Kenya is, indeed, a land of many wonders! And we are not just talking
about the spectacular annual migration of millions of wildebeest in
the Maasai Mara Game Reserve. Consider just two facts:

Two weeks after the Chairman of the Electoral Commission of Kenya
(ECK) admitted that he does not know who won the 2007 presidential
elections, he is still sitting pretty in office — earning millions of
shillings of taxpayers' money in salaries and other emoluments!

And after Kenyans in seven out of eight provinces overwhelmingly
rejected his presidential bid, Mr Kalonzo Musyoka has been promoted to
the post of Vice President, only a heartbeat away from the presidency
that so many Kenyans wanted to keep him away from!

But that is not our message today. What lessons can Kenyans learn from
the unprecedented chaos, mayhem, bloodletting and the loss of so much
property and so many innocent lives over the last three weeks?

First, we now know that the ECK is not the toothless bulldog it has
always said it was. If and when need be, it can instantly manufacture
the sort of teeth that can make or unmake presidents, vice presidents
and Cabinet ministers. It can change the rules of the game after the
game has actually ended and is not bound by any of the basic
principles of fair play or natural justice!

Second, we have learned that, to a lot of politicians in this country,
 the

Holy Bible stands for and represents nothing. They can hold it in the
right hands and swear anything under the sun even when they know that
they are perpetuating a fraud or an illegality. We now know that even
those who profess to be men of God can quickly deny Him when dangled
sure prospects of immediate power and profit.

Third, we have learned that a single, misguided or careless decision
made at the centre of power can result in immediate, unpredictable and
uncontrollable bloodletting and destruction of personal and communal
property.

We have been reminded, once again, that the personal interests of the
leaders do not necessarily coincide with those of the rank and file of
their communities. We have learned never again to assume that people
will know what actions to take or the consequences of those actions
simply because they happen to occupy high state office.

Fourth, we have learned that the interests of foreign powers,
particularly those of their leaders, can be very different from those
of the ordinary Kenyan people. We now know, first hand, that when
those interests diverge, foreign leaders will dig in to protect their
interests, regardless of the issues involved or whether thousands of
innocent Kenyans are killed in the bargain.

Fifth, we have been reminded, once again, that, during conflict
situations, the media is not just a reporter or messenger of political
news. It is a major and often decisive political player itself. It
will spend invaluable hours exhorting people to pray and love their
God while totally ignoring the real causes of such conflict.

If there is a seminal message here, it is dual: That the State should
have as little control over the media as is practicable and that the
people should know who own which media houses so that they can
interpret specific media messages accordingly.

Sixth, we have learned (if we did not know it before) that there are
 certain

State organs which, given their core mandate, should never be left
under the ultimate control of the Government of the day. Chief among
them is the ECK.

To leave this organ under the control of a sitting President is to
effectively rig the elections in advance. The referee cannot be a
player in the same game.

But what is the most important message that all Kenyans should take
away from the chaos, mayhem and bloodletting that has so shamed our
country over the last three weeks? It is very simple, really, and it
is this:

Twenty years after the fall of the Iron Curtain in Eastern Europe and
18 years after the overthrow of the apartheid regime in South Africa,
it should be clear to all Kenyans that no modern multi-ethnic country
can be governed for long against the will of the majority of its own
people.

In the short term, power can emanate from the muzzle of a gun. But
only in the short term. In the longer term, as more and more Kenyans
become more politically conscious, the nation will find its political
equilibrium and the will of the majority will prevail. If there is an
Iron Law of modern politics, there it is.