Kenya is at crossroads. At the very core is the decision to move on – whatever that means or to take a step back and deal decisively with emerging issues.
Politicians would want us believe otherwise but the important decision here can’t be made until we ask whether we need a Kenya for Kenyans or a Kenya for the elite.
Uganda’s opposition leader Mr. Besigye captures this powerfully when he described the deteriorating relationship among member countries within the East Africa Community (EAC). He said, the integration process will remain a song until it becomes about East African people and not regimes.
To put his words into context; Kenya is now having a subtle diplomatic spat with neighboring Tanzania after the latter auctioned off 1300 cattle that had wandered across the border.
Our country has lodged a formal protest over the same, and of course the torching of over 6000 day -old chicks only made things worse. Tanzania claimed the chicks could spread bird flu.
In the same week, Ugandan Police Officers arrested 22 Kenyans from Migingo Island over fishing dispute and the government’s response according to the Inspector General (IG) is that, he can’t protect people violating Uganda’s territorial integrity.
This captures aptly the crossroad that Kenya finds itself in. On one hand, a country where there are Kenyans who feel they belong and the government will be outraged when their livestock is auctioned if it wanders off the border.
On the other hand is another group of Kenyans who don’t feel they belong because the government will do nothing to bring back their people arrested by a foreign government because – your guess is as good as mine.
Never mind the territorial integrity IG Boinett mentions has no bearing because there is no publicly available record confirming the dispute was ever resolved. Not even a committee of experts report.
The country is in such a bad state that a number of counties allied to the opposition are now considering secession as way of sorting out these challenges. But is this the solution?
|
