Mr President, suffering Kenyans wi*l report you to God
Dear Mr President,
Sir, allow me to address you here for lack of a better platform. My worry is, you may have stopped reading newspapers the moment you realised they are meant for wrapping meat at the butchery.
Thankfully, you have an able media monitoring and review team to deliver this massage.
A genuine friend always tells the truth even when uncomfortable. No doubt, I’m not your friend but I wish to whisper a few issues.
One, as President you are leading several millions of Kenyans whose self-esteem and national pride is fast fading. They barely survive each day. Some have been living within their means but are gradually finding it too ambitious and reviewing it, thanks to your overburdening administration.
Age has told me there is a lot in a name. The good book says a good reputation is better than frankincense. The reputation you’ve built in under two years of reign, is far less than impressive, to this lot.
One day, while on the campaign trail, you threatened to “report” your distractors to God for reasons you explained. Mr President, tables are fast turning and the Kenyans you addressed then, amid cheers, will report you to the same authority. They are oppressed and their cries will soon, if not yet, reach their maker!
A majority of Kenyans gave you the mandate to lead them, as President, based on the vivid picture of the Kenya you would deliver. They rejected all other offers at the ballot in favour of you.
Sadly, they now feel either you’ve since lost the direction to the Promised Land or you didn’t have the intention of taking them there.
The Mama Mboga, Boda Boda rider and mtu wa mkokoteni on whose backs you rode to power, are wailing in pain over taxation and high cost of living. Please, save them from the elusive hope by either delivering on the promise, revising or revoking it!
Also note that your administration has been diagnosed with worrying symptoms of acute aversion to advice, critique and checks. It’s evident in the way you’ve dealt with independent voices who volunteer counsel when they disagree with your policies or conduct.
First it was Parliament, the arm of government that speaks for the people and mandated to legislate and oversight public service. Apparently, for fear of their check on your excesses, you muzzled the people’s representatives through buyouts, intimidation and adoption.
The watchdog is now toothless, too weak and compromised to execute its mandate independently. It has mutated to an able annex of the Executive, leaving voters disenfranchised.
Then, Your Excellency, came the media and civil society’s turn. First it looked, as presented, like a leak of government’s view of the media. It was apologised for. Soon, a pattern of a declared war on the media was unmistakable through spiteful remarks from high profile State officials to the public watchdog.
And though gradually the attacks subsided, perhaps because the Fourth Estate didn’t bow to the threats and intimidation, there are fears it may be an agenda shelved for later execution. Let’s watch this space. In the meantime, the media has taken its position and now getting bolder in checking your excesses. A fact!
Now it’s the courts’ turn. Mr President, the blows you are raining on the Judiciary, whose independence you vowed to protect in your inauguration speech, may leave ours a battered nation.
In the words of Chief Justice emeritus David Maraga if anyone can’t stand an independent Judiciary, let them initiate a referendum and scrap it altogether. The unhealthy relationship the Executive is courting with the courts will only erode public confidence and independence of the Judiciary.
Finally, unless it’s a deliberate resolution to show the middle finger to the rule of law and the people of Kenya, Mr President, Kenyans don’t deserve the uncaring, unfeeling attitude your administration is exhibiting.
— The writer is a PD editor, [email protected]
