If you have been wondering why our political leaders make such poor speeches, wonder no more. It emerges that none of them has a professional team of speechwriters to do the heavy lifting. President Kibaki and Prime Minister Odinga rely on a tried and tested system that relies on career civil servants to do the speech-writing for them. It shows in how the speeches lack the political inspiration that, say, speeches by American presidents have.
During the 2007 General Election, Raila Odinga attempted to run what was essentially an American-style campaign. It was a failure. President Kibaki did not even bother to campaign. The less said of the other political aspirants, the better. They relied on the old system of calling on our basest instincts to make their political statements. This is the reason why it is impossible to remain inspired by a politician and why we tire of them so soon after the last ballot is cast.
The Promulgation Ceremony at Uhuru Park was an opportunity for our leaders to inspire us to greater heights of self-sacrifice and dedication to the good of the country. They failed us once again. The Prime Minister styles himself as a rhetorician of the first order and he is capable of inspiring feelings of loyalty among the multitudes that throng his rallies. But he is no JFK or MLK. His speeches are bland and unremarkable, remembered only for the target of his particular ire when they are made. They are easily forgotten and it takes a dedicated Fourth Estate to regurgitate for the masses the paltry offerings of the perennial presidential candidate. In Salim Lone, he seemed to have a person who could, conceivably, re-shape his engagement with the people, but he quit in frustration seeing that his public relations skills were of no use to a man who will not, or is incapable of, listening to any voice other than his own.
Dr. Alfred Mutua, the government spokesman, has also failed to articulate the president's thoughts effectively. His press briefings have the feel of a Soviet-Era love-in, where the leader speaks and the masses adulate, whether they heard the speech or not. His job is akin to reading the menu at a restaurant; the information that he supplies could be gleaned from the front pages of our dailies without straining the gray matter.
Movie directors tend to take liberties with the subjects of biopics, but they usually stay true to the essence of the person they are filming . about. Watching the film Boycott, one cannot but admire the way Martin Luther King, Jr, prepared and rehearsed fro his public engagements. He would research deep into the night the remarks that seemed to off-the-cuff but which packed a powerful message to inspire the masses in their boycott of the racially segregationist policies of Alabama. President Ronald Reagan in his first inaugural address is remembered for intoning the words that government is not the solution to the (economic) problems that bedevilled the American people in 1981, but the problem. President Obama, as the Democratic Party's Presidential Candidate, will be remembered for inspiring the American people with his messages of change and hope during his remarkable presidential campaign. The same cannot be said for Raila Odinga or President Kibaki.
PLO Lumumba is eloquent and erudite in equal measure. His public speeches are usually well-drafted and delivered in a tone that evokes the spirit of Martin Luther King, Jr. But, even he, falls short of inspiring the nation. The statements that he has made after his confirmation as the new Director of the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission, have been loaded with rhetoric ut have been short of policy statements of what he intends to do or how intends to do it. He does not inspire confidence going by his statements.
The next few years will require the nation to rally around the difficult task of implementing our progressive Constitution. The role of inspiring the people to greater sacrifices and dedicated hard work will fall upon our leaders. If they are incapable of writing, or having someone else write, inspiring speeches towards this goal, the job of implementing the Constitution will start to feel like a chore and the people will quickly lose interest and start to complain of the ills that the Constitution has failed to eradicate. Simply telling the masses that this is the best Constitution ever is not enough. We must feel a need to participate. We must be inspired. Our leaders should not fail us in our hour of need for we need them more today than ever before. Where will the inspirational speeches come from, I wonder?
During the 2007 General Election, Raila Odinga attempted to run what was essentially an American-style campaign. It was a failure. President Kibaki did not even bother to campaign. The less said of the other political aspirants, the better. They relied on the old system of calling on our basest instincts to make their political statements. This is the reason why it is impossible to remain inspired by a politician and why we tire of them so soon after the last ballot is cast.
The Promulgation Ceremony at Uhuru Park was an opportunity for our leaders to inspire us to greater heights of self-sacrifice and dedication to the good of the country. They failed us once again. The Prime Minister styles himself as a rhetorician of the first order and he is capable of inspiring feelings of loyalty among the multitudes that throng his rallies. But he is no JFK or MLK. His speeches are bland and unremarkable, remembered only for the target of his particular ire when they are made. They are easily forgotten and it takes a dedicated Fourth Estate to regurgitate for the masses the paltry offerings of the perennial presidential candidate. In Salim Lone, he seemed to have a person who could, conceivably, re-shape his engagement with the people, but he quit in frustration seeing that his public relations skills were of no use to a man who will not, or is incapable of, listening to any voice other than his own.
Dr. Alfred Mutua, the government spokesman, has also failed to articulate the president's thoughts effectively. His press briefings have the feel of a Soviet-Era love-in, where the leader speaks and the masses adulate, whether they heard the speech or not. His job is akin to reading the menu at a restaurant; the information that he supplies could be gleaned from the front pages of our dailies without straining the gray matter.
Movie directors tend to take liberties with the subjects of biopics, but they usually stay true to the essence of the person they are filming . about. Watching the film Boycott, one cannot but admire the way Martin Luther King, Jr, prepared and rehearsed fro his public engagements. He would research deep into the night the remarks that seemed to off-the-cuff but which packed a powerful message to inspire the masses in their boycott of the racially segregationist policies of Alabama. President Ronald Reagan in his first inaugural address is remembered for intoning the words that government is not the solution to the (economic) problems that bedevilled the American people in 1981, but the problem. President Obama, as the Democratic Party's Presidential Candidate, will be remembered for inspiring the American people with his messages of change and hope during his remarkable presidential campaign. The same cannot be said for Raila Odinga or President Kibaki.
PLO Lumumba is eloquent and erudite in equal measure. His public speeches are usually well-drafted and delivered in a tone that evokes the spirit of Martin Luther King, Jr. But, even he, falls short of inspiring the nation. The statements that he has made after his confirmation as the new Director of the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission, have been loaded with rhetoric ut have been short of policy statements of what he intends to do or how intends to do it. He does not inspire confidence going by his statements.
The next few years will require the nation to rally around the difficult task of implementing our progressive Constitution. The role of inspiring the people to greater sacrifices and dedicated hard work will fall upon our leaders. If they are incapable of writing, or having someone else write, inspiring speeches towards this goal, the job of implementing the Constitution will start to feel like a chore and the people will quickly lose interest and start to complain of the ills that the Constitution has failed to eradicate. Simply telling the masses that this is the best Constitution ever is not enough. We must feel a need to participate. We must be inspired. Our leaders should not fail us in our hour of need for we need them more today than ever before. Where will the inspirational speeches come from, I wonder?
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