Kenyans are allowing politicians to play a deadly game of Russian roulette with their lives.
Dec 7th, 2009 by Mars Group Kenya
Kenyans are allowing politicians to play a deadly game of Russian roulette with their lives.
Russian roulette is a potentially lethal game of chance in which participants place a single round in a revolver, spin the cylinder, place the muzzle against their head and pull the trigger. A single round is placed in a six-shot revolver resulting in a 1/6 (or approximately 16.67%) chance of the revolver discharging the round. Regardless of any player’s position in the shooting sequence, his initial odds are the same as for all other players. The revolver’s cylinder can either be spun again to reset the game conditions, or the trigger can be pulled again. The initial probability of each player for being killed is 1/6th, but the probability of being killed changes every time the trigger is pulled. The second player has a 1/5th (20%) probability of being killed, and the probability of the third player 1/4th (25%). Until player number 6 when the chance of being killed is (100%) assuming the bullet properly works.
This is the game that Kenyan Politicians are now playing with Kenyans and the future of this great Country. It is assumed that the politicians are taking turns spinning and firing the revolver until for Kenyans the chance of being killed is 100% when chaos erupts in Kenya Again.
Politicians are hoping that by re spinning the chamber, the game could continue indefinitely and Politicking could continue until only a few survive to 2012. But will the game last? And what if the bullet discharges as it surely will. Russian roulette guarantees someone will certainly die. Even the players are not in control of the outcome.
The only way Kenyans can evade this certain and very sudden death is to stop playing this senseless game. We have seen the dangers, all Kenyans remember when the Electoral Commission of Kenya pulled the trigger on December 29th & 30th 2007. Chaos of a magnitude never seen in Kenya erupted. Over a thousand Kenyans died, over half-a-million lost their homes and property, thousands were raped and our economy collapsed in 60 days.
Only then did Kenyans decide they had seen enough and rose to demand a cease-fire – an end to the game of Russian roulette which politicians were playing with their lives. We opted for a negotiated agreement called the National Accord. We wanted a civilised option to sorting out our problems; Russian roulette was no longer palatable.
It did not take long after the signing of the National Accord and sorting out the power sharing agreement, before the politicians decided it was time to play again. The politicians are now taking shots. The special tribunal is dying in Parliament, non- implementation of the National Accord reforms, No voters register, and corruption is at an all time high, campaigns for 2012 in high gear… are we at the sixth shot? Bang… and we’re out!
Before, they take that last shot, Kenyans must say, they are not playing this game. It is our lives the politicians are gambling with. When they have taken no action to deal with perpetrators and financiers of the Post election Violence they are playing Russian roulette.
When they have taken little action to implement the National Accord reforms they are playing Russian roulette.
When they allowed the Rule of Law not to be applicable in Kenya they are playing Russian roulette.
When they have taken no actions to ensure that all eligible Kenyans have been registered to vote and re-enfranchised they are playing Russian roulette. A vacancy in the Presidency today would mean chaos as no Kenyans apart from just about 100 thousand of us in Shinyalu and Bomachoge constituencies have elector’s cards. What would happen to Kenya if we needed to elect a President suddenly? As things stand, we cannot vote because we do not have a voters register. Instead of dwelling on conflict potentiality in the Draft Constitution between institutions – or in Kenyan parlance ‘centres of power’ – Kenyans should be agitating for their existing constitutional right to vote to be immediately returned to them.
With no voting mechanisms in place we are on a daily basis courting disaster as warlords reorganise themselves for the next shot at power – without a ballot. And all because we Kenyans have failed to demand the implementation of the National Accord to the letter and have started attending political rallies in ever increasing numbers to support the politicians we allowed to take us to the brink of a precipice in 2007. Wake up Kenyans, you cannot guarantee the outcome of this game. You can’t win or break even – you must get out of the game.
Some say God only helps those who help themselves. Kenyans are we helping ourselves?
[...] Go here to see the original: Kenyans are allowing politicians to play a deadly game of Russian … [...]
Playing Russian Roulette with Kenya’s Democracy:Citizen Responsibilities
Politicians have leverage afforded them by Kenyans who do not have the means and nor
ability to exercise their power to hold them accountable e.g. recall them through
referenda. Hence, MPs can steal, join bandwagons roaming the countryside like a
travelling circus fanning ethnic animosity, fail to perform any meaningful
legislative functions (few MPs can show any legislative accomplishments to their
name!) and go on to award themselves hefty pay packages and perks at often
astronomical costs to the taxpayer.
The next generation of activism should be directed to mobilizing the masses to
acquire the knowledge to understand the functioning of democratic institutions, the
rules of engagement, standards of accountability, citizens rights and
responsibilities etc. Nurturing democracy should not be left to the national
intellegentsia. MPs have to be held accountable for what they say and don’t say,
their legislative initiatives or lack of it, their leadership actions or inaction. A
new political paradigm has to embraced in which it will not be the MPs choice to
lend his “representative” privilege to political tourism such as joining grievance
agenda that have little relevance to their specific representative mandate. Citizens
have to promote an environment in which political party affairs are separated from
national government policies, and they have to demand internal democracy and
accountability within their respective parties (if they belong to any). Parties
have to become real grassroot movements and a means for broad social mobilization
and political expression that they are intended to be.
[...] This post was Twitted by Marsgroupkenya [...]