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In Kenya ,the art of governing entails giving people not what they want , but what they will learn to want.
Even more extensive political participation is deemed desirable it’s argued to be impractical,direct or participatory.Democracy requires millions of citizens to make all important decision yet if the masses cannot be trusted because they are so emotional and ignorant , why allow them to even choose who governs? The argument against direct democracy is logically an argument against any kind of democracy. The commitment of elites to democracy is weak .Even representative democracy is conceded only on grounds of expediency. This allows for the possibility that democracy would be dispensed with altogether if another way could be found to pacify the masses demands.
The attacks against the masses competency have often been made prior to extensions of participation,rights to workers , women and minorities.
The majority of individuals in liberal democracies are passive recipients of elite decisions rather than citizens who actively shape politics . This is a dangerous state of affairs because participation is a necessary precondition for our freedom. Democratic values are provisionally optional and conditional and a means to exclusively individualistic and private ends . Instead strong democracy is something done by , not to . citizens. This means strengthening local government and extending democracy practice into the institutions of civil society, as well as increasing opportunities for the use of national referendums and citizen – led policy initiatives . In a strong democracy participation is not merely the defense of an entrenched interest, but instead is a deliberative and public process that doesn’t lay claim to any truth above what can be agreed consensually by its citizens.
For instance in Kenya we have democratized elitism.
Democratic candidates from the parliament who face daunting historical odds have been running for the same seats for decades now . Many of these leaders have been implicated in major scandals while in power but still are able to contest for these seats and must win with a majority of votes. For many years masses have been manipulated by these leaders into voting them into office despite historical evidences of their abuse of office . Some of this leaders quit the government only to join new political parties and pretend to be very clean from scandals and gun up support from the masses in order to be voted in ; this issue have led to what I could refer to as recycling of leaders even though we have able young people who can lead the country better.
During the 2005 constitutional referendum in Kenya , decisions on which constitution was best for the country was dominated by elites. Political leaders and other powerful leaders were used to interpret the proposed constitution to the masses .Citizens were not given enough time to read through the book and come up with their own decision .
Campaigns , were even held by these leaders some of whom misinterpreted the proposed constitution in order to manipulate the masses into either voting against or for the proposed constitution. Masses were voting even when many of them didn’t understand why and what they were voting for or against Decisions such as these ones should be left to the masses. Further more those who were used to come up with the constitution were elites who came up with laws and statements which would suit their interest. The views of the common ‘wananchi’ were not considered in the final draft of the constitution. The government in place came up with a draft which would help them hold onto power for long against the wishes of the masses.
Matters concerning educational policies have also been democratized by the elites. Educational policies are formulated without sometimes consulting the relevant stakeholders in the educational sector . In the recent past policies on issues such as free primary education and secondary education have been politicized and hasty decisions made during political campaigns in order to lure citizens into voting the various leaders into office . Such policies are implemented without critical analysis of their viability.
Insufficient funds are often allocated for implementation of such policies leading to lack of staff in form of teachers which in turn leads to high student – teacher ratios in school
Free Primary Education.
hence affecting the overall quality of the education offered consequently degrading education standards in the country. Such matters should be left to those who are concerned or involved directly with education to plan,analyze and implement the policies in order to ensure everything necessary is done to ensure success rather than letting politicians seek political munition in shoddy setups.
In Kenya decisions on how to govern the nation have only been assumed by the elite. Enactment of different laws and amendments of various sections of the law is drafted and passed in the parliament without consulting the masses who will be affected by these changes despite calls by the people that certain bills passed by the parliament not be signed by the president the president goes ahead and signs such bills into law.
Recently the worthy contested bill on gagging the media was signed into law by the president after being passed by the parliament despite calls by the media stakeholders and citizens at large for him not to sign it – such activities have led to reduced freedom of citizens to express themselves freely. Members of parliament pass laws which only suit their personal interests without taking care of the people’s wishes about how they should be governed.
Those who venture into politics only do this as a means to achieve a more important end of maintaining political authority and don’t have the interests of those they are representing at heart. Most of these politicians have accumulated riches through dubious and corrupt means and in order to protect their status and wealth they vie for political seats.Through politics such individuals will use it as a tool to further their interests. During political campaigns such individuals will pledge lots of promises to those they want to represent but once they are elected they embark on siphoning wealth faster through corruption as the rest of the masses suffer due to increase poverty in the country as the politicians spend most of the government funds for their own personal interests.
Politicians have for along time used their power to influence the masses into involving themselves in disastrous activities just to meet their interests ,recently during the post-election violence in Kenya several leaders were involved in funding and organizing violence all throughout the country and the government was not left behind in misusing its forces to kill innocent civilian.
Lots of lives and property was lost during the skirmishes.
The key purpose for these politicians doing so was to satisfy their own interests of rising to positions of power at the expense of "wananchi" who suffered a lot.
Elections in Kenya have been merely an exercise which comes after every five years but it has failed to fulfill its purpose . The views of the people are not respected most of the time as the elections are made to favour certain candidates in power as seen in the last general election where the sitting president played foul.
This has limited the freedom of people to express themselves on who should govern them. Politicians assume that masses cannot be trusted because they are emotional and ignorant and should not be allowed to even choose who should govern them.
Generally democratic elitism in Kenya is evidenced by cases where those few in power use all means to ensure that they remain in power. They do this through manipulation and sometime even through coercion. They make decisions on behalf of the masses but in most cases these decisions only go along way in fulfilling their own personal interest and not those of the masses. Such few leaders have accumulated lots of riches while the masses languish in absolute poverty.
Decisions concerning matters such as education, agriculture, economics, finance or the budget are always made without consulting the people who are to be affected by such decisions, sometimes any decisions made by the public are dropped and only the news of elites are considered.
This is the Kenya we live in and and the one i want to change.
May God help Kenya.
