Want to avoid criticism by doing nothing? Better to shake things up

President Paul Kagame issued this response recently to an audience in America when asked about all the criticism he receives from journalists and human rights groups:

If you don’t want to be criticised, say nothing, do nothing and be nothing,” he said. “I have no desire of doing nothing.”

He has a point. A question one has to ask is why there is such intense scrutiny from Western commentators of Kagame’s Rwanda, a country that, it is true, has a democratic deficit but is comfortably the best run and most functional state in Africa.

Why does no one examine the conduct of Teodoro Obiang Nguema who has been in power for 35 years skimming all the wealth from dirt-poor Equatorial Guinea, one of the biggest oil producers on the continent?

Why the obsessive focus on Rwanda and not its neighbouring giant, the Democratic Republic of Congo, possibly the most resource- rich country on earth whose leader Joseph Kabila presides from Kinshasa over a system that only enriches foreign companies as his people live in squalor?

The answer, of course, is that Kagame is unusual––he challenges orthodoxies and does things differently.

Dr Alfred Mutua

Dr Alfred Mutua, the governor of Machakos, is in a similar situation. He is the most successful county chief in the country by a comfortable distance.

He has transformed the image of Machakos, and that is perhaps the most important task a governor has.

Wavinya Ndeti is wrong in criticising Mutua for putting up street lights while there are no lights in schools and homes.

It is not the governor’s job to bring electricity connections to wananchi. Instead, a county government should create the right environment for job creation and enterprise, boosting incomes and letting the people do the rest.

In India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi earned fame through his success as governor of Gujarat where he presided over average annual economic growth of 10 per cent and created hundreds of thousands of jobs.

He did this simply by making Gujarat the place to go if you had money to spend in India. In one famous example, a plan by auto giant Tata to establish a manufacturing plant in the state of West Bengal was blocked by environmental lobbies.

After the deal fell through, he sent a one-line SMS to the CEO of Tata: “Come to Gujarat”.

Dr Mutua may have his weaknesses––both personal and institutional––but he has shown what a small dose of confidence in leadership can do.

There was no magic wand applied to achieve the economic growth seen in the Mwai Kibaki years, merely the perception that it was safe to borrow from the banks, expand business and take risks.

Today, Nairobi’s middle class spenders see Machakos as place to go to spend money on par with or above traditional destinations such as Naivasha. That is precisely what a governor is expected to do.

To attract spenders and investors, to set up recreation parks, keep the street lights on and invest in things such as a revamped stadium, which draws thousands of fans at least twice a month all of which can spur job creation. The rest should be left to locals to find ways to position themselves to benefit.

Of course, Kenya being a heavily politicised state––a situation which will persist until the two deities who are worshipped unquestioningly by their supporters, Uhuru Kenyatta and Raila Odinga, exit the scene and allow for more rational judgements––it is expected that Mutua will be judged through the political lens.

I do not know what the pros and cons of the road that has attracted so much controversy are. But it would be a shame if a governor who has set the pace and shown the dividends that can be reaped from devolution is crushed under the weight of the political calculations of local elites.

It is possible, as Kagame suggests, to avoid controversy by doing nothing. It is just not beneficial to anyone but the leader and his cronies who do nothing while skimming taxpayer funds. Far better he who attempts to shake things up as Dr Mutua has done.

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