Michael Mundia Kamau
P.O. Box 58972
00200 City Square
Nairobi
Kenya

23rd May 2004

        COWBOY GOVERNANCE

The trashing of the highly acclaimed Kiptoon report and the revelation
that the Kenya government is duty bound to settle outstanding albeit
contentious debts to contractors commissioned by the previous regime, is further
indication of a government that is yet to grasp the magnitude of
governance.
The NARC government owes the people an explanation regarding the
trashing of the Kiptoon report, and several other outstanding issues in Kenya.

Government ministers, members of parliament and civil servants, have
taken to making all manner of empty promises, pronouncements and pledges in a
country that continues to be plagued by growing hardships and
uncertainty.
Fuelled by instability in the Middle East, the price of petroleum
products in Kenya has risen in the past two weeks, with a forewarning from
industry players that further increases are shortly forthcoming. Public Service
Vehicle operators have also signalled an anticipated increase in rates,
as have other players in the economy. This is happening as leaders
continue to traverse the country engaging in valueless conferences, valueless
political rallies and valueless battles for supremacy. The leadership in Kenya is
totally out of tune with the disenchantment and anguish of the people.
Street talk nowadays is about betrayal, calls for Moi’s return and an
intention to vote out NARC should a snap election be called. One
wonders whether these sentiments filter down to the establishment, whether they
are treated with any remote seriousness, or whether they are simply trashed
like the Kiptoon report. Single party rule under KANU was even more secure
because of the understanding that one was constantly being watched. In
those days, one spoke ill of the government with the same approach and
caution of crossing a road i.e. look right, look left, look right again, and then
talk.
NARC’s intelligence gathering network is apparently not as active.

A government motion for parliament to adjourn in preparation for the
June 2004 fiscal budget was defeated by an array of the backbenchers, not on
the grounds of any sound principle, but because they wanted each
parliamentarian to be advanced an amount of US $ 250,000, being the annual constituency
fund entitlement. Not one parliamentarian has tabled a proposal or budget on
the intended use of the first constituency fund instalment of US $ 250,000
despite the eagerness, and this is precisely how this country is being
governed. Issues that do not concern the common man are being shunted
into the background. The common man in Kenya is not being given a forum to
effectively air his grievances. Jimmy Gathu’s Kiss 100 talk show “The
People’s Parliament” and Citizen Radios’ “Jambo Kenya” (Hello Kenya)
and “Wembe wa Citizen” (Razor Blade of the nation), are examples of how
desperate things are in Kenya. Contributors call in with all manner of
tribulations and inaction on the part of the authorities. At the time
when certain allowances for military personnel were withdrawn, an anonymous
caller purporting to be a captain in the army and purporting to be
calling from the Lanet Barracks, made a reckless threat of a military coup on
Jimmy Gathu’s “People’s Parliament”. Jimmy quickly quashed the matter after
one or two callers either backed or opposed the threat.

NARC convinced an entire populace that the removal of Moi and the KANU
regime was the solution to this country’s problems. An entire nation
woke up with the highest of expectations on the 27th of December 2002. NARC
created the belief that Kenya would be transformed into a paradise overnight.
These expectations are yet to be met. Not much has changed in Kenya over the
past 17 months though, which is the cause of the restlessness. Prospects are
just as gloomy as KANU’s pre-NARC Kenya. There is widespread industrial
unrest across the country, with very little effort on the government’s part to
address and calm this unrest. Even where agreements have apparently
been brokered, the government has backtracked after realising it could not
support commitments it had made. A case in point is the public
universities lecturers’ pay rise, which the government is attempting to side-step by
declaring that the bulk of the funds to cater for the pay rise, shall
be met by the cash strapped, debt ridden, ill-equipped administrations of the
public universities.

If NARC’s handling of the university lecturers’ pay hike and the
Kiptoon report are anything to go by, then this country is truly in serious
trouble, because both are reflections of a government that does not want to make
any meaningful commitments. The excuse of a dysfunctional structure that
does not support legal action does not hold water because in early 2003, the
current parliament rushed through a constitutional amendment that
significantly raised the the salaries and emoluments of all
parliamentarians. The same parliament arm twisted the Finance Minister
into approving supplementary budgetary estimates for the implementation of
the contentious US $ 250,000 allotment, per constituency, per year, to be
administered by the constituency member of parliament. This country
does not lack laws, it lacks leaders. It by extension also lacks commitment to
good governance, which is why NARC may not relinquish power should it lose
the next general election. Speculation was rife that former President
Daniel arap Moi would nullify the December 2002 Kenyan elections the same way
that President Ibrahim Babangida of Nigeria did with the late Mashoed
Abiola’s election victory. Former President Moi in his phenomenal scheming
however lived up to his own billing, and not that of NARC and numerous other
Kenyans. The one person accused of having no respect for the law upheld
it when it most mattered. Legend has it that Mzee Moi always consulted
trusted inner circle authorities on legal matters before taking any major
action.
NARC looks destined to undo this high standard set by Moi. This is why
the constitutional review process is taking centre stage in a country that
long stopped obeying notices and cautionary messages like “Usikojoe Hapa”
(Do not urinate here), “Shuka mbele” (Alight at the front of the bus),
“Usishuke kama ngari ina tembea” (Alight only when the vehicle has come to a
complete standstill), “Strictly No Smoking!”, “No Dumping of Garbage Here!” and
“No Idle Sitting”.

Self esteem are at an all time low in Kenya today despite the abundance
of cell phones and a host of several other symbols associated with
advancement, something that NARC should be aware of. We may not appear frail on the
outside, but we are deeply hurting and insecure on the inside. On
simple matters like communication, one is in a dilemma on whether to start a
conversation with a fellow Kenyan with Swahili or English, because it
is bound to provoke an  issue either way. If you speak in English, you may
be construed as being condescending and trying to lord it over those
around you. It has the same effect if you speak in Swahili. It may be even
worse if one speaks in any one of the languages of Kenya’s 42 indigenous groups.
Whichever way, someone is bound to be offended for no valid reason. The
phrase “Una ongea mbaya” (You are being insulting), is in everyday use
in Kenya, to the point that people punctuate conversations with pathetic
and forced laughter, and make sure that an individual is first described as
a nice person, before any criticism is levelled against him or her. We
have been forced to tiptoe around everyone and everything in this country,
and have emerged as our own worst enemies. If you are well intentioned or
otherwise, it amounts to the same thing, because there is no meaningful
formation in Kenya. The highlight of the 2003 Kenyan Rhino Charge,
Kenya’s loose equivalent of the Paris-Dakar Rally, was the significant
attendance by spectator African-Kenyans driving very trendy four wheel drive
vehicles.
This was very encouraging and it appeared that White-Kenyans and
Asian-Kenyans had stopped detaching themselves and began accepting
African-Kenyans as equal partners, only for the feature to progress on,
and reveal the African-Kenyans heartily dancing “Mugithi”, a local form of
entertainment that seems to have captivated everyone. It’s not enough
that “Mugithi” is a form of entertainment in literally every establishment
in Kenya, we had to take it to the Rhino Charge where it’s not bound to
add any value and build any bridges. This is the Kenya that NARC must contend
with, and reform.

Kenya also has another interesting, less explored and potent side to
it. Seven years ago I was part of a group of people doing minor renovations
to a business premises. During the one hour lunch break, we engaged in
discussions over a a wide range of matters including the high incidence
of police harassment and brutality at the time. One of the workers was
known as Martin Uhuru, a highly skilled albeit illiterate craftsman I had known
for six years. Martin sadly passed away some years back in the heart of the
Mathare slums because he could not afford the treatment for an illness
he had contracted, an amount I was later made to understand was not even
that much. During our luch time break seven years ago, Martin impressed us
with his first hand knowledge of the illegal actions of the police at the
time, and quoted relevant sections of the Police Act. Martin also told us
that the police were not authorised to search any premises without a warrant. I
knew I stood the risk of offending Martin if I asked him how he knew all
this, but I nevertheless mustered the courage and asked him. Rather than take
offence, Martin took a lot of pride in telling me that he had gathered
this and much more from the Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC), a station
that I had personally dismissed, despised and disregarded for many years.
Martin represents the Kenya that NARC has inherited, lacking the will to
change, but certainly not lacking ability, exposure and intellect.

Seventeen years ago our high school mathematics teacher also took a
similar detour from classwork, telling us about the reckless driving and
unnecessary deaths on Kenyan roads. Mr. Cheruiyot contrasted this with the higher
safety incidence recorded with tourist vans. Mr. Cheruiyot paused briefly and
smiled, knowing fully what our response would be. Yes indeed, we roared
back at Mr. Cheruiyot, telling him that those tourist vans he had mentioned,
were driven by Africans. Yes indeed, Mr. Cheruiyot concurred, and then went
on to point out that the tourists regulated the speed of the vans by
continually communicating with the driver. It is time we start regulating the pace
of this country’s development.



Michael Mundia Kamau