MAL:30:19
FIRST WORD
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Marketing Africa Team
William Kalombo, Mutua Mutua,
Riapius Magoma, Allan Muraya, Fred
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Editorial Contributors
Mutua Mutua
Herman Githinji
Diana Obath
Walter Chabala
Eugene Wanekeya
Senorine Wasike
Irene Mbonge
Enock Wandera
Dr. Mary Mugo
Richard Wanjohi
Robert Wamai
Dr. Clifford Ferguson
Carolyne Gathuru
Marion Wakahe
Kepha Nyanumba
Wasilwa Miriongi
Dr. Maureen Owiti
George Mbithi
Isaac Ngatia
Geoffrey Sirumba
Frida Owinga
Mungai Charles
Susan Makau
Jenniffer Mwangangi
On The National
Disconnect
I
t is pretty irritating when a foreign envoy deems it necessary
to lecture a country’s leadership on domestic issues that they
have no business commenting on. It is considered rude and
very undiplomatic and an affront to the host nation. The now
celebrated case was when several foreign envoys ganged up led by
the very vociferous US envoy, Smith Hempstone, who took on the
Moi regime and became a de facto activist lobby helping the then
harassed opposition who were agitating for pluralism.
You will remember that at that time the west was the critical
financial donors and the country was tittering on the edge of
financial collapse after a series of high level corruption scandals that
were epitomized by the daring Goldenberg scam.
That gang of rebel envoys represented the main donors and as the
saying goes, he who pays the bill calls the tune. The unorthodox
methods they used to pressure the government to capitulate and
allow a free political arena were very effective albeit gauche.
This however created a toxic working relationship where the west
became the prefects of the government and dictated how the
country was run helped by the Bretton Woods institutions that
they controlled and run. That was the time of the unpopular and
impractical Structural Adjustment Programs that were apparently
designed to help the third world, as the developing countries were
then called, to adopt financially sound national programs.
When Kibaki ascended on the national throne the first thing he did
was to remove the yoke of the west donor’s financial strangulations
that had by then become a supra-governments and actually run the
developing countries and called all the shots.
Kibaki turned east and was able to get a measure of control on the
running of the country. But this man Kibaki was honest and he
meant well for the country and he was an astute economist who
knew what the country needed to develop and how to balance the
foreign interests.
More important he had a vision well captured in his Vision 2030
document that laid down a road map to prosperity and where the
country would be in the year 2030 if all the programs proposed in
the plan were carried out diligently to make up for the wasted Moi
era development debacle.
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Marketing Africa
02 MAL30/19 ISSUE
A visionary leader needs to take his dream and force a usually
reluctant populace to embrace it and help them realize their dream
by ensuring that the tough decisions that need to be taken are taken
and the country moves forward.
Unfortunately we have also embraced asinine democratic practices
that stipulate that a leader has a term limit to rule. This very
innocuous requirement has become the bane of developing countries
as often times it works to the detriment of the country.
The stipulation was meant to safeguard a country from developing
political dynasties and creating dictators. In practice though what
was supposed to be avoided has happened and we still have political
dynasties and dictators.