State’s reliance on propaganda has only promoted deep ethnic divisions

The Jubilee coalition did a fantastic job using propaganda in the election campaigns, which it has continued with while governing the country.

The election result owed some to the effectiveness of this propaganda, with some help from a wilfully incompetent IEBC, and a Supreme Court which ignored written submissions on the constitutionality of the process.

The election propaganda focused on presenting the co-principals as victims of a “Western conspiracy” against Kenyan sovereignty. It claimed that Western powers took Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto to the ICC, intent on continuing their “control” over Kenya. They added civil society into the mix, claiming that CSOs were pursuing a “Western agenda.”

The propaganda — and especially the digital slogan — presented Jubilee as different from our analogue past, conjuring images of swift, efficient, transparent and accountable governance.

The reality, of course, is that it was their parliamentary sycophants who took the ICC option, refusing to accept the Special Tribunal. And the reality is that human rights, anti-impunity and accountability are enshrined in the Kenyan Constitution — making them as Kenyan as ugali.

Ironically, this propaganda was driven by a Western public relations firm, BVT, but that incongruence was lost on our previously critical media houses. Also lost was the fact that Uhuru Kenyatta is probably the most “westernised” Kenyan politician, with extremely deep personal and business ties with the West.

Not only does he have family that is “Western,” but the family businesses are run by “Westerners” including private schools offering British curricula!

It is fine to use propaganda in electioneering, and Cord’s misplaced confidence and strategies made things easier.

MORE ATTACKS, MORE PROPAGANDA

But it is a tragedy to use propaganda in governance. For when it comes to governing, truth, inclusiveness, transparency and accountability matter, and no amount of propaganda can change that.

Yet, the electioneering propaganda has continued to our detriment. There is, for instance, the propaganda that the IDP issue was finalised when the regime gave out Sh410,000 to some IDPs in Eldoret and squatters from Embobut forest.

Yet hundreds of thousands of squatters in the Kisii, Nyamira, Luo Nyanza, western, and parts of central Kenya — termed as Integrated IDPs — continue to live in misery, hidden from public view.

There is also the Westgate propaganda promise to institute a public commission of inquiry. Using propaganda has meant that we became more vulnerable to terror attacks as the same structures and personnel that allowed that fiasco and its aftermath were left un-interrogated.

As more terror attacks befall us, we are given more propaganda: Ethnically profiling the Somali and Muslim communities and bringing back the colonial and analogue concentration camps.

Then we had the payment to Anglo Leasing, explained as necessary to float our Euro Bond. Turns out, though, that this was mere propaganda, too, as David Ndii has written. Grand corruption is back with us with the consequence of more poverty and impunity.

But the crown jewel in propaganda has been the Mpeketoni crisis. Al-Shabaab claimed responsibility but Jubilee preferred the propaganda that the opposition was behind it. This means that scarce security resources are diverted to the wrong targets.

We are now seeing arrests and criminal charges against some people for the Mpeketoni attacks. That is good. But why have we not seen similar swift action for Wajir, Mandera, Busia, Bungoma, Marsabit and Eastleigh attacks?

The net result of using propaganda in governance is that the already deep ethnic divisions in our society grow, insecurity increases, and corruption becomes a way of life. All seems more like Moism than digital.

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