Bishop: Handshake has weakened Opposition

Did the famous March 2018 ‘handshake’ between President Uhuru Kenyatta and ODM leader Raila Odinga inadvertently neuter the opposition?
That is the question the Nation asked the newly-appointed bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Kericho, Alfred Rotich, on the sidelines of the launch of the just concluded Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.
The week of prayer is a global observance of the Christian community, which brings together the Protestant Communion and the Catholic Church to pray over a theme agreed upon by both in a spirit of ecumenism that dates back to 1908.
At the end of this year’s prayers at the Anglican All Saints Cathedral, the Nation engaged the soon-to-be installed bishop of Kericho in an interview that covered wide ground, including the effects of the ‘handshake’ on democracy in Kenya.
The opposition has traditionally provided checks and balances to the government of the day. In regard to the handshake, did Bishop Rotich — and the Interreligious Council of Kenya (IRC) that he credits with midwifing the handshake — foresee its unexpected effect of emasculating the opposition?
Within the context of the handshake, does Kenya still have any opposition to talk of? This writer asked Bishop Rotich.
CHECKS AND BALANCES
The top cleric, who happens to be the chairman of the ecumenical and interreligious docket at the Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops, is concerned that politicians are trying to gloss over the unintended outcome of the handshake on the opposition.
Even as they were thinking and discussing the truce between President Kenyatta and Mr Odinga, whose key outcome was the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI), the IRC position was that the Office of the Opposition must be created.
“And that is in the BBI report. And even in the counties, our own report brought this up — that it’s good to have an opposition, because you cannot just have a ruling government without checks and balances,” he said.
According to the bishop, this is one of the feedbacks that he hopes will be given to the BBI task force.
“Kenyans need to interrogate and say this (the opposition) is our concern,” the bishop said, adding any politician worth their salt would want to be challenged.
OPPOSITION PARTY
Recalling his secondary school days with a tinge of nostalgia, Bishop Rotich noted: “We loved to be in the opposition without knowing that it translated to good governance. And that’s why it was recommended that students visit Parliament,” he said, and went on to question the use of taking children to visit a Parliament and showing them an opposition side that is not implementing its tenets.
“How do you train these children for the future?” he posed. He clarified that an opposition need not necessarily be at war with the government.
“It’s a friendly enemy, which you need to invite. Any critic sharpens your tools.”
But even as he worried about the lack of a credible opposition, the bishop brought in an equally worrying aspect of the country’s opposition, even before the handshake.
“I’m sorry to say that we have not sharpened our oratory skills. We only exercise violence, throwing chairs at each other as if we’re an unruly mob,” he said.
INSPIRATION
“I’m a proponent of having a school where you train people in oration so that when you are elected to Parliament, you are endowed not to use your physique, but to use your voice and mouth. It’s about charisma,” the bishop said.
The bishop yearns for leadership that will inspire young people, who can then develop leadership talents that the nation can rely on.
It doesn’t matter which party they belong to, Bishop Rotich said, but the voters must be able to identify them as “good stuff for leadership, and that is the governors and the presidency”.
The bishop also addressed the subject of corruption at length and revisited the launch of an anti-graft campaign in Subukilast year in October.
So alarmed is the Catholic Church by corruption in the country that it has introduced a new commitment in the baptismal rite that requires parents to renounce the vice on behalf of their children during baptism, which should guide them in the choice of their political leadership.
“Time has come for you and me to offer what we call conscientious objection. If someone is elected and he/she is not worthy of the office, let us camp at Uhuru Park for as long as life endures to say a big ‘No!’, but without being violent,” said the cleric.
RIGHT LEADERSHIP
“And if we have made a mistake in the choice of leadership, we should register our concern and be consistent about it.”
The right to vote, he said, must be matched by the need to cast a vote for the right candidate, not one who is going to mess around with the economy, and whose morals are questionable.
“To do that, we need to work with the media because they are the ones who can provide another institution — the profiling of candidates,” he said.
“Voters should be able to tell prospective candidates that if they want their vote, they should enter ‘their school’, which should be guided by values all round”.
He reiterated his sentiments on ethnicity (see DN January 27) that tribalism must not guide our voting patterns.
“We must be advocates of good morals, and ethical principles issues so that we can confront and defend our stance by saying ‘No’ to social evils … By so doing, we shall not admit them to come and mess the economy.”



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