Why this is the moment to declare war on grand coalition government

One of the most frustrating discussions about the grand coalition Government’s fortunes and misfortunes is the claim that it has no political will to carry out fundamental reforms, and that President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga should act.

It is a grievous mistake for Kenyans to absolve the top political leaders from blame for the ills afflicting Kenya, especially at the moment. Both the President and the PM have been singing about fundamental reforms, but the writing is on the wall that they will not come any time soon.

Let us stop this middle-class opportunism, reckless optimism and infantile rationalisation.

This the moment to declare war on the coalition because it is dragging Kenya into a status of a failed state on the basis of high-level corruption, lack of political will to carry out reforms and a leadership held captive by deep-seated self-interests opposed to fundamental reforms.

History records moments when Kenyan leaders have stood up against the might of the State and called for a regime change. We recall a few such recent moments.

On New Year’s Day of 1990, the Rev Dr Timothy Njoya, in a church sermon, called for the dismantling of President Moi’s one-party dictatorship.

It was a courageous and patriotic statement that almost cost him his life in the pro-democracy activism of 1990s. But Dr Njoya is not one to complain about the sacrifices he makes.

His call was taken up by pro-democracy activists Kenneth Matiba and Charles Rubia as well as the Forum for Restoration of Democracy (Ford) movement.

A great outcome of the moment was the repeal of section 2A of the Constitution that had decreed the one-party dictatorship.

Do we remember political detainees’ mothers who camped at Nairobi’s Freedom Corner and later in the bunker of All Saints Cathedral agitating for the release of their sons from Moi’s detention camps?

These mothers are the unsung heroines of the multiparty movement.

Do we recall also the protest by environmentalist Wangari Maathai against the building of a skyscraper at Freedom Corner? She led a movement that saved Uhuru Park from the Moi regime.

All the president could say in defeat was that Prof Maathai had insects in her brain. These two struggles are important moments when Kenyan leaders resisted harmful government policies.

Yet another was the drafting of a model constitution by the Kenya Human Rights Commission in 1994. The idea was to have a working draft constitution as Kenyans debated the need for a new one.

The Citizens Coalition for Constitutional Change (4Cs), with its slogan, Katiba Tuitakayo (the constitution we want), was founded to spearhead the agitation for a new set of laws.

Later, in 1996, leaders of lobby groups and politicians were mobilised by the Rev Prof Zablon Nthamburi to start planning a convention to discuss political strategies for a new constitution.

The Limuru conference of April 1997 gave birth to the National Convention Executive Council (NCEC), and the struggle for a new constitution began.

Although Kenya did not get a new constitution, minimal reforms were carried out. And although not in circulation any more, Kenyans will remember how the Economic Review glorified that moment in its pages.