Ethno-religious Hypocrisy

Najib Balala, the ODM Mvita MP, was on his way out of the Cabinet and he knew it. Ever since he began flirting with the leading lights of the Gang of Seven, his days in the Cabinet were numbered and it has nothing to do with the MoU signed between Raila Odinga and the "Muslim Community". When William Ruto and Isaac Ruto led their putative rebellion in the ODM, Mr Balala had betrayed a certain weakness for their line of reasoning. When Mr Ruto's attempt at commandeering the United Democratic Movement failed and he was forced to settle for the United Republic Party, Mr Balala must have realised that hitching his wagon to the Ruto vehicle was a recipe for disaster so he began formulating a strategy that would give him a say at the national level hence his persistent hints of settling for another party "to be announced soon" and his accusations of the dictatorial tendencies of the ODM leadership (read Raila Odinga).

Mr Balala, Mr Ruto and their ilk are the worst kind of hypocrites. If they feel that the manner in which their party is organised and managed is dictatorial, which it very well might be, they must stand on their principles, something they claim to do anyway, and resign their parliamentary seats and seek a new mandate from the political vehicles of their choice. That they have not done this is proof that what they say and what they mean have a tenuous relation with each other and that their principle reason for remaining in their dictatorial parties is so that they continue enjoying the trappings of power that have blinded them to the realities of the hypocritical positions that they continue to champion.

The paucity of the content of their arguments is belied by the reasoning of their apparent rebellions. Mr Balala and his supporters allege that Mr Odinga has broken an MoU with the Muslim community. If it was not tragic, it would be humorous the instances of politicians from other political parties ganging up to castigate Mr Odinga for his apparent break with the Muslim community. They are not members of the ODM so their input as to how the PM has dealt with Mr Balala is pure political theatre bereft of any substance or intelligence. What is surprising is that many of these leaders claim democratic credentials, that they have broken completely with the dark KANU past of many of the leading lights in government today. Yet, their claims to religious or ethnic chauvinism are straight out of the playbook of the dark days of the KANU interregnum.

This is similar to the claim, made with such pomp and circumstance, that the Women Vote will determine the general election, ignoring the fact that women do not identify themselves only on the basis of gender. They are also members of particular families, clans, ethnic communities, faith-based organisations, professional bodies, and socio-economic classes ad they will make their electoral decisions based on all these and other criteria. It is the same with religious or ethnic communities. It is not enough for the "Muslim Leaders" to claim that Raila Odinga has broken an MoU with them; they must demonstrate that when Mr Balala was a member of the Cabinet and a leading light of the ODM the Muslim Community benefited and that these leaders ensured that the benefits were shared equally or equitably among all Muslims in Kenya. Of course they cannot do so, for Mr Odinga and, by extension, Mr Balala and his fellow leaders will have discriminated against every other religious and ethnic community in the basis of religion, something the Constitution takes a dim view of. If their intention was to embarrass the PM, they have failed.

It is these kinds of leaders, however personable they may, that Kenyans must discard at the next general elections. Their worldviews are limited to their ethno-religious backyards and no further. Their economic blueprints, such as they may be, revolve around eating and no more. Their socio-cultural plans amount to pandering to the basest instincts of their political bases and no higher. They have lowered the bar of political maturity so low that it is surprising that they constantly fail to clear it. They are the albatross around the nation's neck that is going to lead us from one bad end to another. Someone must remind them that it is brand new day. The general elections offers us the opportunity to do just that!