Democracy has answers on why the President may be sent home

America’s Declaration of Independence could help President William Ruto with some answers in liberal democracy. Ruto is asking Kenyans, “Why must Ruto go? Go where? What will you do that is different? What is your plan for Kenya?” 

Issued in Congress on 4 July, 1776, the unanimous declaration states, “When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bonds which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.”

Accordingly, Kenyans who say Ruto must go, need to “declare the causes which impel the separation” they are calling for. The answer is in the next few sentences of the declaration, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. “That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute a new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organising its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.” 

This is the liberal democracy we profess. “Form of government” could be the type of government, such as a constitutional monarchy, or liberal democracy. But it could also be the character of a specific regime, regardless that it is a monarchy, or a democracy. That is why, in history, both monarchies and republican regimes have been removed, from time to time. The one answer to the questions troubling the President resides here. He has failed the test of government.  

Face the facts

Governments are not instituted to batter and kill people in the streets, or police cells. They exist to secure people’s lives, liberty, and happiness. Nothing more, nothing less. Street demos are a form of dialogue with the government. On rare occasions, they celebrate a good thing. But, mostly, they are protest dialogues. The present Kenyan street dialogue is about misgovernance, taxation, cost of living, corruption and opulence, unemployment, a failing education sector, poor health sector, and other allied concerns. The government responds with violence.  The State refuses to face the facts.

It sidesteps these concerns. It instead alleges that somebody is staging a coup against the President. If that is true, the person should be arraigned in court. But, of course, there is no such person. Hence, trumped up terrorism charges are the soft option. They seek to silence the people. But most significantly, this government is extra-judicial killing of people. Some have been killed in the street. Others in their homes. Some have been fetched from home, to be killed in police custody. In effect, the Kenya Kwanza government is in the place where liberal democracy says, “. . . whenever any form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government.” 

President Ruto’s government has failed to secure people’s “right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” It has become destructive to the ends for which governments are formed.  

Where the people are at liberty to ventilate their unhappiness with this regime, the regime is obstructing them. Where it should protect life, it is killing the youth. In both, it is diminishing the happiness people desire. Hence, the people are now exercising their right to ask that Ruto must go. It is not for him to ask where he should go. Clearly, he came from somewhere. He could return there. Or he could choose to go anywhere else. It is not for President Ruto to inquire about the alternative plans those asking him to go have. That is to miss the point.

For, when you have become destructive to the people’s right to life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness, it does not matter what other plans you may have. You cannot even invite us to compare plans. You need to go. It is sufficient that those who come after you should secure the rights you abused, failing which they too will go. 

-Dr Muluka is a strategic communications adviser. www.barrackmuluka.co.ke