Uhuru has a right to be angry but with dignity and decorum

President Uhuru Kenyatta may need to manage his succession with more patience than he is doing.

Those close to him might find it a little awkward to talk to him about the need for sedate management of the emotional domain in public space, especially when he is unhappy.

Responsible journalism has the duty to call this to his attention. It is important to remind all our leaders about the need to remain level headed during a political season such as Kenya is just entering.

Those who have been placed in high office, especially, must compromise some of their basic rights for the duration of office. One such right is the right to get uncontrollably angry in public.

Given his standing in society, it is inappropriate for the President to lose his cool in public, and to go on with an irate speech for hours. It is worse to do so in a language which some of your nationals don’t understand.

If it is true that his deputy is involved with corruption, as His Excellency has repeatedly said, then the deputy brings a bad name to the Government. He sets a bad example for youth who look up to him as a role model. He should be removed, in line with the law. His Excellency gains nothing when he loses his cool at what is essentially a cultural festival at a State Lodge, and in State House Nairobi.

At the State House event there was hilarious invective, dancing and drama against the Deputy President. This is sad.

Does this mean, therefore, that President Uhuru Kenyatta should not feel angry when some things annoy him?

Certainly not. The right to feel annoyed, like all other feelings, is a natural right. It is given by God and nature. You cannot bar someone from feeling unhappy. Yet, when you occupy certain positions – at home and in society – you exercise and communicate your unhappiness with dignity and decorum. The President, especially, has the onerous task of keeping his cool in the middle of highly divisive storms, such as caused by campaigns and elections.

Those who drafted the Constitution of Kenya (2010) were aware that nations will often get into hugely divisive periods. In such tempests, they will need somebody to hold them together, united around a greater vision. That person is the President, a unifying symbol under Article 131(e) of the Constitution.

The choice of who should be the next President can be emotive, stormy and disruptive. In Kenya, people have previously been killed in election-related contests. We are all called upon not to lose our heads in these settings.

But what happens when the head of State has lost his cool in these hurricanes? What are ordinary people to do in the circumstances? Do we pretend that all is well, and laugh and clap?

Some will say it is not about the election. They will say the President is angry because someone has been stealing from the public and that the thief now wants to become the President.

But all averagely intelligent people know that this is not the case. They know that the very foundations of the national economy rest on wealth of dubitable origins. Unless we are being told that it is all right for some people to steal, but not so others, it cannot be about theft.

It seems to be more about continuity through succession – perhaps even through a series of successions – and the possibility that the succession plans could be disrupted. But even if More ad rem, the President must never be the one person leading the nation on the path of public anger.

Hopefully the rest of the way ahead will witness more level headed campaigns.

Dr Barrack Muluka is a Strategic Communications Adviser