Stop profiling vulnerable ethnic communities

Nairobi; Kenya: I was part of a delegation of parliamentarians from various countries on a study tour of the Capitol Hill to get a feel of how the US Congress handles its budgeting and accountability process. The Congress’s public rating was below 17 per cent due to persistent squabbles between the two main parties, and between the Executive and the Congress over a myriad of issues. But the Congressmen and women whom we met had a positive spin to all the wrangling on the Hill; that it was a lot better doing it in the House than battling it out on the streets with machetes and guns!

The concept of bipartisan negotiation in Kenya is largely underdeveloped. Disagreement among the political class rarely gets resolved through orderly dialogue and may often degenerate into ethnic profiling, saba saba, political defection, regional conflicts and even political assassinations.