Here comes another season of catchy slogans, political pledges

A campaign truck with 'Kibaki Tena' slogan.[File,Standard]

Deputy President William Ruto’s ‘bottom-up’ slogan may be the most notable rallying call, but it is not the only campaign messaging centred around the economy.

ODM leader Raila Odinga has his ‘trickle-down’ model, with the emerging One Kenya Alliance working to craft a slogan that would match their proposed mission to “revive the economy”.

Ruto has explained his approach as spurring economic growth from the grassroots by investing heavily at the bottom of the pyramid. Raila’s trickle-down model focuses on pumping resources at the top, cascading them down to the bottom with the hope that employers will hire more people.

In the face of a limping economy – which experts contend will still struggle to find its feet in the foreseeable future – the conversation around next year’s elections will largely feature economic reforms.

Politicians have begun touting themselves as the solution to the economic burdens facing citizens, and are dishing lofty promises aimed at winning supporters.

“It is not about catchy slogans that sound good. What Kenyans need are urgent solutions to their immediate problems,” warns governance consultant Tom Mboya.

“Politicians can use all the fancy terms to explain what they have borrowed from other countries, but it would be better to be simple in dealing with real issues.”

And this is not the first time the politicos are flying such pledges.

In 2013, the Jubilee administration promised to grow the economy by double digits. The World Bank has projected that the economy will grow by 4.5 per cent by the end of the year, and five per cent by the time Jubilee will be finalising its term next year.

But the slow growth is majorly due to effects of Covid-19 pandemic. Even then, the economy was growing slower than President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy Ruto had promised, at 5.4 per cent, at the end of 2019.

With the campaign season beckoning, similar promises of improving the economy will be on the lips of many a politician, who will insist that their agenda is to reduce the cost of living. To achieve their collective dream, they will promise, among others, affordable healthcare and education.

Also related is the DP’s ‘hustler’ agenda. The narrative has sparked different emotions among Ruto’s sympathisers and detractors and will continue to be a talking point.

Through the narrative, Ruto presents himself as a common mwananchi, like millions of the voters, facing the odds that never favour those of his alleged “ilk”. In his world, Ruto faces a “dynasty” keen to keep those ‘of his kind’ out of leadership – even though the DP denies coming up with the dynasty talk.

“What the DP has done with his hustler narrative is impressive. We have done studies that show that pockets of people across the country identify with the narrative,” opines Karuti Kanyinga, a professor of political science at the University of Nairobi.

To opponents of Ruto, the hustler message threatens to put a wedge between the rich and the poor, in addition to the ethnic differences. 

At the centre of the economic debate and the ‘hustler’ narrative are the youth. Campaign seasons herald promises for this bloc that makes up most of the population. In previous election seasons, politicians have promised to create jobs for the youth.

Uhuru’s Jubilee Party had promised a million jobs for the youth that remain a mirage. While touting their respective economic models, politicians are already promising that the youth will be the biggest beneficiaries.

“Recent surveys on the direction the country is taking have shown that many Kenyans think it is going the wrong way because of issues such as unemployment amongst the youth and the cost of living... Politicians have learnt over time to align their strategies with what the youth may want,” says economist Ken Gichinga, explaining why topics around the economy feature heavily in campaigns.

Throughout the life of the Jubilee administration, many have raised the alarm over its insatiable appetite for debt. So much so that the various presidential hopefuls have termed it a priority area if they get elected next year.

Amani National Congress leader Musalia Mudavadi is among the fiercest critics of the government’s borrowing and is banking on the issue as a key pillar of his campaign messaging.

Before it was fashionable to talk about the economy, the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) had a stranglehold on the country’s political discourse. For both sides of the divide, the BBI was a tool to maintain relevance.

While its supporters, led by Raila, propped it in a bid to up their stature, opponents trashed it to endear themselves to their bases, and both sides were winning new allies. That was until the High Court knocked the key players off-balance by declaring the BBI-fronted constitutional amendments unconstitutional.

A reversal of the High Court’s ruling by the Court of Appeal on August 20 would breathe life into the antagonistic sides, providing fodder for their campaigns a year before the country goes to the polls.  In such a case, Raila – a key player in the BBI process – may benefit from renewed momentum.

If the Daniel Musinga-led court agrees with the High Court, Ruto might use the chance to gloat over Raila’s loss, as he has done since the judgement, even as all camps move on to other topics.

And corruption will be among the fall-back campaign topics. All sides will accuse each other – as they have done countless times before – of being more corrupt. Raila is banking on the ‘high priest of corruption’ tag he has used before on the DP.

On his part, the DP is likely to carry on with his messaging around the Kenya Medical Supplies Authority (Kemsa) scandal that he has accused opposition figures of being behind.

The politicians will also trade blame on the failures of the Jubilee government and its broken promises. At the moment, Raila and Ruto are blaming each other for the failures of Uhuru’s administration.

On the one hand, Raila insists that Ruto must shoulder the blame since he dished the promises on the campaign trail. On the other, the DP claims the opposition leader boxed him out of the government, and through his Handshake with the president derailed the Jubilee administration’s agenda.

The one million non-existent jobs, the nine international stadia that remain imaginary and the laptops for Standard One pupils that was never fully implemented are some of the broken promises upon which the leading figures will trade blame.

But perhaps the most significant issue that would dominate the campaign season is the credibility of the Wafula Chebukati-led Independence Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC). [Brian Otieno]