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KENYA'S NAKED CONSTITUTION - Ken Kamoche writes from Hong Kong that his native country's new leadership have neither lived up to their election promises nor offered the people reform, an end to corruption or a constitution worth serious consideration.
HONG KONG - Kenya held it's first ever referendum on 21 November to decide whether to adopt a new, controversial constitution. President Kibaki championed the 'banana' yes vote while the opposition pressed for an 'orange' no vote. As expected, and sadly, the campaigning was marred by violence. When the counting ended, the President's camp had lost their deposit. This was a major embarrassment for the President.
Ken Kamoche As I watched these events from a disenfranchised, non-resident, no-vote position, two thoughts crossed my mind. One was about Dr Martin Luther King Jr, the American civil rights leader. The second was from Hans Christian Andersen, the Danish author who wrote a fable some of us might remember from primary school. So what have these two got in common? And more to the point, what have they got to do with Kenya?
Let's start with Dr. King. When America was in the grip of racial segregation and a type of apartheid that left black people disenfranchised and subject to all manner of political violence, Dr. King emerged as the conscience of the nation. Riots rocked the country, and on 28 August 1963 Dr.King led a historic march on Washington. Soon thereafter he published an article in the New York Times, entitled, "In a Word: Now".
He began the article as follows:
"Victor Hugo once said that progress is the mode of man: that when it is blocked, just as an obstacle in a river makes the water foam, so an obstacle to progress makes humanity seethe. Any plans for the future, therefore, which seeks to calm the troubled waters will have to sweep barriers away, rather than pour oil over turbulent tides."He went on to explain what he meant by demanding change "Now".When Mwai Kibaki ascended to the presidency three years ago, much was promised. In addition to the promise of half a million new jobs, we were informed that "corruption would cease to be a way of life". This turned out to be a very extravagant claim, because somewhere along the line, it all came acropper.
Dr. King called for an end to police brutality, a right to vote and an end to unemployment amongst the black people.
He wrote: "Unemployment is a form of brutality, especially violent for those who live on the edge of poverty." Four decades later, in Kenya, unemployment is at an all-time high. Up to 60% of the population lives on less than US$1 a day.
The Kibaki administration needs to answer the question: why are the democratic gains following the defeat of the KANU dictatorship not translating into economic gains for the bulk of the population?
Could it be because the administration devoted all its energies to internecine warfare amongst members of defunct parties who only came together in a loose coalition in order to perpetuate themselves in the brave new world of the post-KANU era? A world in which individuals engaged in the age-old struggle to secure their own political survival rather than serving the wananchi? Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose.
Has corruption ceased to be a way of life? The achievements, such as they are, in curbing the prevalence of the crude toa kitu kidogo (give a little bribe) variety of graft, appear piecemeal and will remain unsustainable unless high level corruption is eradicated. So, while in certain sectors you may not have to bribe officials to have forms signed and licences issued, concerns remain about the President's commitment to tackle the more sophisticated forms of corruption which have taken centre stage, the ones that involve mind-boggling kickbacks on dodgy contracts.
It's always more politically expedient to chase after the small fish, while the sharks swim free. The dangers of ignoring the eventual political fall-out should have been obvious to the President.
The defeat of the so-called banana campaign to shove a controversial document down the throats of the population is further evidence that the President did not quite have an ear to the ground. Kibaki's laissez-faire leadership style at first beguiled, almost like a breath of fresh air from the road-side, micro-managing presidential decree approach favored by his predecessor, Moi.
Kibaki sought instead to cut the image of a statesman who managed by exception, i.e. intervening only in times of crisis, and content to let trusted lieutenants get on with the job. But this never worked. The lieutenants ran amok, some even daring their master to sack them. And whenever Kibaki deigned to put matters right, it was always a matter of too little too late, like effecting a minor reshuffle when he should have taken a bold step to conduct much needed surgery in his cabinet.
A laissez-faire leadership approach quickly becomes a surrogate for de facto paralysis. The hands-off manager risks losing touch with reality, coming through as aloof and unapproachable. If he then surrounds himself with sycophants he seals his own demise, because the sycophants will spare no effort to protect him from the truth and the reality on the ground.
Kibaki must be looking back now and thinking, where did the rain begin the beat him? The rot goes way back and runs deep in our system of governance. If the architecture of a mindset upon which we can build a stable democracy based on justice, equality and opportunity for all rather than a plutocracy based on ethnic and class distinctions is absent, "progress as a mode of man" a la Hugo will continue to be hampered in Kenya.
Having had his banana constitution rejected by the people, our President cut a forlorn figure, going around 'consulting', as though he has only just discovered there were other stakeholders in the Kenyan political process than the gate-keepers he surrounded himself with. He's locking the gate after the horse has bolted. He has even consulted the former president, the same man they once told to go tend his goats and watch the new administration govern. I believe they meant misgovern.
It is quite remarkable that the lessons of this defeat have not fully sank in amongst the privileged elite, which is truly reflective of their blinkered view of the Kenyan political landscape. Former Constitutional minister, Kiraitu Murungu, who once dismissed a yet unresolved scam as "the scandal that never was" because money was wired back to the Treasury, is content to attribute the defeat to a "disorganized campaign."
What does that mean? That if more districts had been carved out to facilitate political bribery through indiscriminate gerrymandering, if more political favors and more title deeds had been dished out, a faulty document would have been acceptable to Kenyans? There's a proverb which says that the fat ram doesn't need to be peddled around. A good product will sell itself. If it is defective, no amount of advertising will secure genuine sales.
The barriers that Dr King and Hugo wrote about are deeply embedded in the Kenyan political psyche. How will Kibaki calm the troubled waters which have seen Kenyans seethe? First, he would be well advised to wake up and smell the coffee. The defeat of his campaign is a clear message that the people are dissatisfied with his lackadaisical leadership style which is long on rhetoric and short on action. He needs to have the moral courage to tackle the perpetrators of grand corruption, rejuvenate the economy and deliver on his election promises.
Which brings us to Andersen's fable. Writing in 1837, Andersen might have had modern Kenya in mind. The emperor's new clothes were said to be made of material that was fine, light and magnificent -- and invisible to the foolish and unworthy. These are the ordinary people the President has taken to calling 'pumbavu', i.e. fools. It is a very unfortunate choice of words.
Sycophants are good at spinning. Spinning stories. Spinning imaginary fancy clothes that only the privileged can see. Spinning constitutions. If you can't see the glory of the emperor, and his sparkling new clothes, there's something wrong with you. Only the chosen few, those anointed with the special oils of the half-backed democratic order can see the leader in all his splendor. The privileged ones include the members of the political and economic elites who dare not point out the truth to the leader because they partake of the spoils and cannot even begin to imagine life on less than US$1 a day.
Those close to the emperor must have entertained some doubts about the invisible clothes being made for him. But not one of them had the courage to say, hang on, what's with these invisible robes? Likewise, people close to Kibaki must have been aware the new constitution had some fundamental flaws and did not reflect the wishes of the people. They didn't speak out, and if they did, they probably said, no worries, these robes are just fine, sir. With the economic might of the banana campaign, we'll make people beli eve. And when they believe, they'll see.
With their dollar-tinted glasses the elites see only the economic harvest. But something happened. As the campaign went round the country so the emperor could show off his new banana leaf clothes, i.e. his new constitution, aiming to shock and awe, and rock the country to its very roots, a little girl gasped with horror.
"Look, mummy, the emperor is naked!"
KEN KAMOCHE was born in Kenya. He completed a BCom from the University of Nairobi and then earned a Rhodes Scholarship to study management at Oxford, where he took MPhil and DPhil degrees. He taught at Birmingham University in England and is now Associate Professor at the City University of Hong Kong. This is his fourth article for The World's Magazine.
© 2005, GENERATOR 21.
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