Voters in Wajiir and elsewhere in Northeastern counties have been treated to what is now known as ‘negotiated democracy’ a very absurd and retrogressive way of choosing leaders and leadership.
This kind of democracy has already resulted in an unprecedented level of hostility for instance in Wajir where so far we have three clan endorsed aspiring governors.
An escalation of clan hegemony is now breeding the so called negotiated democracy where political brokers and grandmasters of bad-politics pull innocent and illiterate voters into a political showdown that has the hallmark of transforming into animosity and clan violence.
This is not a negotiated process because negotiation should be an all-inclusive process where both minority and majority of stakeholders are actively engaged for lasting political solution. Instead, this political ‘powers that be’ initiated by the so called clan elders is a precursor for injustice, corruption and underdevelopment.
Negotiations should have included development agendas that are at the heart of the local communities, in Wajir you can talk about the issue of bucket latrine, the economy of livestock and the moribund health facilities among many more issues.
Sadly though, elders engaged shamelessly on clan power-sharing, political arm-twisting and patronage at the expense of development agendas.
One thing that has emerged more boldly is that many political leaders and their machinery of elders are gearing to embezzle public resources and squander development projects once they acquire power through the clan’s node.
That clan is a dangerous tool that is keen to steal public resources and use their numbers to deprive current and next generations of Wajirians from getting proper sewage system, accessing quality basic health care and proper education for their children.
That clan is a dangerous tool that the new crop of politician and the old ones are using to ascend to power to fill the land with injustice and make our motherland Wajir a place of doom and darkness.
That clan is a dangerous tool, an electoral fraud where corrupt candidates pay to lure elders to endorse and toss the political coin on their side.
It is through this dangerous clan where aspiring conspirators bought off clan elders and bribed opinion leaders to rubberstamp themselves when nobody in the poor neighborhood is willing to waste a vote on them.
In negotiated democracy clan elders have transformed into reciprocal individuals who are up for grabs outliving their traditional role of unifying communities and instead trading on the innocence of the overwhelming majority of voters.
And so, I ask, what are the options for us the people of Wajir?
