By Donald Kipkorir
The wheels to complete the formation of the Government are in motion. By the end of this month, the full Cabinet consisting of the President, Deputy President, the Attorney General, and 18 Cabinet Secretaries shall be in place. Owing to tyranny of numbers in the National Assembly by the Jubilee Coalition, the approvals are shoo-in. As the Cabinet goes to work, Kenya needs for the first time to have a permanent and coherent strategic national policy. This policy shall be above person, tribe, religion and party.
In historical antiquity, leading theorists advised their rulers in developing such policy. In ancient China, we had Sun Tzu [544-496 BC], who left us his thoughts in The Art of War and in Florence of old in Italy, Niccolò Machiavelli [1469-1527] gifted us his thoughts in “The Prince”. Modern age has spawned more thinkers on national and military strategy and policy. B.H. Liddell Hart [1895-1970], a distinguished British Military Historian said “ … in strategy, the longest way round, is often the shortest …”
Why should we have a strategic policy? A country without it is like a rudderless ship in tempestuous sea, or a blindfolded fighter. Strategic policy is not legislated in specific Statutes but scattered across them and in policy papers of Government. USA, the world’s sole political, economic and military super-power may not have a clearly defined strategic policy but all policy analysts agree what the minimum is. US strategic policy is underpinned in four pillars: protecting its global pre-eminence in economy, military and diplomacy; protecting and if need be secure sources and routes of its energy supplies; combating terrorism that threaten America and its interests; and the eternal protection of the State of Israel.
Am not aware if Kenya has a clear strategic policy, if any. I will suggest the minimum pillars for our policy, which all successive governments need to protect and build on. Once we establish these minimum parameters, political parties can be free to develop policies and ideologies based on them. Political parties may then cease being privately owned special purpose vehicles and become real ideologically driven organizations. I suggest four pillars.
First, should be paramountcy of our national security. National security entails protection of our national borders from external aggressors, and from those within that want to destroy our nation. In the internal group are those with any kind of secessionist ideas. Included are those that engage in tribal clashes, cattle rustling and all manner of banditry and organized crime. All resources should be employed and deployed to achieve absolute national security. Our army, police and intelligence services should not want for limited resources. When our borders are breached, or local terrorists kill in Baragoi, Garissa or Busia, we should deploy such force that will quake the terrorists in their manholes.
Secondly, Kenya needs to have permanent foreign allies. Our alliance with London, for historical reasons has to be our unchangeable and permanent that needs to be strengthened and deepened. London and Nairobi must be joined in the hip, even if we be the lower hip. In addition, our relationship with Washington, Berlin and Tel Aviv have to be at par with or near London. In Africa, we build strategic and permanent alliance with Kigali and Addis Ababa. Our place with East Africa Community is obvious. But our future should be tied with London, Kigali, Addis Ababa, Washington, Berlin and Tel Aviv. These foreign relationships will be consummated in shared trade, diplomatic and military agreements. Their fate will be our fate, and our fate theirs.
Third pillar of our strategic policy is protecting and securing our sources of energy and water. To run our economy, we rely heavily on imported oil and power supply from Uganda and soon Ethiopia. At our military level, we cannot do much on securing or protecting our oil imports from the Middle East, but this is how our allies in America, Europe and Israel will step in. Our power supply is easier to protect. Uganda and Ethiopia must know that nothing can make them cut power supply as long as we are paying our agreed tariffs. In respect of water resource, all sources of water for our home use, farming and industries have to be protected.
The fourth and final pillar is defining our strategic sectors of economy that needs national protection. These are tourism, telecom and tea. These three are without doubt what drives our national economy. In Egypt, even in their worst turmoil, interfering with their tourism sector is a no-go zone for all political protagonists. And when a tourist is killed there, the Government spares no resources to trace, apprehend and kill the tourist killers. The Government needs to develop policies and law to strengthen these three sectors and make Kenya a world leader. It is beyond understanding that Tunisia and Namibia receive more tourists than us yet we have more to offer. I do not understand why Safaricom cannot grow out of the shadows of Vodafone and extend beyond the borders as Safaricom Kenya. And it is a shame that Sri Lanka dominates world tea markets even when they were in civil war for over thirty years. If Kenya is to develop global brands soon, they will come from our tourism, telcom and tea sectors.
In having a clear national strategy, it shall be the redline on the sand that our friends and foes, citizens and aliens will not cross. Our allies and non-allies will know where we stand and will engage us based on it. One gains respectability when his beliefs and ethos are known. Strategic policy as I have argued need not be legislated, but is a consensus that is developed over time and becomes part of our national consciousness, just as we all know our national borders. Anyone rising up to leadership in politics or civil service will have them imbued. With this strategic policy, Kenya will be like a ship sailing to a clearly marked harbor. And no one will rock the ship from within or without.
