Can the Narc reform agenda be revived?
As a strategy for maximisation, this was clever; but in terms of common sense, it was not. With a few bites on the rope, the calf was untied and it escaped happily. My mother always summarised this story with the following moral: opportunities come only once. If you encounter an opportunity, you must ravage it mercilessly and you must ravage what matters.
With all due respect to the Narc government, it is behaving like this hyena. The country discovered a tender calf in December last year. But instead of leading us directly to the calf, these people have decided to feed the nation on �rope�. This, however, does not surprise me. Like the hyena, it is in our nature to get confused when we stumble onto a good thing. The tendency when we encounter a fortune is to squander it. And this is why people never grow rich on lottery.
As for the Narc politicians, the December win was like scooping a lottery. Ten months later, they are still in a daze. Instead of �ravaging the tender calf�, they have gone for the minimalist idea of �eating rope�. Fighting terrorism, the Goldenberg inquiry, and holding international conferences are all minimalist ideas. They will not improve on the life of the fishmonger in Suba or my peasant uncle in Nyeri. Yes, some people believe that they will benefit the country in the long run. But in my view, this does not make any sense. Kenyans should borrow a leaf from the people of California in the US.
These people elected a governor and in six months, they could tell that he was not going to deliver. In 11 months, they recalled him and voted in an Austrian film star by the name of Arnold Shwarzenneger. The point here is simple: if a political idea does not take off in the first six months, it is probably going nowhere. And the sooner we realise this the better. In our case, the new government has been in place for ten months. Admittedly, its performance has been below average.
But instead of demanding improved performance, our excuse is that it is too early to judge. And in my view, this is where we fail in our civic duty. I am persuaded that a government is too big and important to be left in the hands of politicians. The citizens must guide it. Because we cannot recall the Narc politicians the way California recalled its governor, I want to suggest three areas in which we can guide them.
One, what the country needs is leadership, not politics. Leadership is about planning for the future of our children and the prosperity of our people. Politics is about resource allocation: it is about who gets what, when and how. Leadership is about inspiring confidence, and building bridges ; politics on the other hand is about instilling fear and flexing muscles. A politician says he knows where the country is going and keeps the route-map close to his chest; a leader shows his people where he is taking them, and actually takes them there.
When Water Minister Martha Karua engaged in a near �cat fight� with Roads Minister Raila Odinga this week, that was politics. The two were simply scaring each other. But what is sad is that this was about a �minimalist project�. I do not want to belittle the assassination of Dr Odhiambo Mbai, but I think we are blowing it out of proportions. And by engaging in �cat fights� the cabinet has chosen politics over leadership. But this is not fully true. When Justice Minister Kiraitu Murungi took a group of farmers to visit Roads Minister Mr Odinga, he was providing leadership. He was not only building bridges with Mr Odinga, he was also showing his constituents where he wants to take them. And when Vice-President Moody Awori tells us that the cabinet is not divided, he is neither playing politics nor providing leadership. He is simply sitting on the fence!
Two, the Narc government was elected on a platform of change. But in the last 10 months, the meaning of change has changed. And as a result, the reform agenda has aborted. In my view, Narc should abandon its pretensions to reform for two reasons. Firstly, it is too late to carry out reforms effectively. This is so because in political transitions, the new government must do all the bad things at once, and the good things slowly. Radical surgery should have been done in the first 100 days. The fact that this did not happen makes any attempts at surgical change bloody.
Secondly, in its reform agenda, Narc suffers from multiple personality disorder. On one hand, the cabinet is doing business with �cowboy contractors� and on the other demanding that �cowboy judges� resign.
The third thing is Machiavellian and is about President Kibaki. According to Niccolo Machiavelli, a new prince must behave like a lion and a fox at the same time. A lion is defenceless against traps and a fox is helpless in the hands of wolves. A new prince must therefore combine the qualities of the two beasts. He must be like the fox, in order to recognise traps. Similarly, he must be like a lion if he is to frighten off the wolves. For the new prince therefore, the important thing is to recognise where the traps and the wolves are located. And as regards our �new prince� President Kibaki, I want to submit that there is a misconception somewhere. It is believed that the wolves and the traps are located in LDP and Kanu. This thinking is pedestrian in the context of history.
According to Machiavelli, the wolves and traps are located in the prince�s own backyard. In the case of President Kibaki therefore, the wolves and traps are to be found in NAK. And that is why he must extend an olive branch to LDP on the matter of the MoU. One way of doing this and providing leadership to the country is to nurture the �Kiraitu-Raila� initiative!
And now on another matter. When former president Mr Moi came back from a fund-raising tour of the US the other day, he appealed to Kenyans to fund his foundation. My children happened to hear him on TV; they think he is kind, but have always wondered why he carries a �rungu�. Anyway, they managed to raise a cheque of Sh1,350 as a contribution to his foundation. But we did not know where to post this cheque. Should we send it to Kabaratonjo or Kabarnet Gardens in Nairobi? They want to know whether the former president has a forwarding address, or a mobile telephone number?
Mr Ngunyi is a political scientist with ConsultAfrika, a research and consulting firm.
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