Government Spokesperson Eric Kiraithe.Photo/the-star.co.keThe government on Thursday said debate on whether parts of Kenya should secede is ill-timed.
Government Spokesperson Eric Kiraithe said Kenya, Constitutionally, is one country and leaders seeking for a break up should be free to move to countries where such ideas are “entertained”.
“As a government, we don’t have time to listen to leaders with such idea. Security agencies are keeping vigil,” he said as he addressed a press conference in Nairobi.
Kiraithe spoke a day after National Super Alliance strategist David Ndii during an interview with a local television station said Kenya needed to discuss why the country should continue “staying together”.
“Politics of separatism are fairly normal. There was the Scottish referendum and then Brexit. There is a [19th century] French Philosopher Ernest Renan who characterised nations as a daily plebiscite. The point he was making is that the constituent parts of a nation are in a willful union. That they are free to leave,” Ndii said.
He went on: “I think it’s quite clear that if change will not come through the ballot, it will come through the bullet someday. So we should not go into denial that we cannot fight. In a society where legitimate political dissents are closed, [it] inevitably ends up with people taking up arms. People do not accept subjugation forever. Even slaves used to have uprisings.”
On Wednesday, a section of religious leaders warned against secession, calling on national leaders to find ways of solving differences without dividing the country.
The leaders under Evangelical Alliance of Kenya likened the calls for self-determination to “divorcing over a cup of tea”.
“We have one country given by God. We need to resolve our problems and live in unity. We plead with Kenyans to leave with unity,” EAK vice chairman David Oginde said.
Human rights activist Cyprian Nyamwamu said the problem in Kenya includes impunity and lack of accountability, which cannot be treated by secession alone.
“Institutional capture of the State by a tiny elite, impunity and criminal behaviour and plunder by those who capture the state, inequality and injustice are among our problems. But let’s not start from the fruits of the tree, let’s start with root causes of intolerance and xenophobic discrimination,” Nyamwamu said.
Raila has signaled a protracted battle, regardless of the Supreme Court verdict, saying the opposition will “resist and disobey illegitimate computer-generated leaders.”
The thinly veiled threat was given more credence by Ndii who declared NASA is prepared for mass action.
“We have been calling for mass action since 1991 and we will not stop as long as people try to restore dictatorship,” he said on Tuesday.
On March 26, 2016, Ndii wrote in the Daily Nation: “When people find they cannot live together they part company. Kenya is for the most part an abusive relationship. It is about time we start talking about ending it. This ought not be a difficult conversation.”