Kenya's lessons for Zimbabwe

Kenya's lessons for Zimbabwe
By Editor
Thursday February 28, 2008 [03:00]

WHAT has happened and is happening in Kenya should not be allowed to happen in Zimbabwe or indeed any African country. The Zimbabwean opposition should not deliberately start a process in their country that will lead to the violence and anarchy that we are seeing in Kenya.

And the Zimbabwean authorities should ensure that everything possible is done to remove all factors that may lead their citizens to even think of doing what their Kenyan brothers and sisters have done or are doing to their country.

All Africans of goodwill would like to see Zimbabwe conduct its March elections in an atmosphere that will result in the holding of free and fair elections in that country.

Next month’s elections will be very important for Zimbabwe and should be conducted in a manner that will help that country resolve some of its key political problems and consequently its economic and financial crisis. What Zimbabwe needs is a government that is seen to be deriving its authority solely from the consent of the Zimbabwean voters.

We say this because these elections will be the primary mechanism for translating that consent into governmental authority through the holding of free and fair elections. These elections should not be seen to be merely symbolic – they must be competitive, inclusive and definitive elections in which the chief decision-makers of the government will be elected by citizens.

These elections must be free and fair so that the citizens of Zimbabwe will be confident that the results are accurate and that their next government does, indeed, rest upon their consent.

With its current problems, Zimbabwe needs peace and unity more than anything else. But peace is the fruit of honesty, truth and solidarity; it is the tranquillity of order. And to guarantee peace in that country, all Zimbabweans are called to maturity, tolerance and responsibility. And if there is to be peace in that country, the primary requisite is to eradicate the cause of dissension between the opposition and the ruling ZANU-PF and its government.

Peace is something that the people of Zimbabwe must work to obtain. And if peace is to be established in that country, all parties will be required to respect each other and all of them in turn to recognise and respect the government as a legal institution.

Peace will not be established in Zimbabwe through threats by the police to deal with this one or that one. It will not be established by police brutality and killings.

The police in Kenya have been very brutal and have killed many but they have not succeeded in bringing peace and order to that country. Zimbabwe’s police chief Augustine Chihuri can make all the threats he wants but they will not guarantee that country much peace. Peace, in the political sense, will only come to that country if the causes of dissension are eradicated and not through police brutality or full use of force.

And to remove dissension, next month’s elections should be held in a free and fair manner so that those who are bent on anarchy, on political crime are robbed of their tool. If this is done, there will be no legitimate weapon for those who want to replicate in Zimbabwe what is happening in Kenya.

It shouldn’t be forgotten that what is happening in Kenya did not start in a vacuum or from without. Fertile ground was well cultivated for Kenya’s dissension that has left over a thousand innocent citizens of that country dead and property worth many millions of shillings destroyed.

There is need to bear in mind that in next month’s elections, the struggle will not be to determine which candidate or political party commands the greatest public support in Zimbabwe, but who can most effectively motivate his or her supporters to convert their opinions into votes. And these elections should not be a fight for survival, but a competition to serve the Zimbabwean people.

And when these elections are over, the losers must accept the judgement of the voters. If the ruling ZANU-PF loses, it must turn over power peacefully. No matter who wins, both sides, all the people of Zimbabwe must agree to cooperate in solving the common problems of their country.

Those who will be in the opposition after these elections should be able to continue to participate in public life, with the knowledge that their role is essential to the development of their country.

There should be a realisation that those who are going to compete in these elections don’t necessarily have to like each other, but they must tolerate one another and acknowledge that each has a legitimate and important role to play. And because of this, the conduct of these elections and the electoral campaigns that will accompany it must encourage tolerance and civility among the Zimbabwean politicians and their supporters.

Those who will be in the opposition will need to be loyal – loyal not to the specific policies of the government, but to the fundamental legitimacy of the state, and to that country’s democratic process itself.

Truly, there are great lessons to learn from what has happened and is today going on in Kenya. We know that it is not easy to organise elections – there are a lot of problems in organising elections. But these are not insurmountable problems if all Zimbabweans put their heads together and invest adequate resources in the conduct of the March elections.

An unfair competition is a very dangerous one not only in politics but also in all spheres of life. We have seen it even in sporting competitions where poor refereeing decisions have resulted in chaos, violence and in matches being abandoned.

We hope the experiences of Kenya will positively be taken into account by those organising this March’s elections in Zimbabwe. Zimbabweans have no sensible alternative but to hold free and fair elections and make all the necessary compromises to guarantee this.

No election is perfect. Each election faces a myriad of problems, the impact of which can be quite great in some cases. In short, what we are saying is that no election is administered flawlessly.

However, while we acknowledge this as a reality of any and every electoral process, we also hold firmly the belief that any genuine and democratic electoral system should be designed to survive any and all problems that do occur. But this can only happen if the system itself is viewed as a legitimate means through which the people can express their democratic choices.

But when the people, the voters feel that the electoral system itself is part and parcel of electoral fraud, the reaction is likely to be what we are today seeing in Kenya.

When an electoral process is perceived as unfair, unresponsive, corrupt or fraudulent, its political legitimacy is compromised and stakeholders are motivated to go outside of the established norms to achieve their objectives. When people lose faith in an electoral system, conflict and violence may become tactics in political competition, much as their consequences may not be desired.

The reason electoral systems must be designed in such a way that they epitomise fairness, genuineness and honesty is primarily that when they become conflictive or violent as the case is in Kenya, their function as an umpire for social decision-making is damaged and the credibility of whatever they do is questionable.

Let us take interest in what is happening in Kenya today and learn not to be poor students of history who are likely to repeat the mistakes of the past or those of others.

There is a good chance for Zimbabweans to hold free and fair elections that will be seen as such and respected by the people and governments of SADC and indeed of the whole continent of Africa. If this happens, those in some far lands who want to see nothing but a regime change in Zimbabwe will be left dry and impotent.