FIRST WORD
What the new leaders did to address this unfortunate situation and avoid the countries disintegrating at independence was to seek assistance from the very people they were opposed to and create a transition period to hand over power . This was not popular .
The leaders then embarked on a public relation exercise to try and popularize the new government and to portray control they went to every corner of the country and renamed roads , hospitals , stadia and airports after themselves to portray who was in control .
This propaganda tool , although effective , set an unfortunate precedent because since then the ubiquitous presence of the leaders name in the country has become synonymous with popularity and hence the obtrusive presidential portraits everywhere .
Legacy in the African sense is not the enduring values and beliefs that a leader has for the country that define the ethos of the country best exemplified by Nyerere . In African and especially Kenyan speak legacy means the big and visible projects that are associated with the leader , a PR exercise .
This is a total misunderstanding of what legacy is . One does not determine their legacy , history does . If you ask a Kenyan what they associate with the founding president , the likely answer is that he grabbed land and shortchanged the freedom fighters .
At independence there was a fallout between the group that genuinely wanted the colonist out of our land and the opportunists who took advantage . The fallout was so bitter that it inspired the book ‘ Not Yet Uhuru ’ and the rumblings created then are still felt today .
If you were to ask about Moi ’ s legacy you are likely to get an earful of how his twenty four years of misrule had Kenya take giant steps backwards . It is to his name that the ogre of tribalism will forever be attached and periodic election instabilities that he sponsored .
“ Legacy in the African sense is not the enduring values and beliefs that a leader has for the country that define the ethos of the country best exemplified by Nyerere . In African and especially Kenyan speak legacy means the big and visible projects that are associated with the leader , a PR exercise .”
So the current leadership ’ s obsession with legacy projects is not only misplaced but naïve . People will not remember what was built but will certainly remember how the leader made them feel . For example , was the handshake for personal or national good ?
The end of the term is not what shapes ones leadership and legacy but rather the journey itself . The decisions made or not made and the actions taken or not taken . The two principles failing to unite has put unnecessary pressures on the presidency .
The constitutional limitation of two terms for the presidency also creates an interesting scenario with the president ’ s legacy . The first term is spent solidifying political grip on the country to get re-elected and the final term is spent on grandiose projects to leave a name .
We know for sure that five years is too short a time to initiate and complete major infrastructural projects and what makes this route perilous is that Kenyans believe the projects to be grossly inflated and as corrupt channels to syphon public funds .
One of the legacies that the current government may not escape is the perception of a spendthrift government that impoverished Kenyans with its appetite for loans which at present are at unmanageable levels and the specter of default and economic recolonization is ever present .
We have criminals in government and their cronies who are spared jail terms because they have protection from prosecution . The projects may actually be beneficial but what will actually be remembered are the billions stolen .
The bitter fallout between the president and his deputy has raised some fundamental issues about governance . If the duo cannot separate politically during the term , how is it then possible to allow one party to escape accountability ?
A legacy should be determined by how well the team delivered on their campaign promises and that should be the only criterion to judge the team on whether the reigns of leadership can safely be transferred to the deputy to continue the good work .
The president in his second term has nothing to lose since he is not eligible for office but the deputy has everything to lose if he does not ascend to the presidency . The priorities of the team are not compatible and we probably created an inbuilt failure system .
The country cannot surely develop if part of the government is in campaign mode while the other part is trying to leave a legacy . Whoever clinches the presidency in the coming elections will spend the next five years campaigning and placating his coalition partners to win a second term .
If a second term is won then the megaprojects begin while the deputy goes into campaign mode . This is a recipe for perpetual campaigns and the country cannot afford to eat , drink and dream politics twenty four seven and hope to develop .
Take this scenario and transpose it on the forty seven counties and one begins to appreciate the seriousness of a country obsessed with politics and the many avenues for corruption that the system permits , that is a legacy of a bad constitution . ■
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