Broad-based cabinet must bridge wide rifts in the country

 

President William Ruto's newly-reconstituted Cabinet after they were sworn in at State House Nairobi on Aug 8, 2024. [PCS]

The swearing-in of the broad-based cabinet must embolden us to discard superficial patriotism. We must tell ourselves the hard, bitter truth as a country in order to find the courage to re-align our strategic national interests with the future we want. The first business in the new cabinet’s order paper is, in the words of the prophet Isaiah; to bind up the broken heart of the nation. The cycle of election-related protests every five years by the Kenyan youth is a cry for help. It’s the most profound display of the growing chasm between the governed and their government.

The chasm persists in part because of our collective affinity to easier solutions instead of choosing the long, hard path where real answers might be found. For starters, let me remind all that part of our problem lies in our unwillingness to fully transition from an administrative unit set up by the empire in the late 19th century to a fully functional political unit where a government derives its just power from the consent of the governed.

Our first attempt to handle this transition was in 2002, but the efforts were soon extinguished by personal greed couched in tribal solidarity terms. We have since then had many false starts, including the promulgation of the constitution of Kenya 2010. We are once again collectively presented with an opportunity to move away from cosmetic short-term reforms into doing a futuristic political radical surgery that puts us on the steady path of progress.

Moments like this give us a chance to know who our real heroes are. While the young people are commended for their boldness that stung the political class into wakefulness, we must also remember to honour Raila Odinga for helping preserve our constitutional order. As a student of history and statecraft, I have attempted to acquaint myself with the human cost of the collapse of a constitutional order. I am convinced that it must remain a political tool of last resort.

The formation of a broad-based cabinet gives us a chance to retrace the spirit of ‘Kenyans for Kenya’. The unwillingness to stand pat as a neighbour is assailed with material lack. The spirit that made Kenyans make long queues to donate blood when terrorists attacked the Westgate mall. The spirit that made the young people shun violence during the hotly contested 2022 elections. The spirit that took us to Bomas in 2003 to discuss how our governance would be organised. The spirit that made the young people of this country chorus “REJECT” when a piece of legislation threatened their wellbeing.

That spirit must be seen in the actions of the government as the trustee of the people. Prioritising inclusive economic growth is an imperative that requires, in the words of Martin Luther King jnr “the fierce urgency of now’’. We must make decisive, intentional investments in our people. Urban poverty must enrage us as intensely as rural poverty. Innovative programs of social uplift must be a priority.

This must be accompanied by a responsible active citizenry. We must re-ignite the debate about our governance and if our political culture and dynamics will accord with the pure presidential system. A citizen-led accountability must not be left to ebb away after June 25th.

While re-engineering our country, we must guard against manipulations from outside. We must remember that after the collapse of the Berlin wall, we saw a decrease of “interventions” from the empire. But since the recent intensified jostling between China/Russia on one hand and the Metropoles on the other, there is a real risk that our agenda might be set for us from without.

As such, we must, in the coming days, lay out our political deliverables and rally the country around such deliverables. Build our own internal cohesion and march into the future as one indivisible nation. A people united under a futuristic leadership can stand up to extraction machine of the empire and say “enough is enough”.

Mr Mwaga is the convener, Inter Parties Youth Forum. [e-mail]