Obama’s advice could save Kenya

In a recent interview with AllAfrica’s Charles Cobb Jr., President Obama made a number of important points which should be taken seriously by African leaders, particularly Prime Minister Raila Odinga and President Mwai Kibaki. May be the most important advice for our leaders is about institutions being more important than any one person. It so happens that both Raila and Kibaki seem to think that they are more important than institutions that put them in power and those that perpetuate their continued stay in power.

The two most important institutions that Kibaki and Raila must learn to respect are the political parties they lead and the offices they hold. Just like Kibaki thinks there is no one else in Kenya who is fit to occupy the Presidency of the country, Raila believes he is the only person fit to be the Prime Minister of Kenya. The two leaders behave as if the offices they occupy are their personal properties and not institutions that should be occupied by other qualified Kenyans.

Kibaki is the President of Kenya because he was nominated by PNU to contest for that high office. He never won a primary election the way Barrack Obama won the first round he contested against Hillary Clinton to be chosen the Democratic Party candidate for the Presidency of USA. Kibaki would not tolerate any such democratic competition within the PNU because he believes PNU is his own personal property.

Raila was chosen to contest for the Presidency on behalf of ODM in exactly the same manner though, in the case of Raila, there was an orchestrated fictitious nomination which took place at Kasarani where he was the only stage managed presidential candidate. That was so because ODM is his personal property too. If Kibaki and Raila take the advice from the American President seriously, they will take serious steps to introduce internal democracy in their parties. That way they will show that they respect their political parties as institutions the way Obama suggests.

Likewise the two leaders would take serious steps to define the duties and responsibilities of the offices of the President and Prime Minister as institutions meant to serve the nation and not offices that are used to measure up the powers of Raila Odinga and Mwai Kibaki as individual tribal leaders. If the two Kenyan leaders take Obama’s advice seriously they would incorporate the clearly defined duties of the Prime Minister and those of the President in the Constitution that will soon go before Parliament. The two offices should be created to serve the people of Kenya and not to please individual politicians or tribes.

The second most important advice from Barack Obama concerns what the American President, who is a son of Kenya, calls “progress in democracy and transparency and rule of law, in the protection of property rights, in anti-corruption efforts”. In those nineteen words Obama has described what the two Kenyan leaders have not been able to implement in their lifetime leadership of Kenya. The two have given Kenyans different party manifestos during different elections. The manifestoes have been both repetitive and identical yet what the people of Kenya want can be described by Obama in one sentence of less than twenty words!

Progress in democracy has been Kenyan leadership’s greatest weakness due to the greed of our leaders. Both Kibaki and Raila have used the word democracy to climb on the political ladder for their own personal advantage. One had even a political party called the Democratic Party. None of the two leaders have taken serious steps to introduce a civil service devoid of tribalism – a civil service that qualify to be called an efficient Executive. Obama also talks of “transparency” which is a word that would have kept Kibaki away from the Anglo Leasing scandal. Transparency in all his activities would also have kept Raila away from the maize scandal. It is a word that our two leaders should take seriously if they want to earn Obama’s respect and indeed that of the rest of humanity including Kenyans.

The Rule of Law gives both Raila and Kibaki a lot of headaches. Otherwise they would not need Kofi Annan’s guidance on how to deal with criminals who killed more than 1,000 Kenyans and made more than 300,000 wananchi homeless soon after the two failed to agree on who won the last elections. For Kibaki and Raila to make Kenyans believe that they really believe in the rule of law they have to discipline the trigger happy police force in Kenya and wipeout corruption from the corridors of power both in the Executive and the Judiciary.

The protection of property that Obama is talking about is the public property that has been grabbed by those in power from the moment Kenya become independent. Today only the property of the very rich, who happens to be the same people in political power, is being properly protected by the Government. The property of the people, whether it is land or other public utilities can be grabbed anytime in the name of political leadership. In other words corruption has been, and will remain to be, the biggest challenge facing Raila and Kibaki. It is unfortunate that the two leaders have to wait for young Barrack Obama to tell them that simple truth.

Long before Obama came to power African leaders , who included Raila’s own father, who was Mwai Kibaki’s boss in Kanu, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, used to be weary of economic assistance from outside Africa. They talked of aid without strings attached. In the interview Obama comes out as a sincere leader who wants to economically assist Africa through bilateral and multilateral programmes that would involve the people of Africa to their advantage. Apparently the only African leaders who seem to see eye to eye with the American President are to be found in Ghana. Near home the only one who seems to impress Obama is President Kikwete of Tanzania. At one time Kenya used to be politically and economically miles ahead of the two African nations now impressing Obama. Where did we go wrong? Or better still , what can Kibaki and Raila do to make us go back on the right track?

Posted by I am a at 8:39 AM