Political scavengers on the rampage amid crisis

This year has been a grim period of uncertainty and it is ending on a rather dull note. The inescapable effects of the novel coronavirus have caused 1.7 million deaths worldwide and curtailed most social freedoms, in a way rarely seen before. The pandemic has transformed social and political life and remade state institutions in a way never seen before.

The inability of the State to respond creatively to the crisis has now led to widespread industrial unrest in the medical field and shattered dreams of many.

Optimism is understandably difficult to sustain when surrounded by so many depressing sights and scary milestones:  masked family members, lost jobs, familiar names succumbing (including medical doctors), curfews, children out of school for what now seems like ages and economic devastation.

Incessant warnings by the media keep reminding us to maintain safe distances from death – our own death- which seems so dangerously nigh. The usual Christmas air of gaiety and festivity is largely subdued, mainly by the fact that traveling upcountry to unwind - which for many of us is the hallmark of Christmas - is equal to exporting the virus to parents and other vulnerable old folks. The discovery of vaccines by Pfizer and other research companies, which could prove decisive in returning life to normalcy, has barely lifted spirits.

Locally, the parlous atmosphere has been further darkened by the opportunistic capitalism sprouting around the Covid-19 pandemic, and which has created a perverse incentive for the heist of billions set aside for purchase of PPE and treatment of patients. This has happened as insurance companies pulled out of underwriting coronavirus patients.

Consequently, the state has exposed itself to public scrutiny and ridicule when viewed through the lens of this pandemic, by being unable to judiciously fix the Covid-19 pangs. This combination of events has opened up opportunities for political scavenging, the prey being a divided, vulnerable people and a weakened economy. But it should not be all gloom. Historically, many of the world’s greatest triumphs – social, scientific, or political - happened, either sequentially or concurrently, with great adversities. Therefore, for those of us who are resilient and courageous enough, similar opportunities exist while the coronavirus rages, more so when it hopefully grants mankind detente.

The millions who acquired new skills online are examples of those who found opportunities in adversity. In a way, the vaccine-making conglomerates and the Kenyan ‘disaster capitalists’ are in another class of treasure hunters together with opportunistic politicians who follow behind the Grim Reaper to ‘mourn with the bereaved’- a local euphemism for using funerals as vote-hunting platforms.

In the throes of the Great Depression in America, some among the American political class found time to flirt with radical intellectual movements and ideas, as well as with the notions that models for a more humane society could be only be found in the Soviet Union. In Kenya, similar political effects could easily take place, especially if most people easily associate the current political leadership with the pangs of Covid-19 such as economic slump and unemployment. As such, people are vulnerable to ideas that could provide hope - real or pseudo.   

Kenyan political aspirants, more so those eying the presidency would do well to heed lessons from the indefatigable American president Franklin Delano Roosevelt, he of the “the only thing to fear is fear itself” fame, on how to leverage adversity.

In 1932, by opportunistically dangling hope to a poverty-ridden populace which was in some cities experiencing 100 per cent unemployment rate, Roosevelt defeated incumbent Herbert Hoover and was elected president for a record four terms.

As they energetically push their agenda, the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) proponents, in particular, should be wary of the deceptive danger of reveling in the comfort of incumbency.

Their invigilance could easily render them salesmen of a vast but possibly quixotic project, especially if they ignore the need to schmooze with the common folk. The lesson from Herbert Hoover’s loss is that longsuffering citizens are ultimately more concerned about how much their ordinary lives can be transformed, not with technical governance documents written in soaring rhetoric.

Indeed, Raila Odinga has in recent days tossed aside wooing and flattering and started using lion-like and intransigent language while defending the disputed immutability of the current iteration of the BBI.  Losing touch with the grassroots could prove an expensive gaffe for the BBI strategists.

Meanwhile, Deputy President William Ruto, whose name half-way rhymes with Roosevelt, has also had an equally remarkable opportunity thrown his way by Covid-19 and the attendant economic adversities. Is he able to paint a contrasting canvas with bold enough strokes? Can he ably leverage the rampant economic difficulties and contrive convincing economic emancipation narratives to steal the thunder from his boss Uhuru Kenyatta and Raila?

Can Ruto whip up Kenyans’ emotions highly enough to make them do a protest vote against the status quo? The answers to these questions hinge on his ability to successfully attach a workable ideology to his ‘hustler’ politics.

The events surrounding Msambweni by-election, where the trajectories of the two main political camps converged, provided a perfect view of political scavenging and opportunism taken to extremes. On one hand, Ruto who, being still in Jubilee Party, does not have a political party to support a candidate, claimed the victory of Independent candidate Feisar Bader.

On the other hand, ODM leader Raila Odinga was earlier on so confident that his party’s candidate Omar Boga’s would win that he publicly staked the future successes of the BBI on the outcome of the by-election. Notably, Raila and fellow BBI principal President Kenyatta are not in any political alliance.

The fact that in the end, each camp claimed winner Bader as their own, is a demonstration of how opportunistic politicians take advantage of the desperation, despondency, and hopeless conditions created by economic depression to hoodwink voters.

-Dr Chacha and Dr Wahome teach at Laikipia University.