Leaders’ apathy sparks calls for a progressive dictatorship

Growing criticism of Kenya's Grand Coalition over what has been described as a leadership crisis has sparked debate among Kenyans on whether the leaders are in control.

Kenya is facing a serious breakdown of respect for the rule of law, regulations, procedures and due process in almost every aspect.

The National Council of Churches of Kenya has described President Kibaki’s leadership as moribund and that of Prime Minister Raila Odinga as ineffective. According to Collins English Dictionary, the word moribund means near death, stagnant, without force or vitality.

So far, this was the boldest — and perhaps most accurate — biting criticism of President Kibaki’s hands-off style leadership and Mr Odinga’s performance record.

Questions are being raised on whether such a leadership style is suitable for a country where corruption, impunity, injustice and general indiscipline have become a national pastime.

Alternative rule

There is a general feeling among Kenyans that the war on corruption is lost because friends and associates of key leaders have been linked with mega scandals and no action has been taken against them.

And Parliament, which is also supposed to check excesses of the Executive, has been turned into a platform for fighting political wars, cutting deals for self-preservation and petty quarrels.
Despite the hard talk, President Kibaki and Mr Odinga seem to have their hands tied at their backs by political surrogates.

But Kenyans seem divided on the nature of alternative leadership that can pull the country out of the cesspit of lawlessness and sleaze.

Some are of the opinion that given the prevailing crisis, Kenya is ripe for revolutionary leadership in the fashion of Rwanda’s Paul Kagame, Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez, ailing Cuban strongman Fidel Castro, and new Africa Union chairman Muammar Gaddafi of Libya.

But there are those who strongly feel that Kenya needs a sort of benevolent dictatorship to restore order and discipline in management of public affairs.

This group argues that despite their faults, their no-nonsense and firm style of leadership had instilled discipline in governance, solidified a sense of nationalism and rediscovered their countries.

Others like Catholic priest Father Gabriel Dolan, argue that because the country’s “morale and moral fabric are in tatters, only a mass movement can channel growing discontent and anger into something positive.”

Disciplinarian

“We need a benevolent dictator — tough and firm leaders such Murtala Mohammed of Nigeria. When he came to power, Nigerians knew he was a strict disciplinarian,” says former Subukia MP Koigi wa Wamwere.

“During his reign, even traffic jams were contained and people were forced to report to work promptly. He is remembered for his firmness and goodness.”

According to Mr Wamwere, such dictators do not necessarily dismantle institutions of democracy. Instead, they strengthen and make them more effective.

What Kenya requires, he says, are leaders like Uganda’s Yoweri Museveni, Mr Chávez and Mr Gaddafi.

Lately, the Government has been soiled by corruption scandals, especially in relation to maize and oil industries.

“We need a different type of leadership from the one we have that will not allow itself to be side-tracked from the vision that they have for the country,” adds Mr Wamwere.

Even Mr Odinga, is on record saying that Kenya needs a benevolent dictator.

Glorifying thieves

But Public Accounts Committee chairman Bonny Khalwale, Kimilili MP Eseli Simiyu and former MPs Wanyiri Kihoro and Mwandawiro Mghanga as well as law professor Makau Mutua while acknowledging the need for alternative leadership, argue that Kenya does not need the Museveni, Gaddafi and Kagame type.

“Even a benevolent dictator will not be able to manage the country in which impunity, corruption and lawlessness are the order of the day,” reckons Dr Eseli.

“However, we need not go that direction, rather we need to elect people of integrity to positions of leadership.”

Though the Kibaki-Odinga leadership is “totally unsatisfactory” Kenyans should not blame them for their own lawlessness and other failures.

“If we chose to be unruly we should not blame it wholesale on the two. We must stop glorifying “thieves who have acquired their positions through corruption and impunity, if we are to get alternative leadership,” Dr Eseli adds.

Mr Mghanga advises Kenyans to think outside the box in the search for alternative leadership: “The President and the PM have been turned into reactionaries and cannot move the country forward because they are held hostage by allies and friends mired in corruption.”

For Dr Khalwale, alternative leadership should be driven by a President whose roots are from the grassroots. But he rules out dictatorship arguing that Kenyans are too exposed to accept the Museveni or Gaddafi way.

Mr Kagame, former Ghanaian president Jerry Rawlings, Mr Castro and Mr Gaddafi are perceived as the benevolent dictators.

However, the talk of dictatorship — benevolent or otherwise — evokes the images of rulers such as Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe and Equatorial Guinea’s Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo and the notoriety of the Kanu regime.

Parade magazine ranks Mr Mugabe top of its 2009 list of the World’s Worst Dictators. He is followed by President Omar al-Bashir of Sudan who is sought by the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Others in the list include Kim Jong Il (North Korea), Than Shwe (Myanmar), King Abdullah (Saudi Arabia), Hu Jintao (China), Sayyid Khamenel (Iran), Isaias Afewerki (Eritrea), and G. Berdymuhammedov of Turkmenistan. African Union chairman Gaddafi caps the list of the top ten.

The magazine accuses them of gross violation of human rights, genocide, torture, religious persecution, discrimination against women and oppression of media.

Mr Afewerki last year announced that elections would be postponed for “three or four decades” or longer because they “polarise society.”

All forms of media are controlled by the government. At least 10 local journalists remain in prison since their arrests in 2001.

In Libya, spreading any information that the government believes “tarnishes its reputation” is punishable by life in jail. Torture reports are also common there.

Though ranked 14th in the Parade list, the soft-spoken Obiang is believed to be the worst dictator in Africa (worse than Mr Mugabe).

After overthrowing his bloodthirsty uncle Macias Nguema in a military coup in 1979, President Obiang has survived on the same repression. Following his seizure of state power, he ordered for his uncle to be executed by a firing squad.

Most domestic and international observers consider his regime to be one of the most corrupt, ethnocentric, oppressive and undemocratic states in the world.

The opposition is severely hampered by the lack of a free press; the country relies on the state radio run by Obiang’s son. There are no newspapers in the country.

Around 90 per cent of all opposition politicians live in exile while some 550 anti-Obiang activists have been jailed unfairly and several killed since 1979.

In 2002, state-operated radio declared Mr Obiang as “the country’s God”. He made similar claims in 2003.

In a programme called Bidze-Nduan (Bury the Fire) run by his aide to “inform and mobilise the masses on issues of national interest”, it was declared that President Obiang Nguema was “in permanent contact with the Almighty”.

Can decide to kill

“He can decide to kill without anyone calling him to account and without going to hell because the president was like God in heaven who has all power over men and things,” the presidential aide announced.

He warned against any attempt to disrupt the peace and order which, he said, had reigned since President Obiang took over in 1979.

In 1993, Mr Obiang kicked out US ambassador John E. Bennett accusing him of practising witchcraft at the graves of 10 British airmen who were killed when their plane crashed there during World War II.

Offshore oil was discovered in the country, but the first wave of revenues — about $700 million — was transferred into secret accounts under Obiang’s personal control.

In the last election in his country, his party won 99 of the 100 seats in legislative elections. A government press release, hailing Obiang as the “Militant Brother Founding President of the PDGE,” carried the headline, “Democracy at Its Peak in Equatorial Guinea.” When he chooses to retire, he is likely to be succeeded by his son or his younger brother.

The opposition officials describe killings and torture in prisons, often after alleged coup plots they say are fabricated, to justify crackdowns.

But there is absolutely no room for the Obiang’s of this world as countries move fast to embrace democracy.

Prof Mutua argues that what Kenya needs is a democratic government led by men and women of integrity. “But to get there, Kenya needs to weed out all the corrupt and inept people who now clog it.”