Excerpts from the eminent persons round table

Excerpts from the eminent persons round table of Rwandan President Paul Kagame, Prime Minister Raila Odinga, former Tanzanian president Benjamin Mkapa and Nobel laureate Wangari Maathai.

SIBI-OKUMU (moderator): Are you politicians too busy politicking, hogging the media headlines instead of engaging in development?

RAILA: Politics and development go hand in hand. Like a previous president said, “siasa mbaya, maisha mbaya”. Politicians talk about development but the media prefer to focus on politics. That is what sells papers. I am on record urging the media and country not to start campaigning.  We have three years to go and we should not be politicking about 2012 now. However, we politicians are not in the newsrooms. We are not there to make decisions on what goes on Page 1. That is the work of the editors.

KAGAME: In Rwanda, we are not making so much noise because we have had so many years of making noise and a big section of our people were killed and we are now on serious business.

SIBI-OKUMU: Define “serious business?”

KAGAME: We have learnt our lessons and moved on. People died. The people of Rwanda have discussed what went on, what caused the situation. Now we are building institutions that will outlive individuals.

SIBI-OKUMU (To Mkapa): You’re a journalist clothed in presidential clothes. You were a journalist before you went into politics. What is the Tanzanian experience? Language and the media were used to create a cohesive society.

MKAPA: We are not as perfect as you put it. Why are we successful? Because the political leaders realised that the primary task was to build the nation. The politicians, the media and NGOs agreed on the common language, making diversity simple.

SIBI-OKUMU: Prof Maathai, you went through terrible times. Were the media and politicians your friends?

MAATHAI: I think that the politicians, civil society and press are important in any nation. Nations that have developed people get out of that oppression and fight for themselves. Politicians left to themselves can misuse power. It’s not possible to know what politicians are doing, hence it is important to have the press to give information with which the public can hold them to account. The press opened their voices in Karura, hence exposing the grabbing of land.

SIBI-OKUMU: Do you feel the media was there to tell your story?

MAATHAI: On the allocation of public land to individuals, the press helped to bring the information to the public, both locally and internationally. Without the press we would not have managed to point out that some people wanted to grab the forests. We saved Uhuru Park. The media were very important. Politicians were on the defence as they realised that the international society was against (grabbing of the park) and the public and the media helped.

SIBI OKUMU: Western leaders hold regular Press briefings. Is this a culture that we are too young to adopt?

KAGAME: Yes, we do on a monthly basis and this has been going on for four years and has continued up to this day and we are not too young with our experience.

RAILA: Information is power and an informed public has power. This is something recognised. We do have a government spokesman who briefs the media every week. I do hold meetings with the press regularly where the press can ask questions and raise matters of interest.

MKAPA: It was a condition during my tenure that the people who came to my news conferences must be well versed on the issues we were going to talk about. They must be prepared and must have done their research. That is why I have a reputation of talking to the foreign media rather than local media.

SIBI-OKUMU: Muammar Gaddafi talks about a united Africa and everybody looks away. Is Pan Africanism a pipe dream? What are you, as leaders, doing to speed up African integration?

KAGAME: We have to be realistic. From the very beginning, the dream of African unity was premised on putting together the basic building blocks. Those building blocks like the East African Community are still being put together.