If post-election peace could be guaranteed through pre-election football tournaments, musical concerts, pledges, prayers and artistic displays, Kenyans should have nothing to worry about.
There was peace graffiti trains and online peace pledges and Google-sponsored football tournaments. Mathare youth and mothers were on Facebook and tweeting out their kicks for peace. There were prayers for peace among nearly every candidate, religious group, and schools countrywide individually broke into dance pronouncing peace and unity.
Some took photos that they posted online and joined thousands of others in declaring a commitment to peaceful Kenyan elections. In Kisumu and Mombasa, in Eldoret and Isiolo, there are universal calls for peace.
The problem is that, for many Kenyans, a message to keep the peace is unlikely to address the most basic demands for fairness in the exercise of democratic rights. Because if democratic rights are stolen from you, we probably should suggest you do something a little more than staying home and being peaceful.
This is the new republic. It is a democracy unlike any other previous Kenyan system. You own it. If the outcomes announced are rigged, unfair, unjust or exemplify classic electoral theft, acting violently, running to the streets to create a murderous chaos, will not achieve anything. On the other hand, sitting home peacefully may not achieve much either. If only there was a middle ground between the two extremes.
A glance at history teaches us there is. India, South Africa, USA and even, yes, Uhuru Park, teach us there is. And these messages reverberating throughout Kenya today, clarion calls for peace and unity, should be accompanied by calls for justice, calls for peaceful engagement and active non-violence.
Pre-election messages
The message of these multitudes of pre-election football, photography artistry, prayer peace demos should be that Kenya has a tragic history of imperfect elections. Kenyans worked very hard to make Ballot 2013 more just than ever before. If it had failed, they would have protested peacefully. If any leader demands violence in the name of justice, fight for the justice you believe in, but disregard calls for violence and pursue a more just Kenya through nonviolent engagement.
The pre-election messages of candidates, civil society, clergy, international community and political class was a lesson to engage and participate aggressively in your democracy. And if you believe the electoral processes violate the Constitution, do not just sit at home peacefully. Be Martin Luther King. Be Gandhi. Be Madiba. Be Wangari Maathai.
Lift your voice. If you are courageous enough, walk out into the streets to fight for your Constitution.
But use neither guns nor machetes nor matchsticks. Use nonviolence as your weapon for a better Kenya.
The writer is an attorney and founder of VituMob, Ecosandals and @KicksForPeace.
