What's even more interesting is how the standards have merged. Back in the day, you could tell the difference between KANU and opposition. Today, the only difference is one is NOT in power and that is the reason they are not looting.
Granted, the guys in power should still be voted out.
To be somewhat "fair" to the politicians, it's not as though the citizens are ever up in arms about these things. Police brutality and varied criminality, huge corruption scandals and other forms of pilfering from the public, outrageous abuses of state power, failure by the state to provide even basic security, .... In a normal place, you'd have the citizens out in huge numbers, all over place, and for serious periods of time. And Kenya? Kenya is a place where the police and military pose serious dangers to the welfare and safety of the citizens, the public hospitals are the last place where a person in poor health should go, etc. etc. etc.
The general public view of the GSU, which is "key" here, is a fine exemplar of the public stupor. This segment of the police force has come to be associated with the worst forms of criminality---murder, rape, torture, theft, etc.---but one will never hear the public, or the Opposition, or the Government clamouring (or even just asking) that it be disbanded (or at least reformed). Instead it is all meekly accepted: anger has been replaced with a supposedly amusing nickname ("Fanya Fujo Uone"), and all seem to believe that "dread" is a perfectly reasonable adjective for a "service unit". (Google suggests that "dreaded" is the adjective Kenyans used most often for the unit.)
As long as
mwananchi continues to make it clear that he is a sucker for punishment, there is no reason to expect that anyone who is doing so will stop socking it to him. A bunch of masochists with a few sadists in charge. That's what Kenya is beginning to look like. Of course, that's how it's always been. (The proper way to interpret the "Second Liberation" is that the masochists now have more freedom in the choice of sadists; and, no doubt, that's a "good" thing .... freedom being "good" or something.)
It is tempting to think that the
wananchi desire change but have been badly let down by crappy leaders. That is only slightly true. The larger part of the truth is that the average Kenyan hopes that in time, through his "our man", he will get to engage in all the excesses he claims to abhor. That's what he really wants, not to change the "system". That this never happens, and is very unlikely to happen, does not bother him in the slightest. The belief that "our man will deliver us to the other side" is at about the same level as a primitive people's belief in the local deity (that bit of wood or stoned they carved last year or whatever their grandmother told them last week). The good politicians know all that, which is why "issues" are never an issue, political parties stand for nothing (and jumping between them is a national sport that people elsewhere would find disturbing), etc. And there you have it: the "leaders" can lead the people in a new direction, and the people can choose "leaders" who will be leaders; but who
really wants change?
With such an "untidy environment", I have my doubts on "
the guys in power should still be voted out". The Opposition has been quite coy on the matter of what it would actually do---some reasons are given above---and its main pitch is, essentially, "
We couldn't possibly do any worse!". Not very convincing, especially for guys trying to get into power. Perhaps the positive is that we'll have different people dancing on the lawns of State House?
Yes, that was a bit long. On the present cause of unhappiness (for some): Some of these people---Kalonzo, Raila, Mudavadi, etc.---have actually been at the top of the heap. What did they do to even
try and reform some of the organizations that are now caning them? (Note the emphasis on the "try".) Is there anything to suggest that
they would act differently if they were on the other side? Instead of yet another opportunity for helpless wailing, how about an opportunity to raise the need to reform some of these organization, give them more independence and protection from political whims, etc.?
Topic: Uhuru Kenyatta Paranoia Locks Down Mombasa (Read 3698 times)