go quietly?

Money is indeed such a dangerous thing because it completely blinds people so that they cannot see even the obvious. Top on the list of incumbents who just don’t get it are Chris Murungaru and Norman Nyagah. There are many others but these are the two that come to mind immediately (probably because of their legendary arrogance). This blindness is not limited to one political party but is rampant in politicians in all major political parties.

I want to make a terrible prediction based n the nonsense going on. This election will see the highest number of election petitions ever. They will probably be more than in all past elections put together. If you’re a lawyer just get ready for a windfall in January 2008 onwards.