On
the day that His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI resigned from the Throne of
St Peter, Kenya was introduced to its latest political star looking for
his fifteen minutes of Warholian fame. Mohamed Abduba Dida of the
Alliance for Real Change (ARK) Party of Kenya grabbed the popular
imaginations of the forty-odd million Kenyans who managed to watch the
Presidential Debate televised from the elite Brookeside International
School.
The debate exposed like nothing else will that when it comes to the crucial question of how campaign promises will be met, all presidential candidates react ad nauseam with, "Our manifesto..." as if manifestos are the founts of all public administration and governance knowledge. Even self-confessed policy wonks like Peter Kenneth or Martha Karua, besides spouting statistics to fill a supercomputer's memory, failed to demonstrate that their presidencies would pay for all their lofty goals of social justice for all.
This is the knotty problem faced by a poor nation living beyond its means. Our revenue base is woefully small; it might be gargantuan in comparison to Uganda's, Tanzania's, South Sudan's or Somalia's, but it is only a matter of time before the oil begins to flow in Uganda and South Sudan (again), and the peace is restored in Somalia, and they can challenge Kenya's traditional economic hegemony. None of the candidates, not even the earthy Mr Dida, has a plan to not only expand the revenue base, but increase revenues collected for their much self-praised social justice programmes. Mr Odinga, especially, came out as a clueless old foggy who cannot remember which minister he appointed, what their mandates were or whether he turned a profit from all his foreign junkets or not. Even on something he should know better, he was upstaged by Paul Muite, who came out as more hawkish in the defense of the state than Mr Odinga could hope to be.
The calls for rationalisation in public expenditure must be taken seriously. But the only way that any of the candidates can pay for their lofty goals is to pull as much of its population into the formal economy, whether in paid employment or vibrant self-employment. It is the only way that numbers of those that pay business and personal taxes will rise, raising the amount of revenue collected by the government, and therefore paying for the programmes the candidates seem to believe we all want.
Therefore, it is puzzling that they have kept details of their teams of advisers, if any, a secret. It is twice so that they have kept the detailed manifestos a secret too. This is the traditional way in which the Government of Kenya has operated. The official Secrets Act is its guiding bible. It is a lesson that the candidates have learnt, and learnt well. Daniel Toroitich arap Moi understood that whoever controlled the information, controlled the people and so for a significant part of his presidency it was all KBC/VoK all the time.
In the Twenty-first Century, Raila Odinga, Uhuru Kenyatta, Peter Kenneth, Martha Karua and James ole Kiyiapi are at risk of being mocked by the children of the Millennium. Kenya may not be the developed market economy that is the United States or the United Kingdom, but it has an open information market. If the candidates think that by controlling the details of their future administrations or their plans for us they will be able to control us, Mohammed Abduba Dida and Paul Muite must have been the first jolt that things are different. The internet, multiple TV broadcasters, FM stations and cheap mobile phone subscriptions will make a mockery of their attempts to control information. Instead of controlling the narrative, they will suddenly discover that one of our other Josephian peculiarity is ti intrigue and speculate, and that this will be amplified by social media and cheap mobile telephony. This is not the time for them to apply the lessons of official secrecy, but to jettison them.
If these men and woman cannot explain their revenue policies, their tax policies, their public investment policy, their plans to reduce the size of government and boost private investment, or job creation, there is absolutely no reason to believe that they have a plan. credible or otherwise. Maybe we settle for the class clown; he was way more honest about his abilities, or lack thereof.
The debate exposed like nothing else will that when it comes to the crucial question of how campaign promises will be met, all presidential candidates react ad nauseam with, "Our manifesto..." as if manifestos are the founts of all public administration and governance knowledge. Even self-confessed policy wonks like Peter Kenneth or Martha Karua, besides spouting statistics to fill a supercomputer's memory, failed to demonstrate that their presidencies would pay for all their lofty goals of social justice for all.
This is the knotty problem faced by a poor nation living beyond its means. Our revenue base is woefully small; it might be gargantuan in comparison to Uganda's, Tanzania's, South Sudan's or Somalia's, but it is only a matter of time before the oil begins to flow in Uganda and South Sudan (again), and the peace is restored in Somalia, and they can challenge Kenya's traditional economic hegemony. None of the candidates, not even the earthy Mr Dida, has a plan to not only expand the revenue base, but increase revenues collected for their much self-praised social justice programmes. Mr Odinga, especially, came out as a clueless old foggy who cannot remember which minister he appointed, what their mandates were or whether he turned a profit from all his foreign junkets or not. Even on something he should know better, he was upstaged by Paul Muite, who came out as more hawkish in the defense of the state than Mr Odinga could hope to be.
The calls for rationalisation in public expenditure must be taken seriously. But the only way that any of the candidates can pay for their lofty goals is to pull as much of its population into the formal economy, whether in paid employment or vibrant self-employment. It is the only way that numbers of those that pay business and personal taxes will rise, raising the amount of revenue collected by the government, and therefore paying for the programmes the candidates seem to believe we all want.
Therefore, it is puzzling that they have kept details of their teams of advisers, if any, a secret. It is twice so that they have kept the detailed manifestos a secret too. This is the traditional way in which the Government of Kenya has operated. The official Secrets Act is its guiding bible. It is a lesson that the candidates have learnt, and learnt well. Daniel Toroitich arap Moi understood that whoever controlled the information, controlled the people and so for a significant part of his presidency it was all KBC/VoK all the time.
In the Twenty-first Century, Raila Odinga, Uhuru Kenyatta, Peter Kenneth, Martha Karua and James ole Kiyiapi are at risk of being mocked by the children of the Millennium. Kenya may not be the developed market economy that is the United States or the United Kingdom, but it has an open information market. If the candidates think that by controlling the details of their future administrations or their plans for us they will be able to control us, Mohammed Abduba Dida and Paul Muite must have been the first jolt that things are different. The internet, multiple TV broadcasters, FM stations and cheap mobile phone subscriptions will make a mockery of their attempts to control information. Instead of controlling the narrative, they will suddenly discover that one of our other Josephian peculiarity is ti intrigue and speculate, and that this will be amplified by social media and cheap mobile telephony. This is not the time for them to apply the lessons of official secrecy, but to jettison them.
If these men and woman cannot explain their revenue policies, their tax policies, their public investment policy, their plans to reduce the size of government and boost private investment, or job creation, there is absolutely no reason to believe that they have a plan. credible or otherwise. Maybe we settle for the class clown; he was way more honest about his abilities, or lack thereof.
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