different level , what can only be termed as pathological lies .
What is perplexing is that when called out on many of these deceptions , his go to modus operandi is to double down on the claim or to deftly shift the blame to the previous administration . Interestingly he is simultaneously the victim and the savior .
When the opposition organized demonstrations protesting the imposition of numerous unjustified taxes and the government ’ s plan to unilaterally appoint commissioners to the electoral commission , he quickly acquiesced to a bipartisan national dialogue committee .
But in his typical Machiavellian style of operation , all he wanted was for the opposition to be out of the streets with no intention of ceding an iota of ground to them . The NADCO report was dead on arrival as it was just another typical deception .
He is slowly but methodically implementing all the changes he has proposed no matter how much opposition he faces from the public in who ’ s good the actions are supposedly aimed at . Why would it be difficult to sell a good project for the public to the public .
He has the parliament comfortably in his pocket with a comfortable majority hence he can and will pass any law that he feels will advance his agenda which is progressively becoming vague and opaque as public participation seems abolished .
The judiciary is hamstrung , trying to pretend to be independent , in a compromising alliance with an executive that seems more than happy to throw morsels of goodies its way for good behavior and smoothening rough legal patches .
We are slowly but surely getting to the point where the truth has become what the president tells us is the truth . A whole country of fifty million souls has magically acquired one voice , that of the president , but the restive masses are becoming agitated .
The rumblings of discontent are starting to be audible as the head of state or should he correctly be called the head of tax , continues to force unpopular policies on a disgruntled and disillusioned population .
The level of arrogance and insensitivity especially when he bulldozes an unpopular project is reminiscent of the reprehensible demonstration of bad manners that was once the hallmark of his political attack dogs .
Kenyans are now comfortable with the idea that any promise the president makes will be broken with total lack of remorse . His legacy projects which he does not bother to sell to the public are met with skepticism .
Kenyans are resigned to the reality that they are on their own and that the government does not serve but oppress . The multiple taxes and undue invasion into the privacy of individuals are meant to serve his immediate coterie .
Since the president has demonstrated that he has scant respect for Kenyans , the public is returning the compliment by ignoring him and his presence is no longer an awe-inspiring experience but an unwelcome bother .
His internal score card one year into his presidency is not impressive and what makes him so unpopular is his knack of passing the buck and never taking responsibility for the mess that is the economy , given that he was elected specifically because he said he could fix it .
His penchant to irritate seems to have overflowed the borders and he has managed to rub neighbors the wrong way while trying to position himself as the regional kingpin disregarding the fact that he is the new kid on the block .
Regional spats with nearly all the members of the expanded East Africa Community begs the question on what his real agenda for the region is . Why is Kenya choosing to annoy the very group that is crucial to its future economic stability ?
The once powerful and pioneering EAC which was unfortunately disbanded due to ideological differences but has painstakingly been rebuilt cognizant of the fact that such a union is imperative to wield an economic punch .
So why does Kenya seem unable to keep its nose out of the internal affairs of member states and the palpable hostility that it has engendered in the region was rewarded by its sixtieth independence anniversary being ignored by EAC member states .
But Kenyan ’ s diplomatic faux pas are not confined to the region , Kenya has found itself with egg on its face on numerous occasions from knee jack reactions to world affairs that are made without reference to existing protocols and pacts .
Singularly the most annoying association that Kenya is in , is the unlikely bromance it has with the Bretton Woods Institutions . Unlikely , because Kenya had extricated itself from their clutches but somehow Kenya is once again being run by these inimical institutions .
One has to be amazed that Ghana , a country that is in a similar economic situation as Kenya has adopted fiscal and economic policies that are the exact opposite of what Kenya has adopted and they are promoting productivity while we are contracting .
When President Kibaki introduced his ‘ kulipa ushuru ni kujitegemea ’ campaign , it was to reduce our dependence on donor funding and his widening of the tax net , not raising of individual taxes was matched by a disciplined fiscal spending .
The current tax explosion is foreign driven and totally out of touch with both economics and the citizen . It does not take an expert to predict that the current rise and expansion of taxes will result in precipitating a recession and eventually collecting less tax .
It does not befit a country well when its economic experts disown the government ’ s actions and distance themselves from what they term as endemic corruption . Are they simply incompetent or brutally truthful .
It is worrisome when they proceed to say that they give their advice and opinion on matters economic but the administration is not bound to either listen of follow the proffered directive . Do they know something we do not know .
Increased revenue collection will not lead to growth unless it is accompanied by ethical practices . This country will not progress unless we institute a culture of discipline and honesty and we are certainly lost as a nation if we abandon morality and basic humanity .
It actually seems as though the current Kenyan leadership is responsible for switching off the light at the end of the Kenyan economic tunnel but the question remains as to why a normal , logical and sensible person would do that . What happened to patriotism ?
The Cover Story was assembled and weaved together by the Marketing Africa editorial crew . For feedback or any more discourse please drop us a line at : Info @ marketingafrica . co . ke .