Enough is Enough: stop beating the war drums

No one knows for sure whether the country will hold together or break apart if the planned anti-government demonstrations go ahead starting Wednesday through to Friday. 

More than 50 million Kenyans are at the mercy of two gentlemen, President William Ruto and former Prime Minister Raila Odinga. 

Their words alone could determine if the country goes the way of other failed nations, or if the formation called Kenya, and which millions call their only home, pulls back from the brink. 

As Nation Media Group, and on behalf of Kenyans from all walks of life and political persuasions, we want to tell our political class, in no uncertain terms, that enough is enough. 

Read: Businesses count losses as anti-government protests bite

Enough of the chest-thumping. Enough of the brinkmanship. Enough of the rubble-rousing. Enough of the supremacy contest. Enough of the grandstanding. 

This country is bigger than you, Dr Ruto and Mr Odinga. 

You must climb down from your high horses, and do the right thing, which is to restore peace and harmony in the country. 

More than 14 million Kenyans turned out to vote in the August 9, 2022, General Election, and later peacefully dispersed to their homes. 

That nearly one year later the two of you are still trading acerbic words publicly is a show of appalling leadership failure. 

You two know each other well, you have each other’s telephone contacts; it is time you swallowed your pride and made the call to save our country. 

At this point, it does not matter who has the legal or moral high ground. 

The blood shed by the nearly 20 Kenyans who have died these recent weeks and many before them who lost their lives while seeking to liberate this country must be enough to prick your moral conscience. 

The opposition Azimio la Umoja One Kenya Alliance Coalition party has repeatedly promised to hold peaceful demonstrations, but all protests have so far ended in deaths, mayhem and widespread destruction of property. 

There is no plausible evidence to suggest that the three-day anti-government protests beginning Wednesday will be any different. 

In any case, there is sufficient reason to fear that they will be even more deadly, going by the tone of vitriol spewed across the political aisle. 

It is within the rights of the Azimio coalition to assemble, picket and hold demonstrations, but this right has been habitually exercised devoid of the legal responsibility that comes with it, that of observing and upholding the peace. 

It is time for Mr Odinga to admit that the protests strategy is only delivering more harm than good to the people on whose behalf he claims to speak. 

It is time for Azimio to go back to the political drawing board for another strategy, and let the ordinary Kenyan who is only out to eke an honest living breathe. 

Insisting on this route in the current political atmosphere will undoubtedly visit more misery to the very people that Mr Odinga and his troops purport to represent. 

President Ruto’s administration, on the other hand, cannot continue to blindly wave the constitutional card as the country slides into an abyss. 

It is a fact that the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) declared Ruto the duly elected president, and the Supreme Court subsequently upheld this win. 

The president and his political backers have the right to remind all and sundry that they won the elections and should be allowed to govern for five years before another poll, as contemplated by the Constitution.  

This assertion, however, rings hollow if Kenya slides into civil strife as it so nearly did after the contested 2007 General Election. 

The Ruto government, especially as represented by the National Police Service over which he exercises overall command, has failed miserably in its duty to protect lives and property during the said anti-government protests. 

Time and again some police officers have shown a knack for violence that is only imaginable in a banana republic. 

The use of colonial-like batons and live bullets as the first line of response against unarmed protestors has eroded public trust in the police, and instead made them enemies of the people. 

The transformation and rebranding from a police force to a police service was intended to connect with the citizens and step away from the culture of brutality, which only breeds distrust. 

Unfortunately, there is no distinction between the police force of old and the police service of today. 

The supposed reforms have borne little fruit, which in turn has made it nearly impossible to hold any peaceful demonstrations in this country. 

The repeated killing of demonstrators and alleged shooting of live bullets on political leaders’ vehicles paints the picture of an incompetent police service.  

Read: Businesses brace for another round of losses in protests

It is no wonder then that the sight of policemen to any protestor is always an invitation to a duel, no matter how lopsided, which always leaves the stone-armed picketers holding the short end of the stick. 

The country is thus faced with a lose-lose situation, and it is time for reason to prevail. 

Mr Raila may have an army of die-hard followers, but that does not give him a carte blanche to cause anarchy and make this country ungovernable. 

President Ruto may have won the presidential vote, but he did not win the right to lord it over Kenyans. 

It is time to listen to the many voices calling for dialogue, including those of religious and private business leaders. 

The Finance Act is one such starting point. 

While President Ruto has a duty to run the economy as per the fiscal and monetary realities of the day, the pecuniary pain that this legislation visits upon the people in a single financial year may not be justifiably administered in a single dose. 

There is a valid case to re-examine the proposed formula for selecting IEBC Commissioners, given that it was rammed through Parliament using Kenya Kwanza’s superiority of numbers at the legislature rather than consensus as may be desirable for such a sensitive law. 

Many other sticking points could be hammered out in a round table through mediation, in a manner that allows the country to move forward peacefully. 

President Ruto and Mr Odinga must unite the country and desist from beating war drums and pushing us into a crisis. 

Enough is enough.