Many of our younger Kenyans do not really understand Kenyan politics and one of the reasons for that is that they don't understand the year in which our politics was defined indeed they are not even aware of the dramatic events that unfolded in that very bloody year in the nation called Kenya. I am of course talking about the year 1969.
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What happened in 1969 and what does it really mean? How does it all affect us today? How does it dictate our very messy politics today?
Well, let me give you the best illustration of that. In 2010 Kenya passed a new constitution. In the run up to passing that Constitution, the concern amongst all those who are involved was to get rid of something in presidential politics they were referring to as a winner-takes-all-situation. The very same thing the ill-fated BBI was trying to correct.
Now I can already hear somebody shooting back; Chris what are you talking about we are democracy you win an election and you take office you control everything.
Hold your horses and let me explain. Those Kenyans who put together the constitution (most of them great thinkers) identified that this was indeed a major problem in Kenyan politics. In the first draft of the Constitution we had a prime minister and we had a presidency which was not just completely ceremonial. The president was supposed to have certain powers e.g. Foreign Affairs, defense etc. With the benefit of hindsight that kind of setup would have healed a lot of our problems.
But after the back and forth (because the Constitution is a negotiated document) we ended up with a constitution where there was no prime minister but there was a president. And in a last ditch effort the Constitutional lawyers insisted on a very independent Parliament that checks the powers of the executive.
But what happened after the 2013 presidential elections? The political class could not contemplate a president who does not have full control of parliament which was a complete contradiction to what was intended in the 2010 Constitution.
So what they did, apart from rigging in the presidency they also rigged in members of parliament for numbers and indeed that situation continues right up to this day. Yes, our most recent elections had the most widespread rigging in of legislators in our entire history. There was a very deliberate and determined effort to ensure that the sitting president had the numbers in parliament.
So let's dive into 1969 the year when this particular winner-takes-all and domination politics "disease" was solidified. Indeed the foundation was laid and solidified and we have never been able to get away from it.
The president was Jomo Kenyatta but the main political problem then was that it was felt that the president did not have enough power it was felt that there were threats to the future of the presidency and therefore to the powerful at the time the only way Kenya would go forward is if every single opposition and threat (real and perceived) was completely silenced.
So that the presidency would be able to bulldoze through anything they felt like bulldozing through and I'm talking about laws which affect every Kenyan as well as decisions, policies etc.
And the intelligence community at that time identified the Luo community as the biggest threat and obstacle to the politics domination by those in power.
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