Kenya's Future: A Disturbing Trend
Released: Tuesday, September 24, 2002

The Kenyan Community Abroad (KCA) wishes to express its great concern and distress over the disturbing political events taking place in our country. Officially sanctioned violence seems to have become a standard prelude to our general and presidential elections, but with the impending historic elections that will no doubt mark a turning point in Kenya's political history, Kenyans need not endure another wave of senseless violence. Kenyans ought to be given a chance to approach this national milestone with unity of purpose, patriotism and a sense of hope and optimism. We wish to remind all political aspirants that it is maturity, sobriety of judgment, vision and commitment to the betterment of our country that will stop the violence that we have started witnessing in association with political rallies.

Even more disturbing is the Teachers' strike and quelling of same by employing brutal tactics and force by the Kenyan administrative forces. While we certainly hope that teachers will conduct themselves in a manner befitting their profession and end the strike as soon as possible for the sake of children, we sympathize with their plight because the government, and in particular the Ministry of Education, does not seem to recognize the vital role they play in society and remunerate them fairly.

Kenyans do not need a bloody reminder of the events preceding the 1992 and 1997 elections. It is not in our country's national interests to have more people injured, maimed or killed for exercising their democratic rights. Kenyans are duty bound to serve their community if they so choose and even vigorously demand that they be heard by the authorities in charge. This cannot and should not be a cause for instigating violence.

Wananchi wenzetu, let us approach this transition process in a more civilized manner that will be conducive to a better, new government. Any administration that follows President Daniel arap Moi's will have to recognize that draconian means of silencing law abiding wananchi are no longer effective or justifiable. At the same time, wananchi have to conduct themselves during this period of heightened political activity in a manner that is free of violence and intimidation tactics. The Kenyan Police should also be put to task as to why clandestine rogue groups like "Jeshi La Mzee" and "Mungiki" continue to harass wananchi. These groups have been no secret and are not hard to flush out. Why do they continue to reign terror with impunity in the country? This reflects the quality of our leadership and we as a country ought to start taking the election of our leaders seriously and be a little more sensible and principled in how we determine our leaders.

The Kenyan Community Abroad will sponsor a nationally televised debate of prospective presidential candidates in November, 2002. We hope that this will provide Kenyans with the chance to grill our future leaders and hopefully have the candidates present a blue-print of their development plans on the basis of which their subsequent performance can be judged. You will be hearing a lot more about this in the coming days.

Kind Regards,
Frank Mwaniki,
President, Kenyan Community Abroad
e-mail: [email protected]
Web: http://www.kenyansabroad.org
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