OPINION: Our democracy has come a long way

The chair-throwing members of Uganda’s national assembly finally joined Tanzania and Kenya in confirming that East African democracy has come of age. In the last few years, MPs from the opposition Chadema have tasted the wrath of the Speaker of Tanzania’s National Assembly to the extent that members have been high-tailed and thrown out of Parliament.

As if that was not enough, the Speaker took it upon himself to punish errant members with one of the longest bans – nine months of consecutive sittings – for their perceived transgression.

Fisticuffs have become the norm in neighbouring Kenya’s county assemblies, where it is not unusual for members to stand on tables and hurl chairs at one another. Chairs flew in the debating chamber of Uganda’s parliament in Kampala last week as speaker Rebecca Kadaga looked on helplessly.

It shows that our democracy has indeed matured. The more things change the more they stay the same. In Tanzania, the Executive has declared a war on corruption against a system that thrived on it.

Being as it were that corruption in Tanzania had reached endemic proportions, it is not surprising that the Executive is battling against the legislative arm of government despite the vaunted principle of separation of powers.

We are in this situation because of two reasons. First, our system had been so used to corruption that it created a symbiotic relationship among the various arms of the State. Secondly, corruption has a way of fighting back and legislators who have been denied junkets are gathering under the guise of democrats to fight the Executive.

If you add this to the lack of clear independence of institutions, we have a case of one arm looking like it is emasculating all the others. Hence the louder-than-normal voices that have led to shouting matches and sometimes evictions from the National Assembly.

Is it acceptable to express oneself in any which way, including using weapons and methods that are not exactly fair game? I will hold you to that thought. However, we have to say the real reason that democracy is on its deathbed in East Africa is the desire by the Executive to have its way in matters it thinks are serious enough.

In Kenya, Uhuru Kenyatta is trying by all means to reverse the democratic gains Kenyans have made the last three decades. This includes using the majority his coalition has to introduce amendments that will tilt the coming October 26 repeat presidential election in his favour. Mr Kenyatta has also made it clear that he intends to emasculate the judiciary whose only crime was to annul his controversial win in the August 8 elections.

There is no shadow of doubt that the executive in East Africa believes that the winner takes it all and must have their way. On this, President John Magufuli, Uganda’s Yoweri Museveni and Mr Kenyatta are all in agreement.

We must thank God that thus far there are still a few good men who are standing up for what is right. As columnist Charles Onyango-Obbo writes, “Taking it a notch higher, in the East African Community, Kenya became the first country where the opposition tasted victory after defeating the ruling party candidate, with former President Mwai Kibaki’s win against Kanu’s (now President) Uhuru Kenyatta in December 2002.”

The real democracy star in East Africa, and, indeed, Africa, was Somalia, our long-term failed, but slowly recovering state. In 1967, Somalia’s independence leader, Aden Abdulle Osman Daar, after only seven years in the presidential palace, was defeated in elections. Perhaps he was chewing some very strong stuff because he became the first African head of state to peacefully hand over power to a democratically elected successor.

However, Aden was not high on something. Although many may not be aware, Somalia (if you include Puntland and Somaliland), accounts for nearly 50 per cent of incumbent defeats and political transitions to elected successors in post-independence Africa.

If we look at Somalia, there is hope for Kenya. It seems that a country needs just one incumbent party or leader defeat as baptism to begin transition to democracy.