KENYAN LEADERS AND
DEMOCRACY;WHAT SORT OF FUTURE? By Jack Adienge.
That Kenyan leaders are anchors of
political crisis,and potentially on the verge of serious decline in action,is
now more or less accepted wisdom among commentators and analysts throughout the
established democracies.Once regarded as a necessary component in the
maintenance of representative government,and as an essential element in the
stabilization and continued functioning of modern mass democracy,political
leaders in Kenya are now often seen to be archaic and outmoded.Moreover,being
dominated by what is sometimes perceived as a self-interested group,or being
criticized for serving as little more than the vehicles for that
group,political leaders in Kenya are now often cited as individuals that stand
in the way of democratic renewal rather than as one of the means by which
democracy itself might still be sustained.Little more than 10 years ago,it
would have been reasonable to question whether meaningful political life
existed outside the world of politicians.Nowadays,it seems more appropriate to
ask whether political life still exists inside that world.
But although there is much
truth,and,indeed,much hard evidence,underlying the contemporary thesis of
leadership decline in Kenya,the argument is also in one crucial sense
misleading.For while political organizations and most politicians may well be
failing,a few political figures are certainly not.This is one of the key themes
which I wish to develop,in that the distinction between party organizations,on
one hand,and individuals as such,on the other hand,is one that is usually
blurred in the contemporary discussions.For a variety of reasons,including
changes in the character of Kenyan democracy,as well as changes in both the
political class itself and in the wider society,political leaders find
themselves less and less to function as representative agencies.The age of
tribal kingpins is passing,and,at least in any foreseeable future,it is
unlikely to be recoverable.At the same time,however,current tribal kingpins do
play an important,and perhaps even increasingly important,role in in the
management of Kenyan democracy.Hence,while their representative role may be
declining,their procedural role remains as essential as ever.One way in which
politicians might therefore assure themselves of a future can be by facing up
to and accepting their changed circumstances,and by seeking to emphasize their
legitimacy as guarantors of a form of democracy which is inclusive,transparent
and accountable.This side of the political shift has already been substantially
documented elsewhere,and need not be rehearsed again
here(Katz&Mair,1995).Suffice is to note three crucial developments which
have marked most African democracies in the past 3 decades,and which look
likely to become even more reinforced in future generations.The 1st of these
concerns is money,and the fact that African politicians,both young and old,are
now increasingly "reliable" due to their corporate survival on
corruption.Indeed,in most societies today,and in almost all newly-established
democracies like South Sudan,the preferred source of political following has
become money,such that citizens are now quite dependent on politicians'
subventions in order to maintain their political interests and loyalty.This is
the heart of darkness.
Secondly,politicians are now increasingly
obliged to conform to new state laws and regulations,which sometimes even
determine the way in which their private functions and organizations run.Many
of these regulations and party laws have been either introduced or extended in
the wake of the introduction of public funding,with the distribution of state
subventions inevitably demanding the introduction of a more codified system of
party registration and control.Controlling party access to the
"publicly" owned broadcasting media has also required a new system of
regulation,which again acts to codify the status of political parties and their
range of activities from having been largely "private" and voluntary
associations which developed from within society and which drew their primary
legitimacy therein,parties have therefore now become increasingly subject to a
regulatory framework which accords them a quasi official status as part of the
state.
Thirdly,many political leaders have
also cemented their linkage to the state by increasingly prioritizing their
role as public office holders.In the terms adopted by the analysts of coalition
formation,politicians have become more office-seeking,with the winning of a
place in government being both a standard expectation and-increasingly-an end
in itself.Added to this is the increasingly observable tendency for financial
and staffing resources for politicians in parliament rather than on the
ground.It is against this backdrop that one can confidently say that,fifty plus
years on,as Kenyan politicians "move" away from their old models,as
representation becomes both more inchoate and less manageable,and as party
organizations look likely to be substituted by organized interests within the
civil society,popular sovereignty also begins to slip away from this more
"protected" nation-Kenya,There are some obvious respects in which
adaptation to such a future is likely to pose a particular difficulty for the
traditional parties of the left.While Duverger(1954) may have adopted too
limited a perspective in treating the mass party as "a socialist
invention",it is nevertheless clear that the model of the mass party that
has now passed was especially well suited to the traditional socialist
project.As such,it is important to remind ourselves that policy,governance and
mechanisms necessary to lay a good foundation for sustainable democratic
society are yet to be formalized in practice.That is why Kenyans of
goodwill,like we in B.A.M.U,must do more to end the looming political poverty
and scarcity,and struggle for a patriotic national culture.It is decent to join
the family of progressive minds doing their best to bring change for the better
for in Kenya,"common decency",said former Kenyan Vice-President
Josephat Karanja,"has been thrown out of the window and replaced by political
thuggery and vindictiveness"
