Examining the Real Issues at Stake in Post-Elections Crisis
The post elections period in Kenya has carried with it what I would call acute conflicts - a situation where issues at stake are perceived by one or both parties [to be] of extreme importance [and] on which compromise is normally not possible.
What makes the Kenya’s post election conflicts serious is the fact that people believe they cannot compromise because of moral principle, because of the societal and political consequences, and therefore, the people are prepared to fight. And they are fighting using any violent means that comes their way.
Right now there is an outcry for peace in this country. The mention of peace brings into many people’s minds ‘the absence of war.’
For me, what is at stake in this country is ‘peace as social justice’. Social justice is the basis for conflicts over which there is no "compromise because of moral principle”. There are deep-rooted injustices in this country and the problems faced currently are far from having their causes in the elections. Instead, they are an explosion of the accumulation of grievances and deep-rooted injustices that different people in different parts of this country have been experiencing over the years; which have penetrated the Kenyan society, and for which a solution has to be found.
So if any solution has to be found, then it has to be a long lasting solution, which would expand to include the related problems of economic well-being and social justice. And that is the only way different people n this country would be catered for. The situation as it is now, would be definitely difficult to deal with adequately, since poverty and social injustices run through a spectrum of different issues. All these problems are related to one another and solution to any one of them cannot be found in isolation. Peace and justice are interdependency and there is no way we can talk of peace without talking of justice.
More importantly, in order to bring peace that is in everyone’s lips now, the high priority should be placed in the economic well being and social justices for the people of this country, without which no lasting peace will be realized.
Four pertinent questions therefore arise,
1. In what other ways can peace be defined to include Social Justice rather than only as an absence of war?
2. What are the fundamental social discord and human misery we are facing presently in this country and how can we overcome them?
3. How do we incorporate peace researchers as problem solvers?
4. Despite the current happenings, how can policy makers make social justice a priority?
The reality in Kenya now is that there is a civil war and this is a major obstacle to the achievement of justice in this country. That is, why we may be able to reduce the incidence of violence, but the incidences of injustice remain and something should be done about that. The fact is, different groups move from incompatible interests to conflict and mass violence. Therefore, the more readily we can distinguish between those factors which are beyond our control and those which we had best try to modify, the better.
One might argue that the present situation does not allow the change of certain structural, cultural, or material properties of the system, but still there is a possibility of change and a change of the already existing structures as well.
As long as violence and aggression is being used as a mode of calming the current situation, and the legitimacy of injustice practices remains virtually unchallenged - people and resources will continue to be mobilized for violence.
The material and psychological consequences of such continuing mobilization can hardly be conducive to the realization of negotiations, dialogue or co-operation among conflicting parties.
It is therefore, important for different learning institutions and Peace Institutes to make every effort to state clearly different assumptions and values which confuse the population at large and to encourages others, especially students of peace to make use of what they already learn and to apply it to the different conflict areas in our country today.
In long term, these institutions should do their work in a way that they facilitate appropriate attention from policymakers who should be encouraged by the quality of empirical research on peace as the absence of war and social justice, as well.
Basically, there appears to be two issues of importance in Kenya today. The government assumes that the people of Kenya should be dependent upon the its will, the decisions and its support and all the hierarchy which it belongs.
What the government does not realize is the fact that the people of Kenya have spoken and will still speak in quest for their rights. It is the government therefore, to depend upon the people's good will, decisions and support. As we endeavour for peaceful solutions to this problem, and in our quest for non-violent actions, it should clearly be understood that the views being expressed across the country are diverse and do not come from any particular ethnic group. What is being expressed is that power is pluralistic, and that the government should depend on people’s support and not the other way round, and that political power is fragile because it depends on many groups for its reinforcement.
Kenya’s political history has shown that we are in an age that political power cannot be , monolithic, it cannot come from few men, it cannot be self penetrating and if it does, there is definitely going to be political violence as we are experiencing currently.
I do emphasize the fact that there should be non violent actions towards finding solutions. But a non violent action which is neither passive nor submissive, but which is powerful enough to put a cross messages which would lead to a long lasting solution, not only addressing the crisis intervention period but what comes, after as well.
In my view, what we see in most politicians in Kenya, despite the fact that many talk of being spiritual beings, we have very few men of God, as they talk about spirituality, they toy with deeper secrets of life and death, not thinking of what implications this has for the ordinary and poor persons in those slum or rural areas. In this country power has been achieved without wisdom or conscience. For many years, Kenyans thought they were living as good neighbours but this civil war has shown that, we know more about war than we know about peace; more about killing, than we know about living.
As a long term solution, all institutions dealing with peace and conflict related issues should devote significant resources to questions of conflict and ethnicity and work in collaboration with the other government institutions, and non-government institutions and civil societies that focus on peace related issues.
The government should develop predictive schema useful to policymakers in preventing civil conflicts like the one we are facing in our country. I must say that the Kenyan Electoral Commission is not independent and has too much influence from the government and this should not be the case.
The inevitability of future conflicts in Kenya is there especially, if the deep-rooted causes of conflicts and injustices afflicting this country are not addressed. Therefore, scholarship can be policy-relevant and can reduce the possibility of mass destruction while advancing security interests and national goals. This is where the peace institutions and institutions of international relations within the country come in.
The peace institutions and higher learning institutions should be more efficient and responsive to the peace interests, leaving their doors open to different people from all walks of life to allow openness and different exchanges towards finding solutions to these problems. Even in cases where Peace Institutes or other institutions do not have policy or intervention authority, they should emphasize and situate the field of peace learning squarely in education and policy determinations and should extend the field's knowledge and skills to persons of all domains. Peace institutions should work in collaboration with different organizations to strengthen efforts towards peace in the country.
They should focus substantial attention on research about peacemaking techniques, through the study of peace, conflict, and social processes. In studying peace, emphasis should be laid on the fact that both knowledge of peace as absence of war and peace as social justice are important.
We need to pay attention to teaching peace making and peace building techniques. Its high time Kenya took seriously the fact that they have to deal with each other respectfully despite the fact that there is obvious hostility among different groups.
People from different countries especially those from countries who have already experienced conflict situations, ought to be encouraged to share what kinds of experience, they have had and how they have learnt to deal with one another in order to have different outlooks on life and different interests
Finally, I believe that we as a nation have an obligation, a sacred duty, to do what we can to gain control over elements of our destiny. We must, as we have in the past, provide standards and leadership to reduce the causes of conflicts and violence we are facing now, to prevent violence and destruction, to secure freedom and justice, and to promote peace among us, with our neighbours and throughout our nation. By nature Kenyans are not passive people and definitely we should not be content, sitting back while events plunge on. This is the time that this nation needs more than ever “stewardship of peace”.