Madaraka fete evoked memories of country's painful path to freedom

President Uhuru Kenyatta waves to the public as he arrived during Madaraka Day 2022 celebrations at Uhuru Gardens in Nairobi on June 1, 2022. [Boniface Okendo, Standard]

On the eve of the Madaraka Day celebrations, a sponsored Facebook ad zoomed on my page. The title was ‘Humanitarian Environment’ and the sponsor was listed as Evelyn Kimathi, and signed below in caps ‘The Dedan Kimathi Foundation’. The content was a beautiful prayer in form of a song to ‘Mwene Nyaga’. The background was what appeared be the celebrations of our independence.

It has images of dreadlocked men being ushered to a podium I suppose to greet the founding president. The crowd would raise their hands in unison as other well-known public officials of the era freely interacted with the masses. The song is in the Gikuyu language, but the message, splendid under the sweet voice behind it is unmistakable even for the non-Bantu speakers.

If am not wrong, the venue must have been Uhuru Gardens, the choice of the 59th Madaraka Day celebrations. It is out of that interaction that I cystallised the subject of today’s article. In a strange twist of coincidence, the president’s core message to the nation hours later flew into the ideas and the questions that weighed heavily in my mind. Totaling 7,730 words, the speech has become an inescapable component of my analysis and reflections here. 

The central question here is: Why did our founding fathers have to sacrifice there all to redeem this nation from colonialists? Others would be: What were their thoughts and what stories did they tell each other while they endured the biting cold out in the forest? On the day of this song, when they sang it in victory, what memories did they carry from the forest?

What were their hopes and have they been met, if not for themselves but for their offspings?

Mind of the leaders

From a policy and administrative perspective, the president’s speech on a day of such historical significance sums up the aspirations, achievements and setbacks of the people. Wednesday marked the last Madaraka Day speech for the 4th President, and possibly his last to the nation before handing over power to the 5th. Further, he also happens to be the son of the founding president which makes it hard to isolate himself completely from the ommissions or commissions of past administrations.

Early on in the speech, he appeals to the ideals and aspirations of the founding fathers and our call to the highest levels of civic obligations and responsibilities. More importantly, his message narrows to the ‘Why’ and not the ‘what’ or the ‘how’. In some strange way, going through the entire speech, a keen analyst cannot fail to notice a sort of contradictions, said or implied. It feels like it addresses two nations in one. The largest chunk of it seems to be addressed to a prosperous and transformative nation, while in the dying paragraphs of the speech, there seems to emerge another nation struggling to find identity and footing.

The basics of effective communication dictates that we start strong on connection with the audience and finish very strong on the substance and envisioning of the future. It may have been unintended, but the weight and burdens of the nation implied towards the end overshadows anything said earlier in the speech. Evaluating the message in total, however, there are three things that stand out to be the ‘mind’ of our leaders.

One, the end justifies the means – framed under four pillars of Big-push investments, economic acceleration, restoration of dignity and political stabilisation, the central message seems to be for as long as there are outputs, it is okay. Those who seek out for outcomes, accountability, transparency and value for money are agents of anti-development. This suggests the citizenry should set aside the very civic obligations and responsibilities they were called into by raising our flag on independence and swallow what is served by the leading elites.

Similar to the ‘Whys’ of doing, the taxpayers must be allowed to ask, for instance, why the country is paying more for each piece of infrastructure. Or why the contractual agreements are shrouded in mystery, yet they obligate the very same taxpayers for many years? Sustainable development is as much about the process as it is for the results. This is the core of civic liberties and obligations.

Two, there are looters and non-looters who co-exist in the same government – the question on the value of the public debt will definitely haunt the Jubilee administration long past their sunset days in power. I am not quite sure why this had to come up again on such an important final address. It was ingenious on the part of his handlers to bring it up and attempt to draw comparatives with South Korea. Not long ago, South Korea kicked out of office and jailed a sitting president for using her office to confer a benefit not even to herself but to a friend.

In all the other highlighted countries there in, the least anyone can get for corruption related charges is a life imprisonment. Often it is a death sentence that certainly will be executed. If public debt is good for as long as it does not find its way into private pockets, how shall we explain all the corruption related cases around most mega projects? Galana Kulalu Irrigation scheme; Covid-19 response; Arror, Kimwarar & Itare dams were all financed with debt. All have collapsed with Covid billionaires out in the large.

The pricey SGR and Expressway remain a mystery as to their costing basis, economic feasibility and their true contractual obligations to the taxpayers. Besides, if someone could dare grab a runway of the busiest airport in the region, how can they still be free, possibly years after the fact became known to the authorities?

Three, the citizens are either incapable of understanding public affairs or are willing accomplices – to talk about visionary leadership and absence of looters in the same paragraph with the corruption menace is a bit nauseating. Only a stranger will talk of corruption in passing around this town. Otherwise, it has become synonymous with our public administration. Besides, to insinuate questioning a growth model that has no visible trickle down effects is anti-visionary is to imply folks have no capacity to understand how public projects connect with there socio-economic welfare.

Facts on the ground   

The last paragraphs are the ones that truly speak the real issues that folks are grappling with, yet they are only mentioned in passing. Just days ago while on a public transport, I listened to fellow passengers lament how Sh5,000 shopping can no longer fill those medium paper bags used to pack customer purchases by the supermarkets. The broader topic in the conversation was the upcoming elections. Yet, this is not an isolated case. It is a true reflection of what the masses feel and think of the state of the nation.

Finally, the banking statistics released days ago is the most factual data anyone can get on the true state of the economy at the micro level. As per this data, of the estimated 67 million active bank accounts, only about 2.5 per cent had at least a bank balance of Sh100,000 in December 2021. If we factor in corporate accounts and multiple account ownership for the rich, it would mean things a lot worse for households.

The obvious implication is that the benefits of the robust growth projected are either highly concentrated in the hands of very few or stashed away in foreign accounts. Otherwise, the growth figures are misleading or not factual.