May I have a word with you, Dear Mr. Politician?

Mature politics requires Insight.

Today I want to talk about ethnic politics, an issue or rather a topic that is apparently giving our politicians a hard time to understand its risks. A recap on 2007 elections will show you how miserably our dear politicians performed on this delicate yet critical test/issue. Due to carelessness when practicing ethnic-based politics, our dear politicians fuelled hatred in the minds of united young Kenyans and consequently thousands of innocent Kenyans and their families were registered as IDPs. Poor performance in ethnic-based politics by our politicians resulted to masses being killed and before restoration of peace; we had a grand coalition government of over 40 cabinet ministers.

Honestly, after the peace restoration I expected a serious Nation healing process would follow and never again would a repetition of the horrific incident happen. The least I expected from our dear politicians was to shun ethnic-based politics and instead preach peace and nationalism. It was never in my wildest imaginations that in April 2012 we would still have IDPs in camps. Neither did I ever thought that the same batch of politicians responsible for IDPs in Kenya would still be wooing the very same batch of voters to vote for them to even higher political posts.

Kenyans, when will we ever learn?

Anyway, let’s not dwell on the past! It’s 2012 and in less than twelve months we shall be having polls. Campaigns are gaining heat and once again our dear politicians have embarked on the old-yet-ill campaign strategy - ethnic-based violence.

They have revived every ethnic grouping that used to operate, in an effort to bag maximum votes. Groups like GEMA and KAMATUSA have resurfaced aiming at consolidating votes of their respective communities’ members and propel a single candidate to state house.

But again I ask myself, who comprises these groups if not you and me? Can’t we make our own individual decisions on voting basing on issues being addressed and not what our group says?

Once again our dear politicians are failing the test. It is my opinionated view that more risks than benefits lie behind these ethnic groupings as they can be easily manipulated by politicians to fuel false propaganda and incitement.

To my surprise, these ethnic groupings have launched a dangerous move to comment on the ongoing ICC cases facing two of their presidential aspirants. They have even decided to petition the international court to post-pone the cases affecting two of the presidential aspirants, a move that I judge will be fruitless. Indeed if anything, more comments are likely to land the ICC four in much trouble. In my opinion, Uhuru and Ruto should borrow a leaf from Hassan Ali and Henry Kosgey and learn how silence can sometime ease situation.

Although politics is a game of numbers, I want to believe politicians can still get required votes while still practicing politics of unity and nationalism. Again I want to believe that the youths can ignore baseless arguments by politicians who have their selfish interests ahead of national interest. Surely, at this age and stage, I fail to understand of what benefits to the nation are groups such as GEMA and KAMATUSA. 

Yesterday Kamatusa endorsed Ruto as their presidential flag bearer, and when one defines for me KAMATUSA as the Kalenjin, Maasai, Turkana and Samburu, I wonder whether the opinion of the few members I saw on the screen is the ultimate decision of all Kenyans under those communities. If the answer is Yes, then, allow me to form another ethnic group known as young Kenyans 4 change. And if you are under my bracket, our stand on ethnic politics is: let’s have a united Kenya.

More lessons on this topic will come to you as I continue to monitor your move dear politicians until then try to emphasis on issue-based politics, will you?