KENYA OPPOSITION LEADERS HAVE BECOME INTOLERANT DICTATORS

The Night of the Long Knives is how I choose to describe what is going on in Kenya's opposition political parties.

In Germany in 1934, Hitler went on an orgy of killings, exterminating his left-wing opponents in order to protect Nazi interests.

Today, Kenya opposition party leaders are on a fling to rid their organisations of suspected political enemies; the so-called saboteurs, traitors and moles, for self-preservation and political opportunism.

Although what we see in Raila Odinga's Orange Democratic Movement; Kalonzo Musyoka's WIPER Party; and Musalia Mudavadi's Amani Coalition, cannot be compared to Hitler's despicable level of intolerance, it represents an unhealthy political environment for a country anxious to promote democratic ideals.

Expelling dissidents from parties the way these parties are doing, has nothing to do with indiscipline, in my opinion, and everything to do with preserving the lordship of party leaders. I say this because parties have inbuilt mechanisms to deal with wayward members and expulsion can only be the last resort.

Also, the fact that the accused subjects are not given a chance to defend themselves gives me this gathering sense that nothing is changing in the management of our parties.

These leaders think Kenya still belongs to the past when the only party KANU disciplined people over the most pedestrian of issues. In the 70s and 80s, it was treasonable to imagine the death of the President. Last week when ODM's Executive Director, Megerer Langat, whispered that the party was "dead"  and that "Raila was too old" he was physically manhandled and thrown out of a party caucus. That incident is almost similar to what happened to MPs Seroney and Shikuku in 1975 when they were bundled out of Parliament buildings and into detention for saying KANU was dead.

The key objective of any political party anywhere in the world is to win elections and form governments. A party must therefore spend the years between elections reviewing strategies, registering new members and promoting official agenda, not getting engulfed in petty games of witch-hunting.

Since losing the presidential race in 2013, Raila, Kalonzo and Mudavadi, have transformed themselves into intolerant dictators who - though preaching internal democracy - are unwilling to accept criticisms. If this is how they behave outside government, how can Kenyans trust them with the presidency?

Thus, by denying the so-called rebels a chance to ventilate through banter and open criticism, these leaders are only fueling instability in their organisations and actively and dangerously undermining the principles of internal party democracy.

And that is my say.