The Constitution of Kenya (2010) is clear on the matter of ethnic and regional diversity. Article 30 for example states: “The national Executive of the Republic comprises the President, the Deputy President and the rest of the Cabinet.” It goes on: “The composition of the national Executive shall reflect the regional and ethnic diversity of the people of Kenya.” Elsewhere, Article 131 states: “The President is a symbol of national unity . . . The President shall respect, uphold and safeguard this Constitution.” It goes on: “The President shall promote and enhance the unity of the nation.” It also says, “The President shall promote respect for the diversity of the people and communities of Kenya.”
Now all this arises out of the fact that managing ethnic diversity has been one of our biggest challenges. When we made the new Constitution, we had just tasted tragedy resulting from mismanaging our ethnic diversity. The murderous fires of 2007 and 2008 taught us that managing our diversity is such a grave matter. We had to write it into our new Constitution. We crowned it by placing the heaviest burden of this task into the hands of the highest office in the land – the Office of the President.
Now the list of Cabinet nominees that President Uhuru Kenyatta has so far rolled out does not fit the bill. The President and his deputy have done the usual thing. People from their ethnic communities dominate their Cabinet, at the expense of other tribes. This is wrong. If we had Parliament that cared for the future of this country, it would reject this Cabinet on this ground. I have no illusion how Parliament will vote on this matter – tribally.
Yes, the President did quite well on most other grounds. He has addressed gender – at least to the minimum required. He could have done better, however. There is no good reason why women should always be fewer than men. A fifty-fifty arrangement should have been the right thing. He has tried, however. The proposed Cabinet is also youthful, professional and as far as we know, untainted. However, the President has served the youth a cold dish. None of the nominees is below age 35. What happened to the promises they made to the youth while on the campaign trail?
The freshness of the faces almost teases us into saying, “It is good.” A scrutiny, however, disappoints. There are clear political interests not necessarily in harmony with broader public interest. If we look at the nominees’ ethnic backgrounds and take it that this is the President’s interpretation of Articles 130 and 131 of the Constitution, we must remain with sadness and despair.
The Cabinet Secretary for Defence nominee is on board to spite the Odingas. It is a reminder to the Odingas and to the Luo that when President Jomo Kenyatta fell out with Odinga in 1969 he brought in Odongo Omamo to replace him. Omamo was the symbol of the Executive’s scorn of the Odingas and the Luo, in general. Is the new President Kenyatta (Kenyatta II) saying what the father could do, the son can also do?
The fallout between Jomo and Jaramogi reverberates to date. You would think the new Constitution and the new President give us the opportunity to begin all over. This country is in dire need of healing ethnic yaws. The angry insolence that young people write in social media is frightful. I asked a few weeks ago, “Will our children live together?” Will they? This is not an idle question. Ethnic diversity must be managed in a deliberate, planned and sustained manner before we sink.
Ethnic animosity is the easiest thing to breed, everywhere. It requires a lot of patient self-restraint to avoid being drawn on to the bandwagon of trading ugly words with people from the perceived “enemy tribe.” This must in many ways be what the poet W.B. Yeats had in mind when he wrote, “The Second Coming.” The poem is itself frightful. It talks of mere anarchy loosed upon society. Innocence is lost. The best lack all conviction. The worst are full of passionate intensities.
Yes, even university professors and church ministers have been sucked into the ethnic passions. President Uhuru Kenyatta is a human being. He must deep down share in these passions. It is hardly possible that you could find a single honest person who has not experienced this negative heat of dangerous passion against some people, just because they belong to a certain tribe. Perhaps that’s what you feel as you read me. Yet, this is where reason and self-restraint must come in. People in authority – including scholars, the clergy and political leadership must think twice and take a deep breath before unleashing that ethnic invective.
Yet nobody carries a bigger and heavier load on this vexed matter than the President. The President must conquer the natural drive to say, “My tribe against the rest.” The healing must surely begin somewhere? While it has traditionally been difficult to determine just where, Kenyans decided in August 2010 that they would burden the person elected President with this heavy load. Yes, he would be the symbol of national unity. He would conquer his passions and give us a Cabinet that reflects ethnic and regional balance. He would promote respect for diversity and for all tribes.
When the President and his Deputy appoint an Executive of 18 with more than half of the people from their two tribes, they fail the leadership test. This is particularly because other communities do not have even one “representative.” Where are the Miji Kenda in this Cabinet? Where are the Maa people? Where are the Abakuria? What of the Teso? And so many others.
No, President Kenyatta does not have enough numbers to go to every tribe. Kenyans will understand if the Executive is not overloaded with two tribes.
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