Of Ababu and 'development' politics

In their constant clamour for the hearts and minds of the public, governments frame what they do in ways that depict them in better light and throw negative light on their opponents.

During the KANU regime for instance, the government framed itself as 'development-conscious,' while those who opposed it were labelled as 'enemies of development'.

This would have been comical, if not for the fact that the ruling party then had the instruments for turning its opponents into actual enemies of development by withholding development initiatives earmarked for areas where they came from.

It would then turn to the suffering wananchi in the opponents' strongholds, telling them that they should elect 'development-conscious' leaders to get development, which was a euphemism for voting for the ruling party and its candidates.

The framers of the 2010 Constitution were well aware of this cynical fact of our developmental history, such that they withdrew the development of the country from the whimsical discretion of politicians and vested it elsewhere.

One would have expected that this progressive constitutional provision would have sunk into the crop of politicians who are active under the current constitutional dispensation. But since old habits die hard, once in a while, you hear some politician here or there erupting with such Kanu-era statements as "I have decided to work with the government for the sake of our people".

What is absurd about these statements is that they sometimes come from governors who head their own governments and are protected not just by law, but the Senate and a myriad other institutions from any denial of development by whatever power in the country.

One would be forgiven to expect such statements from unpolished, Kanu-era politicians who could still be hankering for their glorious past. But when the statements come from the likes of the ODM Secretary General Ababu Namwamba, then one begins to fear that actually the era of the 'development-conscious leader' is back.

Mr Namwamba has for long projected himself as a suave and urbane, post-2010 politician who debates issues as opposed to spewing demagoguery, typical of the unpolished politician.

Having been among the pioneers of progressive civil society in Kenya through his NGO, the Chambers of Justice, he cut the public image of a progressive leader who would contribute to the transformation of the country's politics from the tribal patronage politics that had been cultivated under the mantra of 'development-conscious leaders'.

Yet coming out of a recent visit to State House, Mr Namwamba fell for the old script borrowed from Kanu-era politicians to explain himself. As one of the most vocal opponents of the current government, he felt compelled to explain why he was pictured in near-embrace with his hitherto political opponents. And explaining Mr Namwamba did.

It was not for politics, he said, we only went there to discuss the economic empowerment of our people. Fair enough, one would say. But a politician is a politician 24 hours a day. Whatever a politician does consciously in public, including taking pictures of himself in a swimming pool with his spouse is politics. Politics is not a jacket one removes depending on the weather.

Although the meeting at State House was ostensibly to discuss the revival of Mumias Sugar Company, it cannot be that Mr Namwamba and the other Luhya politicians arrived in State House and decided to remove their political jackets in order to discuss the 'empowerment of our people' devoid of politics. They were there as politicians and they did what politicians do best – passing coded political messages.

All in all, whatever political loyalties Mr Namwamba and the delegation he led to State House may be cultivating, what should worry those who thought that the new Constitution was transformative enough to help us see the last of the 'development-conscious' leader is seeing the likes of Mr Namwamba join this pernicious bandwagon.

As hinted above, it should be clear to all Kenyans that post-August 2010 one does not need to "work with the government" to access public funds or have their region develop.

Development is a right guaranteed to all citizens by law. When the likes of Mr Namwamba join this bandwagon, it not only threatens to hold back the benefits of equal development across the country envisaged by the Constitution, but it also revives the patronage politics of the pre-2010 era in which a single, almighty and overbearing individual determined what happened across the country and rewarded and punished as his whimsical discretion directed him.

We thought we had passed that phase, but the likes of Mr Namwamba are pulling us back there.