If leaders want peace let them promote justice, fix the economy
In the run-up to the 2013 General Election, Jubilee leaders campaigned on a promise of peace: That if elected, ethnic violence would be a thing of the past.
Five years later, the same government was sending tankers to Kisumu, where police officers maimed and killed civilians and children.
Today, three years after the 2017 post-election mayhem, the same government is knocking on our doors again, but now with a new document that they promise will bring the peace they have been unable to deliver. But what kind of peace is this?
Peace cannot exist in the absence of justice. Justice and reconciliation always go hand-in-hand. We saw this in Rwanda after the genocide, where the people had the Gacaca courts to listen to the aggrieved and to the perpetrators of the genocide. This is a step that gives people the chance to find closure.
But President Uhuru Kenyatta has always told us to accept and move on, and goes ahead to invite the parents to the launch of the documents that will supposedly bring peace. Not only is this a disgrace to the people who lost their loved ones in elections, but it also places the burden of forgiveness on the wronged person.
Reconciliation
We know where our issues stem from. Lying in the President's office is the Truth and Reconciliation Commission report, which outlines what ails us and has recommendations on what should be done, starting with our oldest grievance — the land issue — to stolen and rigged elections.
To blame citizens for the lack of peace and then offer a fancy document that extends people's stay in government, while solving few of their grievances is to use their pain for a few people's gain.
None of us enjoys burying our kin during elections. But peace should come with justice, democracy, freedom from oppression and an economy that works.
