Democracy concept is a means to an end, not an end in itself

By Khamati Shilabukha
Democracy is one concept that has been abused by politicians for many years. In many ways, people in political leadership use the word democracy to define how they wish to be given (another) chance to rule.

That is why we should be wary of any individual who lurches onto the concept in their quest for political leadership.

The ODM spat between Prime Minister Raila Odinga and his former deputy Musalia Mudavadi, Kiraitu Murungi’s dream to unite politicians under the PNU banner and the ever-changing G7 positions on who should be in their group are examples.

And everyone believes their version of democracy is the best, as it is devoid of “manipulation”. Democracy may be used either narrowly to describe a nation-state (government) specifically, or more broadly to describe a society as a whole. As a form of government, democracy should serve under “the people” rather than ruling over them.

For the Kenyan society, democracy implies the people’s self-rule begins with the most local “government” level possible: an individual citizen. A citizen governs via individual liberty (personal sovereignty) and private property (personal domain), which together usually imply civic duty or personal responsibility.
Because these two senses of democracy, that is, democratic government and democratic society are inter-related and used interchangeably and they are often confused in our context.

While a democratic society implies a democratic government (nation-state), the reverse is not always true. In Kenyan political socialisation, especially in the ODM case, democracy has been sold as an end in itself, yet it is merely a means to an end. In Kenya, the word “democracy” has been overused and abused.

In too many people’s minds, any system with popular voting as a selection mechanism has been sold as “democracy”, but such mechanisms are only an adjunct to a free society, not a guarantee.

Such “democracy” is far from being the panacea that many people assume it to be. What does democracy mean to you? Is it freedom? Is it due process? Is it the right to own property? Is it voting? Is it majority rule? Is it the right to vote yourself a slice of somebody else’s property if they are not popular or powerful enough to stop you?

Because of the nature of our ethnicised politics, demagogues are exploiting these multiple meanings to pull a bait and switch on the masses. They are fond of using “democracy” frequently as a synonym for civil liberty. At the same time, when we come to think that democracy is the ultimate good in society, the demagogues swap in the majority rule definition and tell us that we must acquiesce to whatever sacrifice of those very civil liberties that a popular majority can be panicked into suspending “temporarily”.

By taking our minds off of liberty, demagogues set us up to give it away so democratically. That is why the politicians are busy “shopping” for political parties to run for president since their current parties are not “democratic enough” and the so-called big tribes want us to believe they have the right to be voted for whatever the circumstances.

You may have realised those who think they are the majorities have an unfortunate tendency to demand what they want when they want it. Unchecked, they can and will trample the rights of the so-called minorities. This unchecked majority rule is like two wolves and a sheep voting on what to eat for dinner. I suspect this was the hidden factor in the storm over the electoral boundaries’ report.

It is the factor behind the storm in ODM and other political parties, where good will is confused with electability and electability through one’s own system of choice is considered democracy. It seems in Kenya we are rooting for personal definition of democracy, where the personal impulse and rule is total. Some may call it democracy, but that just means that democracy is not the sine qua non (an essential condition) of an enlightened society.
Therefore we need to pin our political demagogues to something elaborate than what they are defining for us.

The writer is a research fellow at the University of Nairobi