Politicians seem unable to grasp the notion that the nation needs to heal and move on from the terror visited upon citizens at every election year.
How else does one explain the unsolicited calls for tribal unity and shoring up of numbers to give their ethnic groups a fighting chance at the national cake?
True leadership calls for tolerance, respect for everyone else's right to exist, hold an opinion, vote for a preferred candidate and join their religion of choice. It is time to discard retrogressive practices shrouded in ethnic cloaks.
Kenyans just voted for a new constitutional order, amid calls for one statehood, for the laws will apply to all that live inside the international borders of one nation. It is, therefore, hypocritical for those same leaders who profess one identity for all, and swear to defend the civil liberties of all citizens, to make the rounds at funerals, political rallies and peep through an ethnic monocle, asking their tribesmen to 'unite' so that the interests of their voting bloc are guaranteed? What good does it serve the Luhya, Luo, Kikuyu, Borana, Maasai or Digo to bunch together for whatever reason, other than the greater good?
That some of these retrogressive calls are coming from Cabinet ministers points to a worrying trend. From them should come a message of national cohesion and integration.
Pitting the fortunes of one community against all others has in yesteryears led to an explosion in violence, wholesale evictions and xenophobia.
Xenophobia
The devolved governments are meant to concentrate development decisions in the hands of the local communities. However, if they shall serve as pure ethnic zones, the costly exercise of writing a new set of laws will have been an exrcise in futility.
History has shown that balkanisation, in any form, has not succeeded anywhere in the world as all communities face similar challenges as they go through the paces of life.
Source: The Standard | Online Edition
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