Why 11th Parliament stands at crossroads

By Ababu Namwamba

Six months on, the 11th Parliament is still struggling to cut a defining identity. The predominant image in the minds of many Kenyans seems to be that of querulous partisanship, shortsighted parochial posturing, unimpressive quality of debate, greed and insensitivity to public plight and doubtful fidelity to constitutionalism and rule of law.

Constant run-ins with the media and civil society have certainly not helped. There appears to be concurrence that this House compares rather dismally with its immediate predecessor, which deftly maneuvered through the landmine of a difficult coalition government arrangement to deliver a new Constitution and set in motion historic reforms. Members will be well advised to listen to Albert Einstein: “A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life depend on the labours of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received.”

Indeed today the epochal bicameral legislature stands at crossroads, and the choices both the National Assembly and the Senate take will be critical, in determining the place of this House in the country’s history and whether it will sustain the Kenyan dream of three years ago: The dream of a vibrant constitutional democracy anchored on the rule of law, where liberties of all are guaranteed equally, where, to paraphrase Martin Luther King Jnr, every Kenyan is judged not by their tribal extraction but by the content of their character, where each citizen is confident that their lives are worth more than a chicken, and they have opportunity to chase their dreams.

Crucial here is the dilemma of members evolving from “politicians” to “parliamentarians”, transiting from partisan hawks to leaders. It is pretty easy to be a politician. A little passion, some local connection, right timing, a bit of loot, and bingo, game-on! That is why you walk into any parliament and find, comfortably side-by-side, carpenter and surgeon, plumber and gynecologist, fisherman and archbishop...it is rightly a House of all, reflecting the diversity of society.

But a leader is a whole different kettle of fish. John Quincy Adams, the 6th US President, defines leadership in these simple yet profound terms: “If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” And King says: “Ultimately a genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus, but a molder of consensus.” Edmund Burke sets the “parliamentary bar” thus: “Parliament is not a Congress of ambassadors from different and hostile interests; which interests each must maintain, as an agent and advocate, against other agents and advocates; but Parliament is a deliberative assembly of one nation with one interest, that of the whole; where not local purposes, not local prejudices ought to guide, but the general good, resulting from the general reason of the whole. You choose a member indeed; but when you have chosen him, he is not a Member of Bristol but a Member of Parliament.”

Mahatma Gandhi cautions against the seven social sins: “Politics without principles, wealth without work, pleasure without conscience, knowledge without character, commerce without morality, science without humanity, and worship without sacrifice.”

To rise to these lofty heights, the politician must walk a minefield of terribly competing forces. If, as Americans say, all politics is local, how do you sustain a career by acting nationalist when parochial parroting is what it takes to survive in your local political jungle? Do you think national and act local, or think local and act national? In an atmosphere where the public, including the media, are intoxicated by sensationalist emptiness, how do you keep your voice of reason above the din and cacophony of puerile political drivel? How do you focus on serious issues when the audience is hooked onto cheap politics?

How do you play bipartisan when your political party demands you sleep, walk, and scream unabashed jingoism? Parliament must also take deliberate steps to burnish its institutional image. As Robert Green advices, “reputation is the cornerstone of power. Through reputation alone you can intimidate and win; once you slip, however, you are vulnerable, and will be attacked on all sides. Make your reputation unassailable.”