By Cprian Nyamwamu
Dear President Uhuru Kenyatta,
As you know I am not a lawyer. I am a governance, policy and political Risk Analyst and Advisor. Therefore the Supreme Court thriller has not interested me much.
When the ruling is delivered on Friday, whether your election is upheld or a re-run is ordered by our wonderfully gracious Supreme Court judges, you and Kenya will realize that it has not solved any of our challenges.
What you want in your second term if confirmed, is to seal your place in history, your legacy. This is your legacy moment Mr. President.
Most people are focused on Hon. Raila Odinga, because you and the Jubilee team have convinced the nation and the world that the NASA leader is our problem, and you know he is not. Soon, Hon. Kalonzo Musyoka, or Mudavadi in 2022 will receive 8.7 million votes against Hon. William Ruto’s 9.2m votes and will still be losers.
We have a flawed political system. Here someone with a 7m vote mandate is punished, humiliated and scolded merely for offering to lead our nation and does not even become a village elder after the campaign has cost them billions of shillings. Yet a governor who received 36k votes, yes 36k only, is honored with power and governmental authority. The country will never stabilize, the economy will never grow enough to employ our 12 m jobless adults mostly youth.
Only a Kikuyu or a Kalenjin can win the Presidency because only their elite have total control of the state machinery and access our money enough to bribe politicians from other ethnicities and keep staying in power. That is why the whole country is fearing the future instead of celebrating.
The Supreme Court ruling will not undo our winner takes-it-all and loser loses everything set up and the viciousness of the ethnic hate engendered in it.
Our politics will never be about issues but about bribery and intimidation that brings out our worst as a people. All that ugly part of our political economy is not caused by Raila, but partly by the constitution you and DP spearheaded in Naivasha in 2010 while Hon. Raila Odinga pushed for a parliamentary system of government.
So Why can’t we talk about how to share power between NASA and Jubilee. Jubilee needs to know that this Mkate is not their bread but ours together as Kenyans. And by the way Jubilee like KANU, the block where it’s chipped from only believes in gerry mandering. So that Kiambu with 1.9m people registers 63% of its population =1.2m votes while Kakamega with 2.1m people registers only 34%of it’s population =0.75m votes, nearly 500k less. Kakamega with more people has less votes while Kiambu with less people has more votes by half a million. This is gerrymandering. And because of poverty in Western Kenya and Ukambani, voters are easy to buy hence poor turnout. 173k registered voters didn’t go to the polling station to vote. The Supreme Court does not deal with this kind of facts.
If we do not do these political dialogue and honest review to get the French type of a presidential system as recommended by Yash Ghai and the Committee of Experts, then prepare to use the police to kill more Kenyans who will be out in the streets saying no impunity and marginalization, prepare for a shrinking economy, a widening debt-burden, moribund county governments, huge unemployment, an ethnically divided nation, failing institutions, corruption and impunity, insecurity and increased crime and I can not fathom what else.
Raila Odinga is not Kenya’s problem. He is part of the solution, he gives hope to the masses to allow you head the State and direct the National government. When he leaves the scene, the nation will see what his absence will mean.
Only a Unity government will help Kenya relook at our Constitution because a pure Presidential system of government is a recipe for conflict and impunity, theft and discrimination. A winner takes-it-all reality can never be accepted.
Let’s offer political solutions to political problems our nation suffers from. The KCCB-NCCK led Multi-sectoral Forum is a place your administration needs to engage.
I suspect that our National intelligence Service and your advisors like Mutahi Ngunyi are right now too engrossed with getting you sworn in to see the big picture of our nation’s stability, security and future.
God bless Kenya.
Mtumishi Cyprian Nyamwamu
Future of Kenya Foundation
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