This is the Time to Weigh our Politics Maturity
The political heat in our country is beginning to rise steadily. It is poised to get hotter and hotter as we near the month of August which happens to be our Caesar moment. Time we often think we are giving Caesar what belongs to him by robbing it from ourselves.
I say robbing from ourselves because we accept bribes in order to vote in incompetent leaders who ultimately steal what is rightfully ours including the democracy itself that dictates we become the rulers. In other words, our needs and voice, and input reach a point where it no longer matters.
Over the weekend, the debate has been about the arrest of Mithika Linturi who is the senator of Meru over remarks he made about madoadoa (spot marks). I was pitied by a lack of sobriety among a majority of Kenyans who always look at it as a case of Raila’s Vs Ruto’s.
At the back of most of us, politics comes first irrespective of whether there is the interest of the state to be protected or not. If you want to know the power of words, walk to somebody and start abusing them. Should they determine that you are not a lunatic; manners will be instilled into your head.
So, before we begin looking at things either on the offensive or the defensive, we need to look at the position of our national security and the state of our democracy. It is worth noting that in this, it doesn’t matter what side of the divide you are, they have to be protected first.
If we can go down memory lane, a lane which should never be walked again, it was careless talk that resulted in the near-2007 genocide. When years later we ought to have learned the lessons and taken a stance on only what is good for us, we keep trying igniting the flammable violence well again and again.
We are only going to call ourselves mature politically and democratically if only we will begin to see ourselves as Kenyan first before going into the details of tribe which often matters not in most cases. Secondly, it is important for us to recognize and respect our diversity.
There is no point that we will ever think the same by any chance. We see things differently, we reason differently, we digest issues different. We are simply different and that is why we are a society. With that knowledge, respect the decision of others and if you want to influence their take in order to sway them to your side, kindly do it on principle and based on facts only.
I have come across a lot of people, who seem to be a majority for that matter, who look at somebody as an enemy because their political stand differs with theirs without even asking why. I call such group ticking time bombs waiting to explode.
Imagine putting such people together and igniting them with propaganda and dangerous words. What results out of it is a charged group ready to do as maximum damage as possible. And we can’t blame them because most of the time they act out of ignorance.
It is for that reason we lay accountability on the leader who ought to help and guide people achieve the political maturity we are talking about here. And this where the catch lies. Some of these leaders have integrity issues themselves and as such lack the moral compass of knowing what is generally acceptable and right and to what limits.
We will only call ourselves as politically mature if we begin to show it in the type of people we choose to elective positions. It is the only card we have to determine who is to be in the field and who is to be shown a red card and get out of the field.
As the 2022 August morning dawns, and we wake up at dawn to go and exercise the democratic right that we have, it will also be a measure of our own maturity. We get it wrong at that point, then we ourselves will be accounted wrong.
If we are people who learn, by sound judgement and reason, we can exercise the powers we have to the maximum or to the minimum. Either way we will be the ones to bear the consequences of what comes out of our decisions.
The beauty with political maturity is that it doesn’t go with age neither does it go with academic prowess or even social status, power or wealth. In fact were it to be so, we couldn’t have immature babes who lack basic principles of decorum pertaining to public office and ones who go abusing their positions of honor one they have them bestowed upon them.
This is to challenge us that we better begin to take the lonely uncharted paths and not merely sail along with the wave of the crowds without clear purpose or reasons why we are doing so. You will come to realize as one person said that following the crowd blindly will only take you out.
Take time and consider what is good for this country before deciding to cast that vote. It matters what you decide as an individual and remember you can have a plausible and reasonable answer as to why you decide to vote anybody into office.
Your wrong decision may mean our immaturity as a whole nation because as for any democracy; if the foolish outnumber the wise, the foolish end up ruling the wise.
