Not any more Mr President, Kenya has changed from the Kanu days

What you need to know:

  • One of the areas where such emptiness will not work is in the security arena. And the reason is simple. Insecurity knows no party line and does not respect ethnicity, religion or age. Agents of insecurity are indiscriminate in their attacks and work to cause mayhem; they maim and kill all people, be they rich or poor.
  • It used to be that the President’s propaganda team would issue a slew of press statements in support of obviously unacceptable statements by the President. And such interventions would enjoy the force of law and would immediately compel self-censorship among those ardent supporters of the President.
  • The day when the Ouko Commission was disbanded, a Minister was arrested but rather than paying a visit to Kamiti, he enjoyed his comfortable stay in a secure place somewhere along Thika Road, a lesson to us that politicians will always play mind games with us.

One hopes that the President and his lacklustre team of message massagers learnt some crucial lesson this week.

If not, I want to re-state it for clarity: the Kenya of 2014 is a different and more sophisticated place than the Kenya of the Kanu days.

There is no doubt that some citizens are still receptive of empty rhetoric and dry propaganda. But they can only take that propaganda so far. Beyond a certain point, such rhetoric and propaganda will only be tolerated by a few, and among these will be the men and women who answer to the title of honourable members and whose partisan inclination know no bounds. Otherwise, noisy outbursts and unimaginative propaganda does not sell.

One of the areas where such emptiness will not work is in the security arena. And the reason is simple. Insecurity knows no party line and does not respect ethnicity, religion or age. Agents of insecurity are indiscriminate in their attacks and work to cause mayhem; they maim and kill all people, be they rich or poor.

It used to be that the President under Kanu’s authoritarian rule would appoint the most useless person to head a ministry or agency and the comedy of errors that person paraded everyday became the stuff of laughter and derision and nothing else. Not any more, Mr President. The Kenya of 2014 will mock in amusement the errors of those non-performing appointee on social media, but there will be consequences after the laughter.

PROPAGANDA

It used to be that the President’s propaganda team would issue a slew of press statements in support of obviously unacceptable statements by the President. And such interventions would enjoy the force of law and would immediately compel self-censorship among those ardent supporters of the President.

Indeed, a law and order edict by state security agencies would follow to impose total silence on the political landscape. Not any more, Mr President. The Kenya of 2014 will engage you directly and say the most unflattering things including about your slew of message massagers, some of whom struggle with basic language skills and cannot, therefore, be effective massagers of your message.

It used to be that in instances where the country experienced a horrible attack as it happened in Mandera, self-appointed propagandists would emerge before the cameras or with press ads to impose a narrative that was diversionary. All Kenyans would focus on the diversion and forget the original government failure. Not any more, Mr President. The Kenya of 2014 will see through the diversionary tactics, dismiss them for what they are, and hound the self-appointed propagandists off the social media into humiliated silence.

And, Kenyans are now good at dismissing these self-appointed propagandists, since propaganda today comes without swag, lacks creativity and imagination. Kenyans have set their goals very high and no longer want to be bored by the sterile antics of discredited propagandists.

SOLUTION TO MALFEASANCE

It used to be that firing a minister or retiring a police commissioner was considered the ‘‘solution’’ to malfeasance or insecurity. That single act brought all forms of mobilisation and activism against failing political appointees to a screeching halt and Kenyans went home satisfied with that ornamental gain. Not any more, Mr President.

The day when the Ouko Commission was disbanded, a Minister was arrested but rather than paying a visit to Kamiti, he enjoyed his comfortable stay in a secure place somewhere along Thika Road, a lesson to us that politicians will always play mind games with us.

Not any more, Mr President, we have styled up. Let Joseph ole Lenku go home and David Kimaiyo retire into oblivion, but we are aware that this has not solved the security problem. You must take your responsibility on security and lead from the front and your propaganda team must stop abusing our intelligence.

Godwin Murunga is Senior Research Fellow, Institute for Development Studies, University of Nairobi