Kagwe in the deep end of Kenya Kwanza mistrust, can he help?

Agriculture Cabinet Secretary nominee Mutahi Kagwe. [File, Standard]

The person to advise the Kenya Kwanza government is not yet born. We may, accordingly, want to sympathise with Mutahi Kagwe, newly called to the Ruto Cabinet to lead the Agriculture and Livestock docket.   

As Kagwe himself would say, this government does not get it. A respected and seasoned marketing professional, Kagwe is a part of President Ruto’s latest marble juggling in Cabinet. This technocrat was appointed to President Uhuru Kenyatta’s final Cabinet at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. His style was remarkable.

He was persuasive and respectful in managing public communications during the crisis. He got a critical mass of Kenyans to wear masks, get vaccinated and take other protective and preventive measures. Kagwe was charming, affable and likeable, to the very end of that tour of duty. 

Now President Ruto, in consultation with retired President Uhuru Kenyatta, has brought him back for firefighting. The proposed vaccination of 22 million heads of cattle in the country, and some 55 million short livestock is his first assignment. It is an unnecessary fire to fight.

Kagwe may well begin his mission to political katabasis, or shelve for a long time any further political plans. This is unless part of the deal that Uhuru negotiated with Ruto provides that Ministers will be allowed to be Ministers. They will tell the boss the truth. For his part, the boss will consider all good advice.  

You see, this government does not know how to roll out programmes and campaigns. It starts by jumping the gun. Let us stay with the proposed vaccination of livestock. The first announcement was by President Ruto himself.

It was a random pronouncement as he addressed other equally random matters. “I want to announce that in order to attract external meat markets, we shall from January next year vaccinate some 22 million cattle, and up to 55 million goats and sheep.”  

And you expect Kenyans to buy that? First, the message came out through the wrong messenger. The abrupt manner and choice of occasion were also wrong. So, too, was the absence of forward looking campaign strategies. As the national CEO, the President is the manager of last resort. He should also be the last to speak, unless it’s a life-and-death affair. 

This column said last week that presidential pronouncements should be rational imperatives. They must be measured, balanced, and awake to public sensibilities. A public programme of the magnitude at hand, therefore, should not be announced abruptly. The President is also the wrong messenger.  

When the manager of last resort miscommunicates, or makes a blunder; or is otherwise misapprehended, it is very difficult to make an acceptable correction. President Moi understood this very well. He floated balloons through sundry political and technocratic gadflies.

He would then allow the country to debate the matter as he monitored keenly, all the time taking expert advice. Where the headwinds were too strong, he would order an end to the conversation and invite the nation to focus on other issues. The contestation would end. The dignity of the person and office of the President remained intact.  

The vaccination saga is going to be Kagwe’s baptism by fire. Kenyans are hearing all manner of conspiracy theories. Most touch on introduction of genetic modification of the animals. And through eating them, they say, people will also be genetically modified.

Now the challenge here is that this government has built for itself the ethos of an entity that cannot be trusted. This is where ethos are important in everyone’s life, and especially for those in authority. What do people know you for? What is their foremost thought when they see you? Do they say to themselves, “Here is this liar again. What is it this time?”  

Kagwe may want to persuade his new boss to permanently shelve this vaccination thing. It was wrongly headed. It should have been rolled out with a proper public communication campaign plan that would begin with small teams of key opinion shapers in pastoralist communities, as well as legacy media and influencers in social media.

Fears, hopes and possible impediments should all have been thought through, and communication mitigation plans prepared. They should also have thought of other potential partners and a wide range of activities to popularise the plans.

As things stand, there is only shouting, banging of tables and insolence. I would like to congratulate Kagwe on his new appointment. But how do you congratulate a good man about to fall on another person’s sword? 

-Dr Muluka is a strategic communications adviser

www.barrackmuluka.co.ke