Nasa team should know that it is the better prepared party that’ll win poll

When Kenya’s parliamentary Minority and National Super Alliance (Nasa) fail to capitalise on the State of the Nation address and use its commissions and omissions to follow the facts and hold the President’s feet to the fire, it means they are losing out on much more than this major miss.

The issue is not that President Kenyatta used the March 15 address to campaign for re-election. Governing parties arrogantly and cunningly seize any and every chance, space and place to plug themselves as definite doers delivering on poll promises, especially in an election year.

But I was a tad surprised that he used the phrase “we have kept the promise” successively 13 times; 11 of them as triumphal boast-ending refrains before varying it twice to “we have kept our promise”, as a preamble. Of course, “we have kept the promise” mimics “we have delivered”.

DEVOLUTION

The President, therefore, pointedly aimed to steal the thunder of the Minority (Coalition for Reforms and Democracy) and Nasa, which are supposed to audit his promises against output, and demoralise their base while firing up his own for August’s General Election.

Resourcefully, President Kenyatta used the address to position himself and Jubilee, “with the help of Parliament”, as the heroic implementers of the constitution. And, he proudly declared one of his “proudest achievements” has been to “chaperone the implementation” of devolution.

Incumbents exaggerate positives, gloss over negatives and bury altogether undelivered promises. So, the President never once mentioned the floundering school laptop plan, but lapped up fulsome credit for last year’s leakage-free examinations in his only mention of the education sector.

Mercifully for Kenya’s democracy, the Minority is tasked with scrutinising and holding the Government (Majority) accountable, checking its excesses, stimulating constructive debate in and out of the National Assembly and the Senate, and promoting Kenya’s best interests.

FREE PASS

It is, therefore, profoundly disturbing that the Minority, jointly as Members of the twin Houses of Parliament or separately, or even as the new vehicle Nasa, would give the President a virtual free pass, five months from a General Election.

Neither the Minority nor Nasa had put out a carefully crafted, robust and cogent riposte to the President’s speech more than a week later as I penned this piece.

Immediate views from legislators were staccato and were solicited chiefly for sound bites by news outlets.

True, Nasa co-principal Raila Odinga put out a statement the following day, but it was not packaged for visual impact on screen and online which President Kenyatta monopolised. That there was no presser because he was in the US took significant shine from his response.

So, although the President had Nasa in mind when he declared his administration is clear about its “direction and sense of purpose” and its “economic and development agenda” for Kenya, this obvious criticism of the opposition as clueless has not been debunked.

POLITICAL JOBS

I had argued here on March 5 that if there is no difference between Nasa and Jubilee, then, Kenyans should not be asked to choose between them in August. I, therefore, suggested that ownership, protection and improvement, of devolution should be Nasa-occupied territories.

I also proposed that Nasa quits campaigning for changing the constitution to create new political jobs and, instead, position itself as defender of the basic law and Wanjiku (ordinary people) for whom it was fought and won.

Cocking a snook at his rivals, who claim ownership of devolution, and the left which claims ownership of the constitution, the President moved to portray Jubilee as a significant shareholder and to erase the basic law and devolution from Nasa’s platform.

The address set the stage for the next phase of his early campaign. He campaigned last week on the devolution platform among Abagusii before abruptly turning toxic and accusing Mr Odinga of triggering the 2007/08 violence.

The President’s plot is obvious; bombard Nasa, which is yet to agree on who among its four principals will be presidential flagbearer, with myriad challenges in quick succession. This will keep it fighting internal and external fires as to have no time to wage an effective campaign against Jubilee.

This is a charter for Nasa. Don’t give the President or government a free pass on anything; respond carefully and convincingly in the coming days to the State of the Nation address; swiftly choose your presidential candidate and begin to prepare for August.

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