I have tried to stop thinking of Kivuitu since the events of last December, but the image of this erstwhile protector-of-the-vote and champion of democracy just refuses to leave the darkest crevises of my bleeding self. The more i see him occupy the disgraced seat of Chairman of ECK, the more i feel like letting out some war cry. And when i turn to look at the bloated cabinet and the price the Mwananchi is paying for it, or our disinheritance of the Turkwell Power plant by the [president's] men and women who now own KenGen, or the issue of the Grand Regency now sold for a song, or even the unrelenting ghost that is the Safaricom soap opera, i hear strange calls to combat from within my simple self. Yet this far i have managed to tame the animal instinct, and by it maintained my ever-so wavering sanity. So help me God.
Like a child who feels betrayed by their s/hero, I share the surprise of many Kenyans who put their faith and utmost trust in Mr. Samuel Kivuitu, the Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK) chairman. I say we placed our hopes in Mr. Kivuitu and not the ECK because the body lost legitimacy long before the elections when the president’s gang had sent into the Commission a suspect bunch of moles to ensure their return to official looting of our republic. Because of the arrogance of the ruling elite from Mt. Kenya and their massive self-interest in the re-election of their man, it was foolhardy for anyone to expect that any demonstrations and protests would have made Kibaki respect the 1997 inter-parties parliamentary group (IPPG) agreement that required extensive consulting with other political parties in the appointment of commissioners. After all, here is a president whose only consistency has been in the triage of economic growth, sustained corruption, and the breaking of promises. This is why like many Kenyans, I consoled myself that as long as my hero remained as chairman of an otherwise infiltrated Commission, the often indefatigable Samuel Kivuitu would hold his guard against any attempts to ruin the credibility of the elections.
This is also why when tensions grew, and final results were not forthcoming despite clear indications of who had won, I still crossed my fingers and knew somehow that my hero would save us from the blatant attempts of the thieving class to steal our moment once again, like they did after 2002. When Kivuitu admitted before the media that he could not account for some of his officers and crucial election documents, my worry was only surpassed by my trust in his wisdom and integrity, after all, he had just received an award recently for his steadfastness in the fight for justice and fairness. Even when he admitted the possibility of vote-cooking, and that a section of his commissioners were meeting one presidential candidate, I still naively believed that my hero would have to resign before succumbing to the selfish and short-sighted appetite of the looters of our mamaland, because his resignation on grounds of principle would have been the final blow to the cold blooded thieves in State House. It would have also exposed a complicit international community that failed to act swiftly to denounce evident malpractices, choosing instead to play middle ground because of vested interest in the status quo. Above all, I knew that if push came to shove, Kivuitu would resign. How I was wrong.
My hero not only failed to resign in principle, but even legitimised the theft of this accumulating class by declaring their symbolic stooge the winner. And with that Kivuitu single-handedly stole from Kenyans our first true independence. I only awoke from this nightmare when he later admitted that he was forced to do what he did, that not even him knew who had won the elections!! Of course this admission remains verbiage to say the least, and quite insulting to the intelligence of Kenyans. Kivuitu should be silent because his moment on the stage is gone. By endorsing Kibaki’s theft, our country moved to the next Act in this drama, an act where Kivuitu has no role at all, at least none that can reverse or lessen the pain of a nation’s smoldering heart. The simple fact is that Kivuitu chose the path he took and he must stick to it, for his own safety I may add. He cannot eat his cake and have it at the same time. He must not make belated attempts to retrace his footprints back to the moral high ground upon which he once stood. He chose to dine with the liver juggling class and must remain there among them. By coming back to the middle ground, he stands to anger his godfathers and betray the trust the mafia had in him. Yet at the same time he can never ever again dance with the progressive forces that seek our nations belated redemption, or even the peace loving Kenyans whom his action or its lack thereof exposed to unwarranted suffering, bloodshed and death. My advise to my former hero is this: you chose to carry and conceal the skunk; you must condone its smell. You have sealed your name in our national history and you have tattoed in our conscience how best to remember you.
No comments:
Post a Comment