Mozambique: Six simple questions on Africa
An interesting debate is going on in a Moçambique para Todos [pt] post, with readers trying to provide answers to 6 questions posed by Manuel de Araujo [pt] about the situation in Africa, one of which is: “If a stable democracy as Kenya's may “disappear” in a matter of minutes, what can we say about coutries like ours, that have deep wounds caused by more than 26 years of a war?”
1 comment
Democracy in Kenya hasn’t “disappeared…in fact, it’s just reasserted itself. This is not the first time that a government has rigged an election in Kenya but it’s the first time that the ordinary people of Kenya have come out en masse and said NO, we shall not accept this. There have been some unfortunate incidents unfortunately but even the “modern” democracies went through similar.
These are the growing pains of a young democracy, where the rights of citizens and the limits of government are still being fought over and citizens are prepared to go toe to toe with their government to protect their hard won rights. I am almost sure that after what we have seen over the last week or so, future governments will think twice before attempting the same. If you knew the Kenya of the 70’s and 80’s and compare it to the Kenya of today, you would know that democracy in Kenya is not in danger of being wiped out but just encountered a little blip!