MAL49 MAL 49:22 | Page 98

It is equally unconscionable for anyone to politicize food or any product or service that the public rightly pays taxes to receive . The handout mentality is unfortunately ingrained in the voter since the odious Moi era where the voter was warned ‘ Siasa mbaya , Maisha mbaya ’.
Voters who chose not to vote as directed were punished so the concept of a free and fair election is quite alien to many Kenyans as they wait to be directed as to how to vote or how to resist . The voter has no clue that the real power lies with him .
So the voter is not actually hearing that both sides are accusing each other of corruption and that if whatever side is elected or is it selected , the first a hundred days will be spent laying the ground work to pursue and prosecute the thieves from the side that loses the elections .
So the voter is being asked to elect the people that created the problem in the first place , to go in and solve the problem . It is not surprising that voter education has never taken off in Kenya . Who would want an electorate that can think ?
The voter does not seem to realize that all the current players in the current version of the election have been in the same camp at one time or another . The musical party games that are witnessed every five years are their way of keeping irrelevant people relevant .
The voter is simply told what he wants to hear as a new episode in the same political series . The script writers in the various secretariats with the many polls are instructed to keep an ear to the ground and pick up the mood and amplify it in a language the voter likes .
The ante has been raised to such a high level that the main aspirants for the highest office have suggested the removal of presidential immunity to enable the prosecution of all corrupt individuals hence cleverly diverting attention to where they want the voter to think the problem is .
The scenario is quite brilliant since whichever side wins , it will have a readymade scapegoat to blame for the mess Kenya is in and they will look like heroes pursuing imaginary shadows of the people that are responsible for the corruption in Kenya , which in reality is themselves .
The Kenyan voter is so used to hearing the same story from different people in different roles that they have lost control of the plot and especially who the director is . The election period for many is a time to vent pent up frustrations by shouting at rallies and the welcome fifty shilling windfall of course .
Ochieng blames this humdrum that is Kenyan politics as the reason that there is serious voter apathy and one needs to understand that when the polls show a huge number of people are cited as undecided it means they will not be bothered to get up and go to vote . To them it is pointless .
Our otherwise boring electioneering façade was however set alight by the maverick Wajackoyah who titillated the Kenyan imagination by talking a totally different language and offering his version to Kenya ’ s economic prosperity .
Wajackoyah , unlike Dida in the last elections , is not providing comic relief for elections that are usually very tense since the politicians are adept in whipping up negative emotions . Wajackoyah is telling Kenyans that there are other ways to run a country .
Whether one thinks that what he smokes is potent or not the one message that is clear is that Wajackoyah is not hallucinating and those that listened to the deputy presidential aspirant ’ s debate will attest that his ideas are not a pie in the sky musings .
Wajackoyah also raised a very important issue about the presidential debate . The pairing of the contestants was already a pre-election . Wajackoyah is not in the race trying to unseat an unknown called Mwaure but either Raila or Ruto . This is who he needed to debate with and Ochieng concurs .
Ochieng thinks that Kenya is not yet ready for the disruptive politics of Wajackoyah but that is how democracy is supposed to work . Everyone should have a voice and a platform to explain his viewpoint without prior discrimination or hindrance .
Ochieng is not sure that it is ever a good idea to miss a public platform to air ones views and since Wajackoyah ’ s running mate acquitted herself most honorably , Wajackoyah could have used the platform to explain why the debate format was flawed in his opinion .
If the media figures are credible , the deputy presidents ’ debate had thirty four million viewers so it stands to reason that an equal number of viewers if not more would have tuned into the debate . This was a lost golden opportunity to sell his alternative brand of politics and kill apathy .
It is a truly depressing feeling that Kenyan voter has that the more things change , the more they remain the same as per the famous epigram of Jean-Baptiste Karr who captured the futility Kenyans must feel trapped in an ever-changing but same scenario .
Kenyans are in a horrible quandary knowing that irrespective of who wins , things will remain the same . The Wajackoyah diversion was not only fun but necessary . Kenyans should realize that the running of the country is too important to be left to politicians .
Ochieng knows very well that unexpected good could come from an unexpected direction and was hoping a Wajackoyah moment may be what was needed to shake up things in Kenya rather than the much touted theoretical solution that Kenya needs a revolution or a dictator .
Ochieng is well aware that democracy is an imperfect government system but having experienced life under a dictator and the nerve-racking effort it took to escape it , he certainly would not recommend it . Hoping that the dictator one envisages is a benevolent one is too risky a strategy .
The voter will only have the last word in the direction of Kenya when the democratic institutions that safeguard democratic rights and the sanctity of life are revamped and this can only happen when every Kenyan gets politicized enough to confront the government .
When the people are fed up with the merry-go-round of inane politics they can rise and rid themselves of tyrants and it has been done before . The comfortable refuge of leaving politics to politicians is a dangerous position to take when they are the problem .
Since politics affects every aspect of a Kenyan life then it stands to reason that it is only Kenyans that can solve this problem by actively taking part in self-determination . Did Kenyans get rid of colonial rule just to be recolonized by a selfish self-serving political class ?
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