Protests crisis presents opportunity to reset our political and social order

Anti-Finance Bill protestors jump out of Parliament on June 25, 2024. [Boniface Okendo, Standard]

The arc of history has once again bend towards those awkward moments of putting together an article to a national audience with deeply divided emotions.

Whichever way, this column has to do its solemn responsibility of rendering an objective assessment of the realities before us, guarded by the balance of evidence.

Right from the onset, I must condole with the families that have lost their loved ones in the conflict, pray for quick recovery for the injured and those who shall forever bear emotional scars out of it. You have left a mark in our struggle for a democracy that works for us all.  

Before we venture into our ‘domes’ as the Gen Zs would put it, let me share a quote from John Adams, ‘Liberty cannot be preserved without a general knowledge among the people, who have a right…and a desire to know (1765)’.

Having said that, it is critical that we confront some certain brutal facts. One, democracy is a double edged sword that cuts both forward and backwards. Thus, those who espouse its tenets have a responsibility to accept its outcomes, whether it favours them or not. Two, let no one lie to anybody that a government put into office through the exercise of universal suffrage of the people can just be thrown out from the streets and live just moves on normally. For instance, can anyone erase the events of 13th September, 2022, 12.44pm to be precise? Overthrowing such a Constitutional order otherwise can only be a messy and bloody affair.

Three, the fight for our economic rights and freedoms will be a long battle, especially with our jaded moral and broken social fabric. While we must demand total fidelity to the people on the part of our leaders, we must own-up to our roles as either willing perpetuators or abettors of that which we accuse them of. A candid and honest audit of what got us into this mess is what will solve the generation grievances bedeviling the nation 60 years into our independence. As they say, a society can only beget the leaders it deserves.

The question now is: what brought us here and what are the options out? 

Diagnosis

Six things will ultimately determine if the nation will emerge strong or if it will be sunk by this crisis.

First is the obvious breakdown of order and official decorum in government. It is completely distasteful for the President and his deputy to appear to be reading from different scripts when the legitimacy of their administration is gravely in question. Such inspires no hope even for those who may want to give them a benefit of doubt after the President yielded to public demands to decline to ascent to the Finance Bill 2024. Such fuels conspiracy theories of internal self-sabotage while foul speech of the President foments positions of those baying for the regime’s blood.

Second is the economic anomaly that hoards wealth to those with access to State power. In a capitalist economic system like ours, money and wealth is predominantly in the hands of entrepreneurs, business owners and investors. Tragically, however, our economic system seems to hoard money only into the hands of State functionaries. How do public officials with no known businesses become multi-millionaires overnight, live in wanton opulence, yet we cheer them?

Three is our individual and collective patriotic and civic responsibilities. As indicated earlier, the political leaders that we have is a true reflection of who we are as a society. They were elected from among us by us. They are an outcome of 50, 100 and 200 bobs distributed in political rallies; poisoned donations to WhatsApp groups, all manner of  harambees, burials and places of worship during the campaign period. So as electorate, we sold our souls for a morsel. It is time to lie on the bed we make each election cycle. Modern economic systems offer no free lunches for anyone.

Four is the thorny issue of campaign financing. Let us face it, why would candidates be willing to splash millions or billions of their own money to run for public office? In functional democracies, political party structures and voters sponsor good candidates, mobilise and fundraise for them. In our version of democracy, political parties and voters blackmail candidates to bankroll them and for handouts respectively.

To the Gen Zs and Millennials championing for reforms, you must rise above this behaviour if you seek to alter our democracy, or else your sweat and blood would have been in vain. You cannot line for handouts from politicians and at the same time demand accountability from them. Equally painful, over seven million registered voters never showed up in any polling station on August 8, 2022. Majority of these would be the Gen-Zs and Millennials in the streets. If you do not show up on the ballot, then you equally must not show up on the streets. Democracy comes with responsibility!

Five is leadership responsibility on both sides of the combatants. It is depressing for any taxpayer to analyse our budgets, especially in the face of crippling taxes. Take for instance the budget for the Presidency that has come into sharp focus in these demonstrations. In fiscal year 2010/11, at the height of the bloated ‘Nusu-mkate’ government and when the Constitution was promulgated, the total budget for the Presidency (including the Prime Minsters Office) was Sh5.2 billion.

In 2018/19, the Presidency budget had doubled to Sh10.2 billion, before quickly escalating to over Sh34 billion in the fiscal years between 2020 -2022. The coincidence of these years with the doomed BBI and election period speaks volumes.

Kenya Kwanza took up from where the Jubilee administration left with a budget of over Sh20 billion for the Presidency (excluding Prime Cabinet Secretary’s office). Despite this outrageous numbers, it gets blown in about nine months, necessitating supplementary re-allocations.  How then can taxpayers not be so angry? If we are going to get sobriety in our budget, it must start at this office; otherwise forget it.

Six, it is time we must audit the sanctity of public institutions. One of the glaring collapse of our Constitutional architecture emanating from this crisis if the doctrine of separation of powers. The biggest grievance on the table is that Parliament has become an extension of the Executive, and thus abdicating its sacred duty of representation.

Of all the changes that must happen in these reforms, the National Government - Constituency Development Fund (NG-CDF) must be scrapped and the Sh63 billion reallocated for other development projects. So must all the other Funds associated with elected officials. The Supreme Court definitively ruled on the matter in petition 1 of 2018, on the Constitutionality of the CDF Act 2013 and its amendments.

As per the Court, any Fund directed at service delivery mandate can only be Constitutionally complaint if structured in a manner that does not entangle Members of Legislative bodies and Legislative bodies, to preserve the doctrine of separation of powers. The Court went ahead to list all members of elective offices to clear any ambiguity. Further, the Court directed that tolerating a contrary position would harm the Constitution’s value system, particularly the national values and principles of accountable and good governance. The Sh50 million extra for each Constituency was the carrot to bribe MPs into passing the oppressive taxes.

Finally, the Affordable Housing levy must fall, the impending Social Health Insurance Fund levy suspended indefinitely, CAS positions abandoned entirely and pending bills sorted conclusively as irreducible minimum. Equally, public officers must be banned from participation in all forms of harambees and mandatory lifestyle audit and tax records of top officials made public.