Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Jubilee Should Let Raila Get Ready For 2017

Monday, July 22, 2013 - 00:00 -- BY NGUNJIRI WAMBUGU
Over the last week a lot of analysis has been shared over the Jubilee government’s first 100 days in office.
Generally it has been quite easy to tell one’s political leaning from what they think about this first 100 days. Those who support Cord have found little to celebrate; while those who support Jubilee have found little to fault.
As usual, I choose to break ranks. Despite being a supporter of Cord, I do honestly think the first 100 days of the Jubilee government have been quite impressive.
However, I did observe an interesting lapse in all the commentaries analysing this period. No one has noted that the Jubilee government has also benefited from the mistakes they did not make.
For example President Kibaki’s inauguration speech in 2003 was antagonistic; President Kenyatta avoided this in his inauguration speech.
The presidency has also avoided anything that looks like a public sector witch hunt against those who did not support it. The Deputy President still has staff carried over from the former Prime Minister’s office and so far the diplomatic corps have not changed.
However, the Jubilee government needs to up its communication skills. Despite having one of the best public communication structures ever seen it just cannot seem to be able to explain how the laptops-for-children policy will benefit Kenyans.
They seem stuck on the notion that telling us the laptop idea was a campaign policy we will understand it to mean that they are politicians who ‘sema na tenda’ (say and do).
Unfortunately, half of Kenya did not support them politically so this just opens them up for resistance from even those who see the sense in the policy, but oppose them politically.
Why not present the fact that children in school now will enter the job market after Vision 2030 has been achieved; when we ideally expect to be an ICT hub in Africa?
Why not show parents the difference between a child who grows up with access to ICT, compare him to one who does not; and point out the fact that the two will be competing for the same spaces in education access as well as jobs?
Why not showcase how each school that will benefit from the laptop programme will affect its own infrastructure, and that of the community around it?
The Jubilee government must also walk the talk on its promise to tolerate political opposition. They must remember that Kenya is a multi-party democracy, which also means that we will continue to be plagued by political campaigns that never stop.
Because when one party is in power the others spend the next five years undermining them and positioning themselves to beat them and take over at the next elections. And the cycle repeats itself.
Now we have a case where the March 4 presidential loser Raila Odinga has already been reported as having publicly stated that he plans to take another stab at the presidency in 2017.
This means that Eliud Owalo, his former campaign manager and current political aide, has already started organising the political support networks that Raila will need in 2017.
One of the ways to do this is to reach out to the civil society, diplomatic community, religious groups, youth and women groups with the message that the Jubilee government is not doing as good a job as a Cord government would.
This is because Raila understands that if Jubilee has a free reign until 2017, Cord will have politically been neutered and have no hope of challenging the incumbents.
He must therefore create continuous political resistance to the Jubilee government now, which can be leveraged into political support to hopefully dethrone Jubilee.
On the other hand Jubilee must ensure that no other political formation succeeds in repositioning itself to challenge them in 2017.
This means they must politically undermine their competitors and keep such groups as Cord is allegedly trying to reach out, to in their corner as Jubilee at best; or politically neutral at worst.
This requires continuous political engagement despite the fact that they are also government, which is complicated, splits their attention from governance, and affects their government’s ability to deliver over the next five years. This directly affects Jubilee’s chances for re-election in 2017, and helps their competition.
I can therefore see how some Jubilee mandarins could decide to use the shortcuts that had been tried and tested by retired President Moi, to keep political challengers at bay—mobilise state security to harass Cord politicians and stop them from building up support towards the next elections by denouncing them as dissidents.
It saves time and resources, keeps the opponents busy, while leaving one free to govern. However this is politically retrogressive. Owalo and Raila should be allowed to prepare for 2017, because the process means Jubilee has to work harder to convince Kenyans they are better than the competition. Kenya will be better for it.
- See more at: http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-129006/jubilee-should-let-raila-get-ready-2017#sthash.z1MXB9rK.dpuf

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