I
Ours, as the Constitution isn't shy to declare, is a Republic. A republic, as we have been reminded, from time to time, is representative government. To form that representative government, we have the other important descriptor of our Republic: a multiparty democracy. Democracy, as Abraham Lincoln bequeathed on the world, is government of the people, for the people, and by the people. For that government to come into being, the peoples' representatives will be elected at regular intervals, five years in our case.
Kenya is a multiparty democratic republic. Taking up after the "great" western democracies, Kenya has for itself a free press, also known as "the media." A free press is the Fourth Estate, after the three traditional estates of the crown, parliament and the judiciary. It is the institution that has taken upon itself the onerous task of keeping a watchful eye on the three arms of government, the aforementioned executive, parliament and judiciary. In the United States, the press has been responsible for uncovering great corruption in the executive, the Houses of Congress and the judiciary, including in the Supreme Court of the United States.
It has recorded the abuses of power by the powerful and revealed the privations of the impoverished. It has witnessed war and peace, and it has written about the cost of both. It celebrates itself with awards such as the Pulitzer and it prides itself as being the envy of the world. Where once people were held hostage to the flattened vowels of the BBC World Service, we are now captured in the culture of the twenty four hour news "cycle" promoted around the world by the likes of CNN.
II
Our Republic has nothing in common with the United States; it was not forged by a revolution. It has not enslaved a people using the bible as its justification. It has not made, lost and remade great fortunes for the greatest number of its citizens. But it is in the area of the press that the United States has much to teach us - and much to warn us.
You would read the newspapers of the day and believe that the press in Kenya, the media as they remind us, continues to keep a watch on the government and its officials. Revelations of great corruption have been alleged; yet, when you read the news stories, and watch and listen to them on the radio and on TV, you are left with more questions than answers. There are many allegations about the abuse of power, yet these allegations are supported by innuendo and rumour. Very few facts are shared with the people, for whom, we are assured, the great enterprise of Kenya's free press speaks. Time and again the law is cited as the reason why names are not named (unless the names are those of minor government functionaries out of favour for the day).
III
Our Republic has a population of over forty million citizens true. Of these many millions, there are a few thousand who are the Republic: the President and his Cabinet; the Chief Justice and his judges and magistrates; the Speakers of the National Assembly and Senate and their fellow members; the Governors and their executive committees; and the Speakers of the County Assemblies and their members. These few thousands, and the hundreds of thousands of civil servants ho serve them, are the Republic. What they do, matters. What they say is important. Whom they do what they do with, and what they say and to whom they say it to, is consequential. Yet what they do, how they do it, whom they do it with, what they say, where they say it, how they say it, and what it means, remain mysteries for which the citizens have no capacity to decipher because they have been let down by the one institution that is supposed to be motivated by the truth and the truth of things: the press.
The Prime Minister of Malaysia, an East Asian Tiger, has been accused of pocketing seven hundred million dollars. The matter has been highlighted in the Malaysian press for months. His government is in crisis. It is almost certain that he will not resign. The Director of the United States Secret Service, the agency of the United States' Federal Government charged with the safety of the President of the United States, resigned after a series of lapses regarding the security of the president, after the issues were highlighted in the press.
The National Youth Service has been swindled of many hundreds of millions of shillings. The police say the money is missing. The Director of Public Prosecutions says that the sacrificial lambs he has been handed cannot be prosecuted because the evidence submitted by the police is insufficient. The Cabinet Secretary for Devolution and Planning, her Planning Principal Secretary and the Director-General of the National Youth Service have refused to resign. In their words, their consciences are clear. They have done nothing wrong. All this we know from our press. But unlike in the Watergate Scandal that led to the resignation of President Richard Milhouse Nixon, we have hundreds of column inches on the NYS Scandal, but very little information of value.
IV
In Kenya, the press, just like all other institutions, have little in common with their counterparts in the United States. The more obvious similarities are their commerce-oriented focus on profit. They are organised as "media companies"' offering political news coverage, local news coverage, entertainment and advertisement. But the Kenyan press, despite a few fillips here and there, are not revolutionary. Their fate is tied to the fortunes of the government of the day; it is their biggest source of news and their biggest source of revenue. Not unlike a significant number of local manufacturing companies. They will not be bringing down the government in the near future. They will pretend to be a free press; but they will never be the tail wagging the dog.
It is, therefore, surprising that the press would talk of their freedom being threatened by the government. The press has played up the amendments to the Parliamentary Powers and Privileges Act that the press argues will curtail "media freedom." You get a feeling that this is a great distraction, away from the missing hundreds of millions from the NYS kitty. That might sound very conspiratorial, but when the press works so hard to say so little, you cannot help but wonder whether the greatest long con is being played on the citizens. You can discern the tendrils of the conspiracy from the manner in which a story just peters out.
V
Do you remember Kamotho Waiganjo, the imposter policeman? His prosecution has proceeded apace with bits and pieces of it being reported every now and then. But do you know who was protecting him when he was active? Did he get paid a salary? If so, from whence did the funds come? Was he issued with a uniform, firearms and the other accouterments of a policeman? If so, by who and and on whose authority? Did he ever receive fitness reviews? If so, by who and did he pass? How many citizens did he violate their rights when he was active? A simple story, as told by the press, but so many unanswered questions.
We have the opportunity to build for ourselves a republic that is our own, a democratic government that represents our ambitions, values and morals. We have an opportunity to build great institutions of state that reflect what we are and what we could be. That opportunity comes alive with a truly free press. Until the day we get that free press there is little that we will accomplish as a people, as a republic or as a nation. We will only have the shadow of a promise, the whiff of ambition, the what-ifs of regret. Mores the pity, don't you think?
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