How new thinking in PNU can help in reforming institutions

By XN Iraki

In the political game of wits, PNU has been a perennial loser to ODM. The Party of National Unity has been playing defensive, reacting to ODM’s political missiles, without any anti-missiles.

The attempt to gain the chairmanship of HBC was pre-empted by ODM’s political stealth leaving the blue party shaken and bruised. It seems that any time PNU is about to settle politically, ODM pulls a rug under its feet.

But after the party retreat in Nakuru, it seems to have suddenly become more politically astute. It seems to have suddenly seen the light of Damascan kind. It was hard to believe it was PNU calling for such radical reforms in governance, including a Cabinet selected from ordinary citizens.

What has prompted a party more associated with conservatism and status quo to suddenly become pro-reform? Was that a smart move or politics as usual?

The failure to capture HBC chairman must have prompted PNU to try and control political events. One ingenious method of controlling political events is to move to the centre, balancing between being too radical and too conservative. You move to the centre by adopting new themes and ideas, often by stealing your opponents’ ideas and repackaging them as your own. By embracing reforms, PNU is trying to steal the wind from ODM’s political dhow, trying to cut an image of a reform minded party, even more than the orange party.

But it might be more than political harassment by ODM, the PNU’s future has never been bright; it behaves more like a polygamous family where wives cannot run away because the husband provides.

Government structure

The departure of Narc-Kenya chairperson Martha Karua might also have jolted PNU into new thinking. The hard reality is that with Kibaki’s constitutional mandate ending in 2012, the party fears finding itself in a political orphanage.

Embracing reforms might be a preparation for post-Kibaki era.

Politically speaking, this was a smart move, because ODM will either have to support the reforms espoused by PNU or come up with their own. If the reforms rhyme with the public mood, PNU will take the credit. It was smart because the suggested reforms makes a lot of political sense and will definitely change our structure of Government.

Suggesting the Cabinet should be selected from ordinary citizens is what the US political system has done for over 200 years. The British system was so ingrained in our national psyche that we find it hard to change.

Yet, it is a fact the US system was improvement of the UK system with its class system espoused by the monarchy and a retinue of sub-classes. Our political leaders still think it is cool to be British. They take their children there for schooling, after retaining the ‘A’ level despite the 8-4-4 system.

New Cabinet

If the PNU proposal sees the light of day, the President will have a chance to select the best brains to the Cabinet without being constrained by a pool of 220 MPs. As the Constitution is now, the quality of our Cabinet, our board of directors is as good as the MPs. The beauty about the PNU proposal is that the president or whoever will have the Executive power can select the Cabinet from 38 million Kenyans. Statistically speaking, this increases the chance of picking the best brains to run the country. The "new Cabinet" will be more efficient because it will owe its loyalty to the nation not their narrow constituents.

On the party with the highest number of MPs getting the premier post, this clearly dovetails with ODM thinking. My concern is that it would be politically prudent if we got either purely presidential system like the US or parliamentary system like India or UK. A hybrid like the GMOs may not be the best political system. We hope the new thinking in PNU is a real renaissance and the party will join other reform minded Kenyans in changing our institutions so that the country can be a better home for all of us-in our lifetime.

—The writer is a lecturer at the University of Nairobi, School of Business: [email protected]