Yes, the President's word should be our bond at all times

During his Jamhuri Day speech, President William Ruto vowed to silence his critics by ensuring the success of his policy initiatives. The president and his team should know this is exactly what Kenyans want.

The best thing Dr Ruto can ever do for Kenyans is to lead a working government that effectively helps us coordinate on provision of public goods and services, and creates enabling conditions for individuals to flourish and live their best possible lives. Nothing more, nothing less.

Furthermore, the president and his team must accept that receiving harsh criticism is part of the job. Thinking Kenyans would be justified in suspecting that the president will not keep his word.

It would not be the first time that he or one of his senior subordinates made a commitment in public that was not followed through.

This is one of the more unfortunate truths about the Kenya Kwanza administration. Senior officials do not keep their word. The consequences of this reality are twofold.
First, it erodes state power. The government is a vast enterprise whose effectiveness rests on predictability.

When the words of government officials, including the president, stop being reasonably accurate predictors of outcomes, state power erodes.

Second, the inability to trust the president’s word erodes trust in government and breeds a defeatist cynicism among the general public.

The net effects of this are that individuals move on to distrust members of their community and disengage from collective action endeavours. Society suffers as a result.

Which is to say that the president must do his best to make sure that whatever he promises comes to pass. Every substantive claim that comes out of his mouth should be actionable. It is as simple as that.

This is the more urgent at a time when claims that aren’t fulfilled can be easily exposed and the information spread like wildfire (thereby eroding state power and corroding our social fabric).

Truthfulness from the President is not just a moral question regarding honesty. It has a real impact on the state’s ability to function properly and how we relate to each other in society.

Going back to the president’s Jamhuri Day promise, the approach from State House should not be motivated by a siege mentality and self-deception. The president should genuinely focus on delivering for Kenyans and accepting their feedback.

And above all, he should resist the temptation to only believe the praise-singers around him.

- The writer is a professor at Georgetown University