Commentary (by Barrack Muluka) - Why it is vital for Kibaki to see things as they are

Ref: http://www.eastandard.net/news/?id=1143984012&cid=4&PHPSESSID=27bfb1c30ca56d69977e1dfb0b694c4d
Published on March 29, 2008, 12:00 am

By barrack muluka

President Kibaki is a lonely man, living on a lonely island. It was Joseph Kamotho who once lamented about the cold and loneliness at the top. Kamotho was then a very powerful politician. He called the shots in the monolith that was Kanu. He dissolved this Kanu branch today and appointed acting officials tomorrow. He called for branch elections almost everywhere everyday. He was the kind of man Kanu politicians wanted to be on the right side of. Yet Kamotho felt cold and lonely from his own confession.

Prof Chinua Achebe confirms that it is possible to be cold, alone and lonely at the top; where African leaders sit.

For he has written in The Trouble with Nigeria: "One of the penalties of exalted power is loneliness. Harnessed to the trappings of protocol and blockaded by a buffer of grinning courtiers and sycophants, even a good and intelligent leader will gradually begin to forget what the real world looks like." Achebe concludes that on account of the deceptive human wall around them, "Many Presidents, especially Third Word Presidents, do not live in their country."

That is to say that many African presidents live in wonderland. They lost touch with reality a long, long time ago. Like in Nigeria, what does the Kenyan president see whenever he sets out to see things for himself? He sees "highways temporarily cleared of lunatic drivers by even more lunatic presidential escorts, hitherto impassable tracts freshly graded and even watered to keep down the dust, buildings dripping of fresh paint, well-fed obsequious welcoming parties, garlands of colourful crÍpe paper hung round the neck by women leaders and troupes of "cultural dancers" and many other such scenes of contented citizenry."

In a nutshell, the fellows the African boss surrounds himself with mislead him on just about everything, in the interest of their personal greed. Even literature such as this, they make sure he does not read. That way, the big man gets the shock of his life when, say, he loses badly in a referendum as President Kibaki did in November 2005. The big man cannot understand when simmering emotions come to a blood letting boil like they recently did in the country. For the picture he has of the country is light years from the reality.

In history, we have read of leaders who refused to be fooled by guided tours of their own country. These were men and women who achieved rare leadership through making honest effort to know the country and its people. They sought to place their finger on the pulse of the nation.

Haroun Al Rashid of Baghdad in the eighth century was reputed to disguise himself and to sneak into the streets to see the life of his subjects in its reality. He listened to their talk and knew their thoughts and feelings.

Addressing restlessness

To paraphrase Achebe, "Kibaki should return home, read the papers and from time to time talk to Kenyans outside the circle of presidential aides and other loyalists and other fly-by-night self seekers." Then he will begin to understand why the country has recently burnt and why it could still burn again, before his very own eyes. He would get to know just how desperate and restless the youth has got and why.

He would know how it is up to him to lead in addressing their restlessness. Beyond this, he would know that millions of Kenyans are getting edgy about his political prevarication, equivocation and procrastination.

The Kenyan president would get to know that people are asking loudly whether he places any premium on his word. He would know that there are those who think that his words vaporise into nothing the very moment they leave his lips. He would understand that he badly needs to reassure Kenyans that they can count on him to keep his word. For as the reigning dreamer of dreams, have I not come across enough citizens who are puzzled by the impasse in the naming of a lean and mean coalition Cabinet?

I have come across enough people who are saying, "The President made a public promise on equal power sharing with ODM. If now the President is seen to be having a change of heart on a promise he made in public, in broad daylight, how shall we trust him on the things he does away from the glare of the public?" But even more significantly, President Kibaki should know that there is a precarious bristling impatience out here. Caprice and wrong political cleverness cannot drive the Government anymore. That age is simply gone.

But again one expects that there is such a thing as an official national intelligence network. Don’t they tell the President the truth? Don’t they tell him that reform, justice, equity and merit are the engines that must run Government beginning from now? Two years ago, President Kibaki declared at a public gathering that he does not read newspapers. That is why I am not surprised that he did not see the post-election mess coming.

Well, someone would do well to tell him to start reading newspapers, listening to radio and talking to Kenyans, away from the sycophants. He will save himself and this country a lot of attrition.

-The writer (Publishers.okwaromuluka@yahoo.com) is a publishing editor and media consultant with Mvule Africa