President Uhuru Kenyatta must be advised and made aware that should he intend to, think of, or try to become anything closer to an autocratic ruler or a dictator, his dictatorship will be a weaker one and will never cease to avoid accommodating the masses (NASA supporters), or fall to a coup d’état.
It will confirm to him and his team that a democratic form of government is the logical and the historical progression of governments being forced to accommodate the wishes of the citizenry not region-ry.
In the Kantian theory of virtue, autocracy he defined to be a state in which an agent has rational self-rule over himself informed by radical evil, thereby taking the right attitude toward his own sensible nature and managing it appropriately. The Kantian virtuous person therefore is a person enjoined by duty to control, maintain and cultivate emotional states. The success of it results into a virtuous agent who is at peace with himself and the people he leads. Therefore, the calmness and tranquil always prepare him to stand down the potential threat to good conduct that his propensity to evil could pose.
The current political situation in Kenya have caused many to develop a (misled) perception that the country is heading to autocratic or dictatorial rule. In fact, believers of this misconceived theory argue that should Uhuru wins or be declared the fifth president of the republic of Kenya, the writing seems to be on the wall that he is likely to become an autocratic President.
Further, the recent behavior of Uhuru Kenyatta appears to be dominated by uncontrolled emotions which looks like the key contributors to all recent his action and behaviors whether he is in the state house or Harambee house or in the streets campaigning. Not only Media houses have captured, quoted and reported this, individual people have s well done great work in reporting the same on social media.
It may be true that Uhuru Kenyatta may have been carried away with his emotions or said what he ought not to have said, he might have abused the chief justice and the judiciary or Raila and the NASA team or the Luos and other people from a given ethnic community, but that does not make him an autocratic ruler or will lead him into becoming one.
Africa in the 21st century is far much different from the Africa in 19th or 20th century. The Kenya of 2017 can and will never be the same as the Kenya of between 1966-2002. No one will ever succeed as an autocratic president in Kenya. Whether he comes from either the majority or minority ethnic community in Kenya. The people of the modern Kenya cannot allow that. Never.
We read daily in the historic books that former president Moi was an autocratic and dictatorial ruler and that he ruled the country as his personal enterprise, the way himself wanted and for about twenty four years he succeeded. Maybe what we need to ask is… what are some of the reasons why Moi’s autocratic rule lasted for long? The simple answer is that there were no independent judges like Njoki Sussana Ndung’u or Smokin Wanjala to either dissent or accept. Moi was the judge, the president, the speaker of the national assembly, the bishop, the Sheikh, the Pope and the Chancellor of all Kenyan public Universities. Daniel Toroitich Arap Moi was everything.
Kenya has undergone through many legal systemic changes that makes it simply impossible for any autocratic ruler to prevail. Maybe for one or two days, an autocratic ruler can survive, however, he cannot resist the wave on the third day, and he will be gone. Kenyans themselves have tasted, enjoyed and celebrated the fruits of democracy since 1992 when section 2A was finally repealed. People had a chance to see for themselves the beauty of freedom when the dangers of an autocratic ruler was exposed.
One of the greatest achievements which is the victory of all Kenyans was the promulgation of the new Constitution in 2010. This Constitution captured most of the fundamental issues which initially were lacking in the old one hence gave room and sustained autocratic rulers. These were the very issues which created room for President Moi and his team to authoritatively rule Kenya with an iron rod without fear of anything. Some of the major achievements of 2010 Constitution which has sorted out and done away with any autocratic ruler are;
The 2010 Constitution made it legally impossible for anyone to reign for more than two term (ten years). This is to say, an individual is legally allowed to only rule for ten years and not more as it was during Moi’s time. The creation of devolution (County government) has settled out the problems of imbalance development. Moi was accused of exercising economic sabotage in some parts of Kenya especially those seen to be opposition strong holds or opposition friendly.
It means, whether one region or county supports the government in place or not, their share will still be given out to them and should the government refuse or delay, they simply go to court and have this money allocated to them released even as required by the Constitution. This also means, these regions are able to develop, create jobs for it people and improve livelihoods of the people residing within them with or without begging, singing or dancing to the tune mtukufu rais.
Thirdly, the 2010 Constitution created and established strong horizontal exercising of power. This is to say, it established clear roles of branches of government such as the parliament for making of laws, judiciary for interpreting such laws and the executives for the implementation of both the formulated and the interpreted laws. Each of these branches stands on its own, independent and away from any form of interference. Power is shared horizontally and not vertically as it used to be before.
Because of the above reasons, it is almost impossible for whoever rules to influence both the three branches of governments, maybe he can influence one or two but not all. It is open that former Presidents like Jomo Kenyatta, Moi and even Mwa Kibaki hugely managed to rule because Kenya had a weak Constitution to protect its citizen from autocratic rulers. Again, power was vertically exercised.
In addition, probably the most celebrated accomplishment of the 2010 Constitution is the inclusion of the statement that power belongs to the people of Kenya and the bills of rights and freedom that any Kenyan is allowed to enjoy anywhere anytime any day. The fact that people must be consulted through referendum should there be any need for change in major areas on the Constitution cement it all.
In the days of President Moi, himself was the constitution, what some may call a walking Constitution. Moi could either fire or appoint you when taking tea in his kitchen. It was even illegal to mention the name Moi unconstructively. Those who attempted disappeared miraculously. Some who criticized Moi were picked from their homes, directly from the thighs of their wives, some rushed to the police stations were others were tortured to death while others jailed without trial.
Those who led Kenya by then did so when majority of Kenyans were ignorant of their rights, many did not even have idea that there is something called government or election. Some Kenyan Communities were not aware of the important of the seat of presidency. They were busy taking care of their animals in the bush or with finishing in the deep waters of Lake Victoria or Lake Baringo. They were kept in darkness, fresh tasting the honey. Some were probably made to believe that honey (being in government) is poisonous hence did not bother to know who the president was leave alone knowing how they are elected.
Today, even in the deepest parts of this country Kenyans are not only aware but are actively participating in electing who they think will represent their interests. Kenyans have known why it is important to choose a leader. Kenyans are aware of their Constitutional rights and freedoms. This is why voices of Kenyans are heard from all parts of the country either for or against the government.
Further, the opposition party in Kenya is a force to reckon with. It is equal to the task all together. The Kenya of today, no president can wake up one day and disappear with the opposition leader or officials lest he want his reign ends just that simple. Today, we see opposition leaders calling for mass actions and demonstrations are large number of Kenyans are turning up demanding for their right, something that none could have attempted in the times of Moi or Jomo Kenyatta. In fact, we now hear calls to divide Kenya into two if things cannot work out when together.
Uhuru Kenyatta may win the repeat of election on October 26th 2017. Indeed he maybe attempted to be an autocratic President for one or two days. He may be bitter, hungry or extremely emotional as it appears right now. However, the truth remains, Uhuru Kenyatta can never survive as an autocratic president in Kenya. There is no room for that in the current Kenya. Kenyans will never give him that opportunity. Even his running mate William Rutto also knows that. It is impossible and so there is no point for anyone to worry.
