{UAH} Standard Digital News - Kenya : Can ethnic democracy in Kenya succeed where Bill of Rights failed?
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Standard Digital News - Kenya : Can ethnic democracy in Kenya succeed where Bill of Rights failed?
Democrats like to imagine that core human identities – like race, ethnicity, tribe, and gender – can be vanquished by a culture of individual rights. Post-modern and post-colonial theorists – of which I am a version – argue that these "core" identities shouldn't be "essentialised". The point is that there isn't a "there, there" in race, the tribe, gender, or ethnicity.
That, in fact, these "core" identities are largely the result of social construction. In other words, our identities don't make us radically different, and shouldn't be the occasion for exclusion, or discrimination. But – and this is the nub – core identities are "real" but not "essential". That's because "reality" is "perception" – not immutable fact. Perception can be illusory, a cruel optical deception.
You might wonder why I am giving you this philosophical mumbo jumbo. Let me assure you – it's not gobbledygook. Kenyans must start to think counter-intuitively about democracy. One-dimensional, linear conceptions of democracy seem increasingly unviable. Even in the most advanced democracies of the West – such as the United States – race and ethnicity remain potent factors in politics.
That's why it was such a big deal when Senator Barack Obama, a black man, was elected President of the United States. Gender attracts similar emotion – hence the fascination with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's probable run for the White House. Core identities are stubborn, and their consciousness runs deep in the bone marrow. Anyone telling you otherwise is a liar.
Kenyans shouldn't pretend the republican state – standing on the sinews of liberalism – can overcome the country's primordial nativism. The Bill of Rights, the most effective device for safeguarding freedom, isn't sufficient to teach a Kamba or a Luo not to be one above all else.
The call of the blood has trumped the Bill of Rights ever since that key tenet of liberalism was invented in the Magna Carta in 1215. The English enslaved their own – and the Irish – in spite of the Magna Carta.
The English brutally enslaved, colonised, and repressed most of the black, brown, and yellow worlds in spite of the Magna Carta. The English denied women the right to vote in spite of the Magna Carta.
Vanilla democracy – by which I mean democracy through the hegemony of a dominant group – only works when subordinated groups accept their "natural" station. Democracy works in Japan because smaller groups – like the Korean minority – have succumbed to domination. The same is true in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and other Western democracies where one race dominates all the others. That's why democracy never really worked in the United States until the civil rights advances of the 1960s.
Even then, the American experiment in democracy has been tenuous. American democracy will only function fully when African-Americans, Asians, and Hispanics become full citizens. That won't happen until these groups scale the heights of the economy. Their lives must first have economic meaning.
My point is neither devolution, nor the Bill of Rights in the 2010 Constitution, will by themselves make democracy work in Kenya.
Kenyans must do more to assure that the new constitutional dispensation doesn't die on the vine. That's because in spite of the new Constitution, the Jubilee government is seen as a coalition of two tribes – the Kikuyu and the Kalenjin. This is plain fact, and denying the obvious is simply futile. The individual rights logic of the Constitution was trumped by ethnic politics in 2013.
The stubborn tribal politics of Kenya found a way to circumvent the democratic dictates of the Bill of Rights. That's because Kenyans are politically mobilised as tribes, not as individuals.
The 2010 Constitution has failed to cure one of the key problems that made it necessary – the tribalisation of politics. At the centre of this crisis is the place of the presidency in the country's political life. In spite of devolution, the presidency remains the source of real power within the state. That's why "ethnic groups" – as ethnic barons – are fighting to capture the State House.
But this much is true – as long as Kenyans vote in ethnic blocs – some tribes will never occupy the State House. You can take this to the bank – only the Big Five have an opportunity to become President. Even so, the Kamba, Luo, and Luhya – three of the Big Five – haven't ascended to the top.
The only way to deal with this "problem" is to rotate – yes, rotate – the presidency among different groups. This means that certain groups would be automatically disqualified from contesting the presidency again until their turns come up – again. This is "ethnic democracy" that would lance the boil of tribal animosity. Perhaps that's how Kenya will become a nation.
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