Economist and Nasa policy leader David Ndii. He has been bashed for his analytical 'one-sided rants'. [Photo: the-star.co.ke]
Kenya has the misfortune of having some of the most reckless politicians and civil society actors in Africa.
Former Information Permanent Secretary and associate professor at the University of Nairobi’s School of Business Dr Bitange Ndemo, has said that Kenya’s civil society over the last two decades has been successful in playing double-game but their time is over."They have pretended to be non-partisan and carried themselves as independent protectors of the “interests and will of citizens”. They have posed as non-partisan actors and pretended to be autonomous from the political parties – an unwritten requirement of civil society especially in countries where political parties often represent narrow ethnic and regional interests," writes Ndemo in this week's Saturday Nation.Ndemo notes that the 'unquestioned leader of this band of actors' is Nasa policy leader David Ndii. He says Ndii's one-sided rants that some quarters describe as 'analysis', have gone unanswered for the better part of the last three years."While Ndii’s endless doom and gloom message on the future of the Kenyan economy – defied by the wave of investment that continues to pour into the country – can be excused as partisan propaganda aimed at advancing the ambitions of the opposition he ardently and now openly supports, his more recent outbursts must not go unchallenged," Ndemo says."Picking up the theme of a notorious article he wrote calling for the breaking up of the Kenyan republic, Ndii has spent the past week promoting the key theme from that article: 'Kenya Will Burn if Uhuru Wins Another Sham Election."He says that there are many ways to challenge this type of incitement: "Ndii has been rightly attacked for his recklessness on many grounds.Conscientious citizens, including many from his own side, have pointed out that wealthy members of the civil society that he belongs to are unlikely to “burn” in the event of a post-election crisis. Instead, it is the poor that are routinely used as the foot-soldiers to fulfill the ambitions of politicians and those that seek appointments in their administrations that stand to suffer."He further notes that the revelation that a 'prominent racketeer' is funding the opposition has embarrassed the ever-moralising civil society actors and shown them to be opportunists.Ndemo concludes by urging Kenyans to 'wake up to the reality that there are some actors who have rewritten the rules of democracy and concluded that a free and fair election is one in which their candidate triumphs and a “sham” election is one won by those they do not support'.