By Ndung'u Wa Gathua
Zeus heard their prayer and answered by throwing down a log which fell in their pond with a loud splash terrifying the frogs to near death. Eventually, one of the frogs peeped above the water and seeing that the log was static, all of them hopped on it and made fun of their lifeless king.
Then the frogs made a second request to Zeus for a real king and he again honoured their prayer by sending them a water snake that started to eat them mercilessly. Once more the frogs appealed to Zeus, but this time he replied that they must face the consequences of their request.
In other variations of this fable story, the water snake is often replaced with a stork or heron, whom just like the water snake, devours them without winking.
The moral of the story is that people should always be careful of what they desire or ask for.
My Take
William Caxton, a 15th century writer and diplomat, relating to this story observes that people feel the need of laws but are often impatient of personal restraint. He thus advises that it is good to be content with what you have or push for something better and risk for the worst.
On the same note, German theologian Martin Luther in his 1523 book titled 'Governmental Authority' alludes to the same fable illustrating why humanity deserves the rulers it gets saying that 'frogs must have their storks'. He adds that those who do not appreciate their prevailing freedoms are sent a 'tyrant by divine will'.
Kenya's Desire for Expanded Executive
To put the fable story in the Kenyan political context, the prayer for a 'king' seems to have been answered in 2010 when the current constitution was passed overwhelmingly. We all celebrated wildly with many arguing that the constitution meant a new dawn for Kenya.
Hardly 10 years later after the momentous occasion at Uhuru Park that saw the new Supreme Law promulgated marking the beginning of a new era of constitutional dispensation, the frogs are hopping on the 10-year-old 'king' while 'making fun' of 'him' for among other things, what we now call 'his' lack of an all-inclusive executive provision.
It is as if we have just woken up from a comatose and realized that the main reason we fight after every electoral cycle, is because all our ethnic kingpins are not in the executive.
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As a result, we have gone back to 'Zeus' to ask for another 'real king' whom we feel will be alive to our problems especially those that encompass on the national executive leadership.
Apparently, 'Zeus' has heard our prayers again and that is why we have the ongoing Building Bridges Initiative debate that has kick-started with unprecedented vigour that include purges and silencing of 'croaking frogs'.
Whether this new 'king' we are asking for is a water snake/stork or not, it is a story for another day, but why an initiative that is purportedly meant to unite the country is so divisive, ought to be an early signal for us to tread cautiously about this whole BBI thing lest we find ourselves later having to live with the consequences of what we prayed for!
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