Letting Executive to have its way is Muturi’s Achilles’ heel

Several people have announced their bid for Kenya’s presidency in the August 2022 election. Some have explained to voters what they plan to do if they emerge victorious.  Others say they will explain their policies much later.

But a few of these candidates, if any, have reflected on why Kenya was doing well in terms of development just decades ago and what went wrong to make the country perform poorly later.

These presidential hopefuls need to reflect on what went right in the 1970s and what went wrong for the country to fail years later.

In the 1970s and even 1980s, Kenya outperformed many countries that are now referred to as developed, mostly in Asia and Latin America. Let us use per capita income as an example.

This is the hypothetical amount of money every person would get if the economy is shared equally among all in a country.

As recent as 1990, Kenya outperformed China in per capita income. Every Kenyan had more money than what a person in China had.

Kenya’s per capita income was $361 or about Sh3,600 while China’s was $318 or approximately Sh3,180 at a conservative exchange rate.

China improved

In 1987, Kenya’s per capita income was about Sh3,770 while China’s was Sh2,840.

That, however, changed a short while later. China improved – or developed – rapidly, especially in addressing poverty and improving incomes.

In 2019, China’s per capita was about seven times that of Kenya. Poverty levels reduced considerably.

While China contributed more than a third of the World’s poor people three decades ago, the numbers have dropped significantly today. Unfortunately, the number of Kenyans families in grinding poverty remains very high.

Close to 36 per cent, or 17 million Kenyans, were living below the poverty line in 2018.

The number of poor people locally has been growing from independence but the reverse is true for China. This is despite Kenya having outperformed China in the 1980s and early 1990s.

Kenya outperformed several other countries during the period. In 1980, Kenya was at par with Indonesia in terms of per capita.

In 2020 Indonesia’s per capita income was more than twice that of Kenya.

In 1990, Kenya’s per capita was four times that of Vietnam. Vietnam's per capita was about Sh950 while Kenya’s was about Sh 3,610.  Vietnam was overtaking Kenya in economic performance by 2010.

Per capita income in Vietnam was about Sh13,170 in 2010 but rapidly shot to Sh27,850 by last year.

Kenya’s per capita income in 2010 was Sh9,910, doubling to Sh18,380 in the same period.

The most interesting thing is that Vietnam , a country ravaged by war from the 1950s to the mid-1970s – is one of the nations that recruited agriculture experts from Kenya.

Vietnam recruited some of Kenya’s coffee experts to help in research and development of the cash crop. This, however, is the story for another day.

What did these countries get right? What went wrong in Kenya and how did these other countries take off?

Leadership

In these other countries that outperformed Kenya, leadership really matters.

Their leaders have long-term visions of development and are always thinking and considering how to lift millions of citizens out of poverty. Leaders put the interests of their countries first.

Some of these countries have had bad governance or suffered bloody wars but they also have strong institutions. There is the rule of law. The leaders and citizens value merit.

People are appointed to run public institutions because they are capable. It is merit that counts in these countries. 

Even more importantly, the leadership commits resources to research, education and basic services.

Above all, these countries have very strong social protection policies.

They care for the poor by providing money for food, clothing and skills for work. They provide health insurance for all.

What we need to ask ourselves is where the rain began beating us?

My previous articles on leadership and the 2022 presidential candidates showed Kenya has failed to take off like these other countries because of governance failure, a weak culture of the rule of law, weakening of key institutions, among other factors.

Anyone hoping to take over from President Uhuru Kenyatta should, therefore, be judged on the basis of ability to build credible institutions and punish abuse of power.

Unfortunately, we have not been in dialogue on how and what made this country go wrong.

All we know is that the economically and politically powerful elites have not paid any attention to why Kenya has failed to improve its mark. We continue talking about poverty, ignorance and disease in this century.

These are the same issues the country’s founding aimed to eradicate in the early 1960s.  We have also failed to discuss value.

The constitutional provisions on leadership and integrity no longer guide the conduct of leaders in public and in office.

As things stand, it will take many years to get back the values we deserve to build a better society.  But it will take strong leadership and commitment to rebuild the country.

Building a better society will depend on the type of person Kenyans will elect president next year. 

Is Justin Bedan Njoka Muturi a better alternative?

The National Assembly Speaker, popularly known as JB among his peers, declared intention to contest the country’s highest office months ago.

Mr Muturi first went to Parliament after winning a by-election for Siakago seat on a Kanu ticket in 1999.

Before running for this parliamentary seat, Mr Muturi had served as a principal magistrate in Nairobi but his legal career was terminated after he was interdicted on allegations of bribery. The matter took long to conclude but he was acquitted. Mr Muturi did not return to the Judiciary.

It is possible that Kanu employed the carrot-and-stick approach on him to run on the party ticket.

The opposition Democratic Party (DP) dominated Embu district and the rest of Mt Kenya region.

Associating with Kanu in the region was such a bad thing that few dared to do so, except for opportunistic purposes.

JB Muturi won the mini-election. He was re-elected in 2002 but lost five years later. 

Mr Muturi contested again in 2013 and lost.

Nonetheless, he was friends with President Uhuru Kenyatta whose party had a majority in Parliament following the March 2013 elections.

This guaranteed Mr Muturi’s election as the first National Assembly speaker under the 2010 Constitution, a position he still holds.

JB Muturi cannot claim to be progressive. He has never claimed to be, even in his days as a student at the University of Nairobi.

There is one memorable occasion that a columnist narrated about Mr Muturi in one of the local dailies.

In 1981, University of Nairobi students organised to publicly protest and demonstrate against the government, blaming it for a number of things.  The protest went on, leading to expulsions.

However, JB Muturi and two other students – Moses Wetang’ula and James Kelonya – went to Nation House to disown the demonstration.

They pleaded with the Daily Nation team not to print their names.

However, the Daily Nation published their photographs without their names the following day. That did not go well with the rest of the student fraternity.

JB Muturi’s performance as a National Assembly Speaker has not been remarkable.

His area of responsibility as the leader of the National Assembly appears to include protecting the government.  He helps secure the interests of the Executive.

Many laws that have been passed in the National Assembly at the urging of the Executive, only for the courts to find them unconstitutional.

The leadership of an independent National Assembly would have stopped the Executive early enough.

JB Muturi’s tenure as the Speaker of the National Assembly has witnessed a deteriorating relationship between Parliament on one hand and the Judiciary and Senate on the other.

Supremacy contests with the Senate denigrated the integrity of Parliament in an unprecedented manner.

Legal disputes with the Senate over the Division of Revenue Bills continue to recur but our courts side with the Senate.

There have been about 23 laws the National Assembly passed without the involvement of the Senate.

Again, the country’s courts have found these laws to be unconstitutional.

Under JB Muturi, the actions of the National Assembly have generally weakened devolution.

The National Assembly has sought to exert the interests of the Executive even where devolution was the matter for consideration by the Senate.

JB Muturi has allowed the Executive to have its way on virtually anything and everything.

The Executive began taking loans at will because the National Assembly under JB Muturi’s watch allowed it.

The National Assembly has played a poor oversight role on maladministration and bad governance.

Unfortunately, efforts to establish a parliamentary ombudsman to check on the gluttony of lawmakers and address administrative complaints have failed.

Mr Muturi’s tenure as the head of the Parliamentary Service Commission would have established the ombudsperson’s office if there was strong commitment to foster integrity in the National Assembly.

JB Muturi’s quest to be the president of Kenya, unfortunately, is not exciting.

His performance as the transitional National Assembly Speaker has not resulted in a strong and independent Parliament.  The executive overwhelmed him.

As the first National Assembly Speaker under the 2010 Constitution, JB Muturi should have strengthened the independence of Parliament. This would have been sufficient ground for his 2022 presidential ambition.

He had the opportunity to stand tall.

All that he can do is pray that the leading presidential candidates – and they are few – consider him for something else. He does not, unfortunately, have the opportunity to make choices on what they can offer him.

Prof Karuti Kanyinga is based at the Institute for Development Studies (IDS), University of Nairobi, [email protected]