As both the government and opposition continue to skate the country on thin ice over the IEBC issue, one cannot help but to look back in history and borrow precedence on how an impasse like the one facing the country was resolved.
This is not the first time, as many would agree, that Kenya is at a political crossroads because it has happened before and a solution found without necessarily resorting to violence and bloodshed.
This was, however, facilitated by leaders who were able to stand and rise beyond selfish or group interests to maintain peace and inspire hope to posterity.
A good leader, as often said, is the one who is able to rise beyond a crisis and provide a solution to that crisis whether it proves popular or unpopular.
Here are some of those political leaders in Kenyan history who saved the country from falling on the brink of precipice and perhaps from whom both Jubilee and Cord leadership should borrow a leaf.
1. Kenneth Marende: He is the former National Assembly Speaker who is revered for his solomonic wisdom. Marende presided over the most divided Parliament in Kenyan history, where there was no clear opposition or government. Apparently, everybody was in the 'nusu mkate' government. Marende, despite having been sponsored to Parliament by ODM party earlier as Emuhaya MP, was impartial in many of his parliamentary rulings which saved the grand-coalition government severally from falling apart.
2. Former President Daniel Arap Moi. Though Moi remains in history as both a villain and a hero, he can be credited for maintaining peace during his uninterrupted 24year reign, earning Kenya the name 'island of peace'.
Many may, however, argue that Moi never gave anything on a silver platter, but the fact remains that he knew when to hold on and when to give in. He granted multiparty-ism in 1992 when the agitation became too much and also allowed the much taunted 1997 Inter Party Parliamentary Group (IPPG) deliberations that provided the framework to 1997 elections.
He is also remembered for handing over power peacefully to the opposition in 2002.
3. Former President Mwai Kibaki and Former PM Raila c. Many may wonder where the two ever stood for the country yet they are the very people whom under their leadership Kenya almost went to the dogs. But you will agree that both had to make very hard political decisions to stop Kenya from further bloodletting in 2008.
Had they maintained their tough political stands, maybe Kenya would be a failed state like Somalia. It is also under their stewardship that Kenya got one of the most liberal constitutions in Africa and beyond.