What are they planning and why aren't they telling us?

President Moi's succession went without a hitch. Despite the fact that he had backed a losing horse, placing his loyalty to the party (and to his legacy) above loyalty to his own Kalenjin community, President Moi was astute enough to leave the succession to unwind the way it did. The KANU candidate made a gracious speech accepting the verdict of the people of Kenya who had backed, by an overwhelming majority, the election of NARC's Mwai Kibaki as Kenya's third president. What took place immediately after was a disaster that directly contributed to the fiasco of the 2005 Referendum and the bloodshed of 2007 and 2008. Because Mwai Kibaki and his supporters had been in government, they felt that they did not need to have an examination of what their policies would be once he was sworn in as president and, as a result, many holdovers from the KANU days were appointed to critical institutions, including the Cabinet and many state corporations. Even Raila Odinga, one of Mwai Kibaki's most ardent supporters, a lion of the Second Liberation and a member of President Moi's Cabinet, was appointed to Kibaki's before the spectacular falling out over the Wako Draft in 2005.

A look at many of the candidates who have stepped to the plate to be Kenya's fourth president is a study in jogging in place. All claim to be harbingers of change, but bar, perhaps, Mutava Musyimi and, definitely, Kingwa Kamencu, all have had a hand in the government of Kenya in one guise or the other. Because of their association with former regimes, they are yet to articulate what changes they will make in the governance of Kenya, save that they will be 'different'. This can no longer be the basis of their putative campaigns; if they want the people to repose their trust in them, they must do better. Much better.

The Kenya of 2013 is different from the Kenya of 2002, 2005 or 2007 and it is crucial that the presidential contenders realise this truism. Kenya has a new Constitution that radically refashions the instruments of power. The Office of the President is no longer the imperial edifice against which the champions of the Second Liberation dashed their heads against; it has become less imperial with its power shared with the new Parliament composed of the National Assembly and the Senate. The Judiciary is now headed by a Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, and the High Court and Court of Appeal enjoy more autonomy in the manner they are administered. Even with the challenges faced in the management of the now defunct Kenya Anti-corruption Commission, transparency and accountability are becoming a reality day by day. With these changes, it is not enough for candidates to merely express their desire to change the system, it is crucial that they articulate their political and other philosophies in order for Kenyans to make an informed choice at the hustings next year.

Given that the presidency is no longer the trough at which political has-beens and hangers-on can sup from, all candidates must demonstrate that they have a very deep bench of experienced operators to assume offices of responsibility once they are sworn in in 2012. The Constitution envisages a Cabinet of between 14 and 22 Cabinet Secretaries; do any of the candidates have a list of heir potential Cabinet Secretaries? If they do, once they announced their candidacies, they should not have kept this list secret, especially if they want to put pressure on the new National Assembly to approve their nominees in the shortest time possible. Given the increased cost f living and the economic hardship faced by citizens, the candidates must start articulating hat their economic policies will be wit regards to revenue-collection or expenditure and what they will prioritise. Kenya is undergoing great social upheaval, especially in light of the introduction of cheap telecommunication technologies such as the internet and mobile phones, so the candidates must articulate their plans for managing the rapid socio-cultural changes that are taking place today. Our foreign policy has frequently appeared shambolic, with the incumbent politicians bound over-strictly by the strictures of Cabinet collective responsibility ad the provisions of the Official Secrets Act, but they must begin to express their ideas regarding Kenya's place in the East African Community, the Intergovernmental Authority for Development, the African Union, the United Nations, or any other of the regional, continental and global organisation it may be a member to. So too must they articulate their national security and national defense plans with a view to reassuring Kenyans that they will not fall back to the measures that had been relied on by the Kenyatta and Moi regimes or the Kibaki regime's tactics in its first term.

This means that until the next general elections, the public communications strategies of the candidates must be geared towards not just putting forth their political messages, but also policy documents that will address the key fears or concerns of the Kenyans people. That way, should a candidate win, his policies will not come as a shock to the people, nor will it feel as a betrayal when one course of action is pursued at the expense of another. Kenyans felt betrayed when a secret MoU entered into between Kibaki and Odinga was exposed or the fact that it was the primary cause of the internal rebellion that rocked Mwai Kibaki's government between his swearing in in 2003 and the referendum of 2005. The next president must avoid the same fate; to do so, as a candidate, he must be as forthcoming as possible of his plans and his maneuvers. If these men and women are incapable of telling us who they are and what they intend to do, they do not deserve to be elected to any position, let alone that of the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Kenya.