By Mzalendo contributor

Voters in Kenya can be forgiven for feeling like a captive audience, watching a play whose script we cannot follow, directed by forces we cannot understand, performed by actors who fall in and out of place, arguing the whole time and asking us to decide their quarrels.

A recurring theme in the daily papers before promulgation was a certain “campaign fatigue.” In the Letters to the Editor and Have Your Say sections of most dailies, the papers dutifully printed the citizenry’s pleas for their politicians (and sometimes the media) to “stop talking about 2012 and focus on implementation of the new Constitution.”  I was feeling the same thing myself: a certain impatience with the headlines blaring about (not so) “Secret Alliances,” or trumpeting the “Anointing of Heirs.”  Numerous outlets quoted “political analysts” and “Nairobi lawyers” who kept discussing the significance of the referendum as one of regional voting blocs “delivered” by various politicians, showing their “strength.”  Opinion Polls stating results of a survey on which politicians Kenyans would select as President in 2012 added to the feeling that the whole process of implementation was being drowned by the political noise of an eternal popularity contest.

Yawn.

So, is this politics as usual?  Are we right to feel like it’s too early to talk about 2012? Maybe not.  The 2012 election will be the mother of all elections. Dear David, meet Goliath AND his twin. Citizens in each constituency will be asked to elect: a Governor (who will run for election alongside a Deputy), a County Assembly member (who will sit in the county assembly and represent the constituency) , one local councilor (who will be an administrator in the ward), a mayor (who will oversee administration of their town), a Senator (who will sit in the upper house of parliament in Nairobi, a Member of Parliament (who will sit in the National Assembly),and, finally the President (who will run for office alongside a Deputy President). On the eve of the 2007 elections, there were 300 political parties in Kenya.  Thanks to the Political Parties Act (2007), there are now 47 political parties (the Act is scheduled for amendment under the new Constitution, since, among other things, it does not provide for independent candidates).   Assuming these 47 parties seek to field candidates, the sheer amount of information bombarding the electorate will be staggering.  Even if they pursue coalitions (the more likely course), figuring out how the platforms and candidates make sense will require reserves of engagement, energy and concentration never before evidenced by the electorate, and the media that informs it.  The thought of living through such an endless campaign process is enough to make someone want to hide under a rock. Honestly, thinking about how many decisions citizens who register to vote will have to make made me want to lie down and forget the whole thing.

There are signs of change though: A quick look through the news and papers points to a shift in how we are thinking about who we are and what we want.

• Standard Newspapers, Provincial News (p.26): Placenta Party gets Hostile Reception in Kisumu, where an individual in the crowd which had gathered to hear the party’s platform for alternative leadership is quoted as having said: “If you want to sell your Placenta party, do so at will, but avoid invoking people’s names. This is a new Kenya. It is your policies that can win us over, and not uttering slurs against leaders.” [Newsflash: New Kenya, new politics. Is anyone listening? I never thought I would see the Placenta Party as a source of anything other than bewilderment, but in its very existence and attempt to engage potential voters as a platform of change, citizens are finding a voice to define what change actually means.]
• Nation Newspaper, National News (p.6): MPs line up for Top County Seats, right below a News Brief quoting a town Mayor who said Former and Current MPs should not be elected as County Governors because most lack financial management skills. [Newsflash: A focus on skills as a criteria for seeking elected office? How novel! New Kenya, new politics indeed.]

So now what?  New Kenya, New Politics. For the first time ever, someone actually has to convince me that they are able to deal with issues that concern me as a voter. Am I ready to engage?  Will I seek answers?  Political parties will have to organize around issues, not slogans. They cannot do this without our help.  Yes, help. In this particular contest, we really have to stand up and be counted.
“Succession planning” in the context of the 2012 elections will not about picking a successor and pasting their face on top of a placard held by group of strange bedfellows with a catchy slogan and the resources of hecklers, stone throwers and noisemakers. Political parties and other actors (including, and especially, the media) will have to come up with a plan and a platform to compete in an election. For the last two decades, the Plan and the Platform was one of intimidation and ethnic blocs.  As the census results are digested, and as the Interim Independent Boundaries Commission redraws constituencies based on the population quota contained in the Constitution, the loud crumbling sound you hear will be that of the status quo hitting the dust.

Question is, are we going to be in the building crumbling alongside with it, or will we be on the outside ready to rebuild?