JAMILA'S MEMO: Oh zone, my tribe!

And as the push and pull between UDA and ODM over zoning intensifies, one question that keeps coming to mind is, can democracy be zoned?

But before we go too far, let us take you back in history, shall we? Because zoning was once a very bad word in Kenyan multiparty politics.

It takes us back to the days before multiparty democracy, when KANU, then accustomed to ruling alone, introduced what came to be known as KANU zones; areas where opposition candidates were effectively locked out. The message then was simple: hapa si mahali pa ushindani.

So ridiculous was that drive to create political zones that one politician, Wilson Leitich, who purported to control the Nakuru KANU zone, famously declared that anybody who flashed the two-finger salute would have one finger cut off. That is the history this word brings back.

Which is why one must ask: in a multiparty era, why would any political party fear competition? Shouldn’t it simply be, as someone once said, tukutane kwa tebe?

Because democracy is supposed to be about choice, allowing wananchi to decide who leads them and not politicians in boardrooms deciding in advance who gets which seat; and not party elites dividing up the country like a chessboard. And perhaps that is where the discomfort lies. What exactly is the difference between zoning and tribalism?

Because once you begin saying this region belongs to this party and that region belongs to another, what are you really saying? Are we now confirming that ODM is a Luo party and UDA a Kalenjin one?

And if an ODM MCA is elected in Nandi, does he suddenly become a Luo?

Or if a UDA MCA is elected in Nyakach, does he become a Kalenjin; Arap Otieno?

Tuwache hizo. Because the danger here is that zoning may simply be repackaging ethnic politics in coalition language; A more polite term for political tribalism, and that should worry us.

Because multiparty democracy was fought for precisely so that every party, every candidate, and every voter would have the right to compete and choose freely.

So if leaders are truly confident in their support, why fear an open contest? Why fear the people deciding? Democracy cannot be zoned. Watu wakutane debeni, wapambane hadharani…

That is my memo.