Wednesday
April 13, 2011
April 13, 2011
Editorials
Posted Monday, April 11 2011 at 19:51
For far too long, Kenyans — the media included — have sat back and trustingly left politicians to set the agenda for the country, often with disastrous results.
As a result, national priorities have become a shifting kaleidoscope, changing every which way, depending on the career needs of the political class.
One minute, they preach The Hague, the next they preach a local tribunal. One minute, they ignore the internally displaced persons, the second they become the champions of IDPs.
So what are Kenya’s priorities? And who is the custodian of those priorities?
The fishy alliance-forming and rounds of inflammatory rallies landed the country into chaos in 2007. Left to themselves, politicians will take us back there because they are playing the same games.
Time has come, however, for Kenyans to stand up and take ownership of their country. They must say No to ethnic mobilising, hero-worship and regional bloc-building.
They must say No to ethnic mobilising, hero-worship and regional bloc-building.
We disapprove of the choreographed rallies that have been taking place across the country under the mask of prayer-meetings.
Monday’s rally at Nairobi’s Uhuru Park, for example, contained precious few prayers for peace; instead, it became a platform for playing politics.
Billed as a homecoming meeting for the six suspects, who appeared before the International Criminal Court pre-trial chamber judges last week, it turned into a misguided political show of force.
Predictably, those on the opposite camp are planning similar meetings, some under the guise of praying for the internally displaced people, when in actual sense, they intend to hit back at their rivals.
The point that must be made repeatedly is that this country found itself in the current quagmire because of politicians. The violence that engulfed this country three years ago was planned and executed by people in both ODM Party and PNU. None of the parties is innocent.
It is also a fact that some 1,133 people were killed and more than half a million displaced from their homes, Many of them are still living in camps after the government bungled their resettlement.
Further, the current predicament of the six ICC suspects was a creation of the political class, who resoundingly defeated all attempts to establish a local tribunal.
Therefore, it is foolhardy for them to turn around and condemn the Hague process and shamelessly treat its suspects as heroes.
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