From: James Karanja

Kenyans cannot live on sweet and entertaining rhetoric

http://www.nationmedia.com/dailynation/nmgcontententry.asp?category_id=56&newsid=108448
 
Poll shouldn’t be a walkover for anyone

Story by WAMUYU GATHERU
Publication Date: 10/14/2007

The election campaigns have fully kicked in but the voter is getting a poor deal. For this election to move the country forward, voters need to ask for more.

The general impression presently is that ODM is leading because their positions are closer to the needs of Kenyans, the team is more cohesive and started campaigning early. The ODM team believes that it has the winning formula and only needs to distance itself from violence.

The PNU team is of the view that what is required is to keep Kibaki on the road reminding the public of his obvious development record and minimise a fallout with the complex multi-party PNU architecture. But so far both of these leading teams are falling short of capturing both the minds and hearts of Kenyans.

The campaigns can be split in two different strands - issues and political strategy. The Kibaki team has a credible development record to work with but its campaign has little fire. ODM is winning on passion but is offering nearly nothing as a policy agenda. The electric ODM Uhuru Park rally had limited evidence of technical sophistication. The banners did not stand out, the balloons were few and the audio system was not of the highest quality. But the rally did not need much technical effort. Their supporters were on fire long before they arrived at the venue.

Nothing the Pentagon could have said would have reduced the high political temperature of the event. Three-quarters of the feverish crowd wore orange including that from their own wardrobes. ODM also has the priceless asset of Raila Odinga’s oratory skills. He is a master at speaking to the masses. At Uhuru Park, he first declared the enormity of the joy in his heart -- the great joy of passing the nomination interview.

He recited the anthem in Kiswahili collapsing nationalistic and youthful sentiment in one stroke. Naming Kibera, Mathare and other lesser known slums of Nairobi - he exonerated himself from their creation and passed the buck to the government and the City Council.

Then he named all the goods whose prices had gone up - basically all those that mattered to his key audience. Leaving no emotive matter unattended to, he claimed that people from Central Kenya are both his political allies and members of his immediate family.

Raila concluded his performance with a captivating and graphic story of a snake that got into a bird’s nest and was removed by safari ants operating as an army. This story effectively gave each actor in the orange army an enormous sense of power to bring down the Kibaki government.
Kenya has one of the largest gaps between the poor and the rich. Anyone campaigning on the class divide has a live, ready and real grievance to work with.

ODM candidates are not breaking down this important social justice agenda into credible policy. There is little that was said at Uhuru Park on which government policy can be formulated. Raila did not treat the development agenda with seriousness.

What he said on building homes in Kibera, sweeping statements on supporting marginalised groups and even regional GDP growth comparisons can easily be challenged by rudimentary analysis. For example, one per cent GDP growth in Kenya is worth much more to the poor than the same growth in Tanzania - we are a bigger economy.

William Ruto was given the low-value task of stipulating the economic agenda through a written speech. It was written in English and read hurriedly. Occasionally he checked, in Kiswahili, to see if the audience were still alert.

Kenyans cannot live on sweet and entertaining rhetoric - even rhetoric based on valid grievances. ODM voters who danced in 2002 should ask hard questions of their leaders on issues that stopped that dance. The class divide will be closed by greater access to social services and increased participation in the formal economy. Voters will need jobs, markets for their produce, education and healthcare and ODM is fudging simplistic promises in this regard.

Expenditure for the poor will be built on taxation of enterprise. Raila needs to be put to task on how business will be nurtured. True, Raila never created slums and neither did any of the other leaders. But most leaders have development projects to their names and a politician of Raila’s stature should be asked to demonstrate his work for the poor.

Although the PNU has a conservative and elitist shade, it has a clear lead on issues. It does not matter that the primary schools may have become crowded. A poor parent can proudly feed a modest breakfast to their child, fit them with whatever clothing of uniform colours and hope that the little one catches something from their peers, the teacher and the school environment.

Those selling milk to KCC must have a little smile when they open their wallets and handkerchiefs and caress the extra cash. Farmers who used to pour the grains on main roads in protest may recall that they have not needed to do so recently. Even those on low wage labour have more choices or bargaining power as the wealthy and middle class draw larger incomes.

Now the country is worrying about who wins the votes rather than about bloodshed and intrigue in the guise of ethnic clashes. The only thing the political rally goers have to fear is each other rather than the state.

The Kibaki government did not give Kenyans these freedoms but on the whole they did not interfere with them. The media can report as they please and now they, rather than the government, have the burden of not developing into dictators and authors of strife and hatred.

Kenyans feel a greater sense of confidence for simple reasons such as the freedom to tell off the head of state without any serious consequences, joining the corporate big wigs in buying company shares, harping about constituency development funds, farming in previously conflict- torn areas and sharing in the dignity of educating their children.

The Kibaki insiders and supporters do not understand how people can enjoy these benefits and still vote against the President. But they will vote Kibaki out unless he appeals to their hearts and captures their imagination.

People wish to take their children to school without ethnic chauvinists sneering at them. They want to be linked to the success rather than told that some clever professionals and business oriented groups have delivered it for them.

Whatever the two teams do, Kenyans must be the winners. Voters should expect much and ask for much - 2007 should not be a walkover for any party.