By Eric Wamanji
First, it was a normal campaign day in Bungoma. The firebrand Trans-nzoia governor, George Natembeya was at his best element when hell broke loose. Gun shots rent the air. People, including the governor, scampered for dear life. At the end, images of shattered campaign vehicles and a vandalized MPs house surfaced. It was gut wrenching.
This was political hooliganism at its rawest. Yet such was not an isolated case. In Homabay, the spectre of goons has been alive. Now, that is Kenya for you. Here, elections thrill but also frighten.
The weekend’s puerile behavior was a stark reminder that we’re still trapped in the woods of potential political violence. We should all fret. This gangsterism subverts democracy; upends the natural rhythms of life. What we saw in Bungoma is terrorism. It should be condemned y all. The criminal actors and their godfathers must be brought to book swiftly.
Here is the truth: never has force changed a people’s Will. That’s why, political campaigns are acts of seduction. It’s a marketplace where the most compelling seducer wins by virtue of ideas and other soft appeals. Indeed, the very nature of democracy follows the liberal market concept. Persuasion, not force, is the rule of this game.
No doubt, politics especially the campaign season like we are in now, triggers raw emotions. But here is the time to exercise maturity and restraint. Democracy is about tolerance and humility. It’s about courage to contain the ego and primal urges of brawn. Violence is barbaric, retrogressive, and immoral. Resorting to goons is cowardice. It has no place in a modern Kenya of due process and tolerance that we all aspire to create and live in.
If you want to understand the futility of political violence, let’s go back to Rome, March 44 BCE. Senators assassinate Julius Ceasar in a bid to “save the Republic”. But Rome degenerates into civil war. The antagonists Brutus and Cassius die- by suicide. Octavian- Agustus rises. Made Rome a monarch and not a republic.
Back home, the country is still reeling from previous election related violence. Thus, if we do not tame the monster, it will chew us for lunch. Indeed, as the country sets for the 2027 general elections, it is possible to produce copy-cat violence across the country. That is the last thing we need. In Kenya, Politics destabilases life and the economy. We cannot progress as a society in a milieu of violence. Just see what election related violence cost this country in 1992, 1997 and 2007/2008.
With violence, investors freeze their cash. Tourists keep off. Trade is suppressed as people resort to a wait-and-see strategy. We cannot add oil to fire. We have been battered enough. Today, the effect of past violence still haunts the nation. Citizens too are grappling with inflation and a flailing economy. Give us a break please.
I am sure citizens want to get done with the election as swiftly as possible and get back to building their lives. But citizens to have duty. They need to help in smoking out these hooligans. Vigilance and cooperative with law enforcers will help.
Principals, who hold great sway of their supporters, have a civic and moral duty to contain their cavalries. It is unscrupulous to perpetually take advantage of poverty among the youth to commission them for violence. That’s raw selfishness. Inhumane even. Nor is there honor in savoring political victory attained through violence and blood.
The justice architecture should also have the courage to punish sponsors of violence. Such folks should be charged and blacklisted from participating in political activities. In any case, the country has robust regulations in relation to conduct during elections. It is surprising that no one has been brought to book because of this primitive criminal enterprise. Yet, in Kenya, the law enforcement apparatus is one the well-resourced. How does it justify the hefty budgetary allocations? Why can’t we make example of the current criminals to the point that political violence becomes a taboo; an expensive enterprise to contemplate?
Indeed, there is not an iota of justification for political violence either psychological, emotional, or physical. What we keep forgetting is that the electioneering seasons come to pass. This trance, that seizes people, will dissipate too. We shall be left with a society and a country to build. We can only be the unwise to sow seeds of discord.