Business Daily (Nairobi)
OPINION
22 January 2008
By Ochieng’ Oreyo
A lot has been written about Brand Kenya. I am doing that again. Why? Because I want this country to move from writing to doing something about the idea. My writing is directed at every Kenyan, who I remind this country is our motherland. The respect we accord it should match what we extend to our own mothers at home.
I will start by addressing the Office of the Government Spokesman, whose head today is Dr Alfred Mutua. He has been doing a good job until it hit me that daktari was at most times denying, or “talking tough” to remind others about the existence of the Government. Being in charge of telling the public what’s on, Dr Mutua’s office should help Kenyans and the people we, as a country, deal with to know better about Brand Kenya without necessarily dismissing them – like the development partners.
This is the one office that should thumb through wads of Government documents to arrive at facts and figures that our customers and potential visitors in the tourist circles want to know about Kenya.
This office should put emphasis on interpreting data from the Government, its agencies, and even private entities to better inform our markets and publics. Dr Mutua should work day and night, literally, to put into context the political statements that fly from MPs and ministers who want to add their voices to ongoing debates.
Example: When the country was expecting former UN secretary-general Mr Kofi Annan to help with mediation in the current political crisis, and others before him, it should have been the business of the Government to ensure that it has only one voice from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Nobody else.
Most people know about Brand Kenya so far. But we need to graduate from mere awareness and fire on all cylinders to see the constituencies and partners working with Kenya remain loyal all the time – something akin to brand equity.
It is incumbent upon every citizen to visualise the pride of being a Kenyan. A Kenya where tourists will fly pennants reading ‘Destination Kenya’ all the time. But this will only happen when Opposition MPs state publicly that violent protests give the unfortunate picture of a “violent brand”.
A meaningful demonstration should be one that the leaders are able to control. If they find the events spilling through their hands, it behoves them to make a stern statement that they do not identify with criminals or looters.
Kenyan voters, neighbouring countries and the larger international community should see ODM as a political party of today and the future when it takes its war with the Government to Parliament not to block its agenda, but to thoughtfully engage PNU on useful debate resulting in a good life for ‘Wanjiku’ and wooing investors.
We need a Brand Kenya Opposition that will go to court to show a commitment to the rule of law, without being worried about the outcome, but the process. They need to look for the world’s best lawyers to make life miserable for Government counsels – of course they must be willing to pay. ODM has told Kenyans that democracy is expensive. This must not mean that Kenyans will go hungry, be maimed, and killed. No. When people die in droves and indiscriminately, we lose future leaders.
Just like a Zimbabwean opposition MP David Coltart wrote recently in this newspaper, the sessions of election petitions in courts of law should be used to lay foundation for future informed debates, without necessarily saying who lost. The arguments and judgments should be used as cases in future legal battles.
Why the future? A group chief operating officer at a local media house, whom you will permit me to just call Paul, once said: “Put future first. Not once, not twice, but always.”
But having said that, the sitting government has a tough job of showing undiluted commitment to democratic life and culture by allowing demonstrations, but also ensuring that life is made tough for hooligans and goons who take cover in the protest marches to loot and harm innocent “working nationals.” If the media are gagged, politicians are tear-gassed, the brand loses its lustre and passes for any counterfeit.
A scarce product, as economists would say, sells. People queue for such a brand: Investors, tourists, and international students.Fellow Kenyans, I am saying that dismissing other people and talking tough pass as ordinary stuff that we have heard, read about and seen elsewhere before, but which has made such zones pariah states, scarred nations, and areas that “people with money and ideas” have shunned like the plague. They want a Working Nation and a Functioning Country.
Oreyo is a Sub-Editor with the Business Daily.