Our leaders’ conduct reflects our character

“Diplomacy is more than saying or doing the right things at the right time, it is avoiding saying the wrong thing at any time”. Dr Bo Bennet, PhD.

A story is told of how the Prime Minister of Israel received a beautifully packaged gift from the head of a rival country. Unwrapping it revealed a small mass of putrescent faecal matter, the ultimate insult. Attached was a small card that read, “This is what we think of you.”

Unfazed, the Prime Minister ordered a complimentary gift to be delivered to his rival. Inside the gift box was one of Israel’s most advanced chips. Capable of dizzying processing and memory functions, it represented the world’s cutting edge technology. His rival found a card enclosed, the beautiful cursive handwriting stating, "every country can only give its best.”

British war time Prime Minister Winston Churchill was famous for his repartee. The hapless victims of his wit only realised the barrage of insults that lay behind his niceties long after the conversation. A quote attributed to him describes his brand of diplomacy as “the art of telling people to go to hell in such a way that they ask for directions.”

Decades later, his admirer Boris Johnson, tipped to have a fighting chance of being Prime Minister, displays precious little of Churchill’s wit. If anything, he bears a close resemblance to President Donald Trump of America. Unlike former President Barack Obama, Trump frequently finds himself with his foot in the mouth; some of his ribald comments passed off as harmless locker room banter.

The forum

Here in Kenya, the remarks of the acting CEO of a telco have elicited chatter on social media. At a funeral service, Mr Michael Joseph of Safaricom described the deceased as being “a white man in a black body.” To many, these remarks reflected a lack of savoir faire or an inability to speak appropriately to an audience of predominantly people of colour.

Even where the views were charitable and attributed the remarks to an inside joke between Mr Joseph and the deceased, the forum was inappropriate and thus, rendered them undiplomatic. Some considered them to be like clean drinking water in a “honey sucker,” waste disposal truck; great product, poor choice of vehicle.

At the same funeral service, former presidential candidate, Peter Kenneth, fared little better. Whilst his tribute to the deceased alluded to a “boys-club,” he may not have intended it in the strictest sense of the phrase, which the dictionary defines as “a male-dominated organisation, especially one that excludes or mistreats women.” Yet Kenyans know of boys-clubs that exist even within the organs of government. Parliament has failed to ratify the Two-thirds Gender law. Women remain a minority in the august House despite this important constitutional provision, clearly, a back-handed compliment to them.

Award themselves

Further, Members of Parliament (MPs), considered among the best remunerated in the world, routinely award themselves perks that are inordinately high. In a country where the vast majority subsist on less than a dollar a day, these emoluments are a slap in the face of the people they represent. An egregious proposal to award themselves “night allowances” has been deemed nothing short of theft from public coffers, not unlike corruption in the ranks of state officers that the government appears powerless to contain.

However, it is the split within the ruling Jubilee party that has degenerated into an undiplomatic farce. Divided into Tangatanga and Kieleweke; teams representing sectarian interests, all attempts to reconcile appear to have failed. Calls for a parliamentary group meeting to resolve wrangles have been snubbed. Jingoists from both sides of the divide have upped the ante by appealing to ethnic constituencies. It seems an all-out war of words is inevitable, which is sad considering former British politician Tony Benn once said, “All war represents a failure of diplomacy.”

Kenyans only have themselves to blame. The electorate routinely falls for the lies of leaders who don’t make the integrity cut according to chapter six of the constitution. They also fail to see that the colonial enterprise which brought on the colour bar has been superseded by neo-colonialists, the true black men in white skins.

These are elitists who segregate based on social class and use politics and economics as tools to perpetuate their social status. Even as Michael Joseph’s and Peter Kenneth’s statements may have represented a lack of social nous, they are a back-handed reflection of who Kenyans really are. Because every country can only give its best, Kenyans have the leaders they deserve!

Mr Khafafa is Vice Chairman, Kenya-Turkey Business Council