The Intergovernmental authority on Development (IGAD) that brings together seven Eastern Africa nations (Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Sudan, Djibouti, Somalia and Ethiopia) is not, as Macharia Gaitho, in today's Tragedy of Errors, would have you believe, a regional security bloc (We handed Al-Shabaab propaganda tool and envoy added fuel to the fire, Daily Nation) but a regional development organization formed to address issues of development and drought control in the region. Since its formation in 1986, the organisation has expanded its mandate to address regional security too, but not in a comprehensive manner, responding when security issues overwhelm individual nations. But, at its core, it is NOT a security bloc and it was not designed to be one.
That aside, Mr Gaitho's assessment of the Prime Minister's visit to the Jewish State is apposite; it was wrong of Raila Odinga to tom-tom the security pacts that he had secured with Israel and so was the decision of the Israeli envoy in Nairobi to divulge details of what the pact entailed. Mr Odinga has frequently been his own worst enemy; in this period of armed conflict on foreign soil, it would be expected that all members of the Cabinet would speak with one voice. The strategies that are to be pursued by the Cabinet in bringing this conflict to a close must be co-ordinated very carefully and we cannot have individual members of the Cabinet going of on their own tangents and deciding foreign or defence policy without reference to the grand strategy. By placing Israel so prominently in the middle of our national strategy with regards to the war with al Shabaab, Mr Gaitho is correct to argue that Mr Odinga and the Israeli envoy have handed the terror group a propaganda coup that may assist it to recruit more militants to its ranks in its jihad against Kenya.
President Kibaki has notoriously allowed his Cabinet a free hand to do as they see fit; the result has been a shambolic government, frequently reacting to national emergencies rather than being proactive in anticipating and heading them off. This autonomy has empowered members of the Cabinet to see themselves as operating outside the ambit of collective responsibility, free to contradict or countermand the decisions of the Cabinet. In effect, Cabinet members see themselves as superior to the Cabinet and, quite frequently, free of the control of the President himself. As a consequence, the members of the Cabinet frequently make poor choices and because of the political situation, the President has not had a free hand in disciplining them or calling them to account publicly for their errors of omission or commission. It is in this background that one can assess the recent public disagreements between the Minister for Medical Services and the Vice-President, and between the Prime Minister and the Minister of State for Defence.
As is our wont, Kenyans no longer care that much about our military operations in Somalia as shown by the rather swift shift of attention back to narrowly political matters. As a nation, we have been brainwashed to believe that the only subject worth our engagement is politics as narrowly defined as possible. The political questions that obsess us revolve around the issue of who will and who won't be elected, which political party will be his or her vehicle, and whether or not he will or won't be a member of the Cabinet. The larger question of policies and legislation receive scant consideration perhaps because a majority of Kenyans are functionally illiterate when it comes to the broader question of governance. Civic education in Kenya revolves only around the mechanics of voting and nothing else. Therefore, more and more Kenyans who have undergone civic education of one form or another are experts on election management and nothing else. Their knowledge of how their government is organised, the powers of the presidency and Cabinet, the Legislature or the Judiciary, and the manner in which revenue is raised and spent is scant at best. Kenyans are incapable of deciding whether deficit financing is a positive way of funding long term development projects or whether it carries inherent risks, especially with regards to debt-servicing. Until we begin to focus our minds and see the broader political picture that includes governance, we will continue to be led by the nose by politicians whose only claim to fame is that they are eager to hog the limelight even if it is at the expense of our national interests.
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