Manifestos and lofty promises are mere pieces of paper, hold parties accountable

Kenyans at a rally [FILE/Photo Courtesy]

Campaigns have been going on in Kenya since 2013, and even before that. Parties have been making promises, lots of them. This week, party leaders will finally be telling us what they have been campaigning about for that long.

Put differently, this week we will get some commitment on paper from both NASA and Jubilee on why they want you to vote for them in the next 43 days.

There would perhaps be nothing to talk about if manifestos meant exactly what they mean elsewhere.

To a large extent, these documents are supposed to define the competing visions of the two political formations we have in Kenya.

In a normal democracy where elections are fought on ideas, manifestos are supposed to help us decide who to elect and who to reject.

This is not a normal democracy. Not by a long short. It is more of what some people choose to call an ethnocracy or an ethnic census.

In fact someone on a panel I hosted on Kivumbi 2017, said that manifestos and indeed presidential debates will not change how we vote.

Uhuru Kenyatta will still get majority of votes from his backyard in Central Kenya regardless of what the Jubilee manifesto says or doesn't say.

Likewise Raila Odinga is counting on what is usually called Luo Nyanza, Ukambani and so on to bag most of his votes.

Does this mean Uhuru's manifesto is suitable to the people of Central and hostile to those elsewhere? Or does it mean NASA’s manifesto will be friendlier to the people of Siaya for instance than say the people of Nyeri? I doubt it very much.

If manifestos were so important to Kenyans, we should be talking about Jubilee’s scorecard right now, rather than a new manifesto?

Unless of course we are saying that EACC now has prosecutorial powers as promised in the last manifesto or that the 5 new stadia are all built and are now hosting international matches.

Of course, the Opposition may get away with a lot because they have not been in government and so they can promise us heaven if they want.

But if indeed they were serious about manifestos, we would surely have seen an avalanche of legislation sponsored by their MPs seeking to realise some of these aspirations.

We would perhaps hope to see an example of their manifesto in action in any of the 24 counties under CORD parties' leadership. But be that as it may, this is another election cycle and for whatever it is worth, the onus is on us the electorate. Let us not kid ourselves.

We say we want issue based politics? Then let us rigorously interrogate these manifestos and more importantly hold the parties to account for their implementation.

That may just be the ticket out of the never ending ethnic rat race that is our politics today.

@YvonneOkwara