Kenya handshake policy: elite self -preservation, disguised as a compromise | Policy

Handhamming is a respected tradition of Kenyan politics. This means the collection of seemingly insoluble enemies in an agreement to share loot, not fighting for them. He has always been negotiated secretly between a party with state power and a rival who claims popular legitimacy and has always functioned as a bet on the political elite to raise the popular impulse to any change that threatens to become the country's firm political system.

It is a legacy of British colonialism. The first handshake were distributed at the dawn of colonial rule as the British cooperative local potential and contenders as colonial officials, giving them the opportunity to “eat” while sold their people. Just before she provided Kenya's independence in 1963, the British executed another handshake, this time with the man they had been accused of Mau Mau's rebellion and in prison for seven years Jomo Kenya. Although they label a “leader to darkness and death,” they nevertheless made a deal with him to smooth their path in exchange for a promise of promise Allow them to keep the land they have stolenS

In the years after independence, the handshake has become a tactics for the management of the elite power competition as well as a popular disagreement. His cynical practicality – as veteran journalist Charles Obubo Put it: “Every politician has a chance to eat. Every transaction is possible. No betrayal is unthinkable,” is paradoxically responsible for preventing Kenya's success, as well as to stop the country to glide into violence and anarchy. A handshake that ended the 2008 violence is a great example. He stopped a fire caused by a dispute over the presidential election, which took more than 1,300 lives and displaced hundreds of others. However, he also saddens the country with a regime whose first order was to create Fake corn subsidy scheme This lists the pockets of politicians of all stripes and left one -third of the fancy of the nation.

One of the two main characters in this particular episode was Rela Oding, probably the most fruiting practitioner of the handshake policy. Permanent Opposition Deyen, who has never officially won the presidential election, was a controversial candidate for the loss of five of the last six elections, some of which were stolen by him-yet he was able to reach an agreement to share power with each of Kenya's last four presidents.

These agreements are always argued to be of a national interest, but in fact they allow him to use his popularity to access the trough. In 2000 he Hands with former dictator Daniel Arap my In what many of the movement for reforms who have insisted on a new constitution are perceived as betrayal. His arms in 2008 was with the successor of MOI, MWAI Kibaki. A decade later, in 2018, as a result of more violence after further challenged elections, he was again in it With then President Uhuru KenniataS

Two weeks ago, news came about another handshake, this time in the form of a memorandum of understanding (MP) between the Orange Democratic Movement Party (ODM) and current President William Ruto United Democratic Alliance (UDA). There are some interesting aspects of this particular transaction.

First, Ruto, then the deputy president, was the main victim of the 2018 deal. At that time, it was widely accepted that Kenya made the way of the state to install Rayla as his successor as president in exchange for silence in his second term. In the process, he sacrificed the ambitions of the Ruto, although he promised to support him since they gathered in 2013 (this is another tale of handshake – the two have been accused by the International Criminal Court of being from the opposite countries of violence in 2007). However, Kenya eventually failed to deliver the end of the deal.

Secondly, just like the Kenya before him, Ruto in 2023 turned off a handshake with the Rela, which, after the 2022 election, led weekly protests to push a rather dubious case for the elections that were again stolen by him. Although they initially acquired a little grip, these protests were Supererated by the crisis with the cost of livingBut still, Ruto behaved firmly.

It was not until last year's protests, led by the youth who completely left political elites, Ruto gave way to bring members of the ODM in his enlarged government, while supporting Raila's candidacy for the African Union's presidency. After the failure of recent efforts, the MR has already formalized the handshake.

Once again, the agreement is defined as a response to national challenges, not as a measure of self -preservation. Oding claims that the military coup is inevitable if it has not entered – it is hotly denied by the Ministry of Defense – as well as to intervene that it is an opportunity to apply the report of the National Dialogue Committee.

This report that was compiled after Gen z protests, He himself illustrates how politicians use handshakes to overpay their pockets as they undermine popular causes. Largely failed to engage in the problems Instead, as well as the national reports on the Bridges Bridges initiative, which followed the argument in 2008 and 2018 respectively, he offered a number of new well-paid public positions for politicians-prime minister and leader of the opposition as a panacea to the political problems of the country.

However, it is unlikely that this handshake will buy Ruto the legitimacy it craves. The reliability of Rayla as the leader of the opposition has been burned by these repeated accommodation rooms, none caused more damage than 2018. Today, he seems less like the political power of the old and more recently as an old man, desperate to make money for the last time. True political power moved to a new generation that is strongly rejected the policy of the handshakeAnd they are preparing for another match.

The anger expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazee's editorial position.