We must get better at confronting professionals who lie

What you need to know:

  • I usually do not review the few media appearances that I make because I take the preparation as necessary and therefore eschew any assessment of performance.
  • Together with colleagues in charge of communication, we at the Institute of Economic Affairs noted at least eight barefaced lies or inaccuracies related to the economy

  • What is disconcerting is that Kenyans think only active politicians trade in lies, and therefore lower their guard when confronted by motivational speakers and professionals purveying opinion on the national press.

Two weeks ago, I was a panellist on a TV show to discuss the state of Kenya’s economy.

Inevitably, the discussion went into the manifestos of the leading coalitions and each coalition had sent a panellist willing to argue their cause.

I usually do not review the few media appearances that I make because I take the preparation as necessary and therefore eschew any assessment of performance.

However, this time I took a couple of days and watched the entire show because people had told me I became uncomfortable and was too forceful in arguing my case.

Among the comments that I received, either in person or via social media is that facts should speak for themselves. I took seriously the view that perhaps there was something to learn and reviewed the video clip two days later.

Instead, I got a lesson on why policy discourse in Kenya is ridden with conspiracy theories and why public distrust of key officers of the state will continue.

Together with colleagues in charge of communication, we at the Institute of Economic Affairs noted at least eight barefaced lies or inaccuracies related to the economy, stated boldly during the one hour, which were not called out there and then.

Instead, people concentrated on temperament and the posture of panelists during the show.

One interpretation could be that some viewers are unable to distinguish between media events aimed at public reasoning and popular entertainment.

And in all this, the loss is really the public’s, because there appears to be no place or media house that takes umbrage at a sharp-talking bureaucrat or professional who makes errors, or deliberately tells falsehoods.

SANITISE PUBLIC DISCOURSE

As a result, it is possible and perhaps encouraged, for professionals to appear in public, tell lies or be ignorant of their subject and still pontificate about it in the guise of presenting a professional, reliable view.

I appreciate that purveyors of opinion should be encouraged, and the field expanded to include even lay persons. What is disconcerting is that Kenyans think only active politicians trade in lies, and therefore lower their guard when confronted by motivational speakers and professionals purveying opinion on the national press.

For that reason, it shouldn’t be accepted that a person speaking on behalf of government or another with the intent to become one, should tell lies and not be asked to correct the record or withdraw the statement with an apology.

This common failure to sanitise public discourse by calling out lies harms the state itself because people come to believe that lies are an accepted part of statecraft.

A society in which the consequences for lying about public affairs remain mild will show high levels of economic literacy and policy knowledge.

The reason for this is because while every individual is an economic actor, the consequences of economic policy do not always flow as advertised. This situation fosters the inaccurate view that what is popular is what makes for sensible economic policy.

REGULATING THE WRONG THINGS

For instance, the maize flour subsidy that the Executive commenced months ago has been a spectacular failure, but was undeniably popular especially among the unemployed in urban areas. Having failed to make the policy work, the same enforcers of the policy in executive offices have conveniently turned to blaming their political opponents for sabotaging a good policy through rhetoric.

This creative response almost always worked because it ensures that partisan lenses begin to inform the issue, notwithstanding the fact that no dispassionate professional would call this effort a success.

Kenya’s media have to be in the frontline for sanitising public reasoning, not from woolly things as “hate speech” but from the more harmful form of deliberate lies about public affairs.

And you know how wrongheaded it is for people to complain about crass characterisation of ethnic or regional groups, while remaining nonchalant about a lie about the state of Kenya’s economy.

We concentrate on regulating the wrong things and this is good evidence of a deficiency in public reasoning. I learned that from reviewing a video clip that partisans tried to harangue me for.

I realised that if time were rewound, I would have to state all my points in the same way and same posture. There is a place for a collective formation to raise Kenyan indignance towards the lies we hear from professionals and government. Kenya would be the better for it.

Kwame Owino is the chief executive officer of the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA-Kenya), a public policy think tank based in Nairobi. Twitter: @IEAKwame