Smart manifestos should be panacea for graft, tribalism

Ask me who I am going to vote for in the August General Election and I can tell you for sure that I made my choice long time ago. I am voting against corruption.

Obviously, that does not sound like a positive vote, and does not represent any individual or party. But it is actually a strong positive vote.

My vote is with any man or woman who can convincingly demonstrate they are hardnosed on the matter of fighting corruption. It is my singular opinion that this is a matter that must be made a serious campaign issue in the remaining days to elections.

In the Bible, there are only two recorded occasions in which Jesus referred to a person as a fool. One was a man who had become too rich to work; the other had built a mega villa on sinking sand.

Though the house was an architectural masterpiece, when the rains came, the winds blew, and the storms rose, the grand edifice came crumbling down – washed downstream by the disrespecting waters.

The builder was called a fool because he did not take care of a minor construction detail, and thus placed a major investment on a piece of ground that could not hold a building.

Any good consultant will tell you that a building, no matter how beautifully designed and tastefully finished, must also have a solid structural design in order to withstand the harsh environmental vagaries.

Every five years we Kenyans set about to build a house – nay, a mansion for ourselves.

But, like the foolish builder, we get so easily deceived by cowboy contractors and end up building on a garbage heap, compacted to appear like a solid rock. No wonder, in but a few months, the cracks begin to appear, and we are up in arms.

For a fact, the recent manifesto launches were spectacular and the promises grand. Jubilee and NASA painted a bright and desirable future – one that would certainly put Kenya in the league of successful nations. Like beautiful 3D architectural presentations, each party presented dream houses, designed to mesmerise the elite voter.

Unfortunately, there were no accompanying structural drawings. Considering that our site is mainly a garbage heap of corruption and a mire of negative ethnicity, we must demand to see carefully designed structural blueprints that show us how these twin challenges are going to be dealt with.

In leadership and management, there is such a thing as SMART goals. Such goals are specific, measureable, attainable, realistic, and time bound.

Additionally, there is the first 100 days psychological period granted to a new leader to make drastic changes within an organisation.

It follows therefore that any candidate who is serious about instituting radical reforms in the nation or county, should craft smart goals for removing the debris of corruption and negative ethnicity within the first100 days.

Mere promises devoid of such clear goals will only turn us into fools – with a magnificent mansion built upon sinking sand. Successive regimes have taken us down that path, with promises of zero-tolerance to corruption, only to turn into worse scavengers than those before. Billions have been looted from state coffers with no consequent prosecution.

That is why, though the manifestoes promise to tackle several issues such as food security, unemployment, insecurity, as among the many ills that seem to bedevil this great nation, this is whitewash.

Unless and until we deal with the twin giants of corruption and ethnicity, our posh house will stand precariously upon sinking sand.

We will have once again played the fool. Therefore, show me a man, woman, or party that can convincingly demonstrate their resolve to deal with corruption and ethnicity, and I will show you who has my vote.

- The writer is the Presiding Bishop of Christ is the Answer Ministries (CITAM).