The essentials of good political advice

First is the need to have a diversity of advisors: old, young, women and men from a variety of regions and representing all shades of opinions. The young will give you emerging nuances while the old will bring the wisdom of time as others represent the voice of the "silent majority".

But allow the elderly to speak a little bit more.

Remember the story of Rehoboam in 1st Kings 12, who ignored the counsel of the elderly? It triggered a rebellion of Israel against the house of David to this day.

Second, give more weight to the advice given by parties that are not together. When advisors congregate in a single room, for instance, a county executive meeting, there is a tendency to calibrate their thoughts to suit the "majority view", which might be erroneous.

Margaret Thatcher, the “Iron Lady,” was the longest-serving British Prime minister in recent years. She served between 1979 and 1990.

Lost confidence

Prime ministers in UK serve only to the extent and as long as they enjoy the confidence of parliamentarians. Everyone thought she was indispensable until Someone told her she had lost the confidence of members of her party in 1990.

She could not believe it, particularly because she thought her Conservative party owed her gratitude having helped the party win three elections in succession.

But her ministers in cabinet could not have the courage to tell her of the underlying unhappiness in the party.

She summoned the ministers one by one into her private office. After these “individual” encounters, she was convinced the party had lost confidence in her.

Third, it helps to entertain political advice from those who appear in society as "nothings". Have you ever wanted to know what your friend truly thinks of you? Buy him drinks. He will speak the truth.

So a village drunkard will tend to tell you "nothing but the truth" as compared to that suit-wearing “noble” you meet in the plush hotel. I have attended several public participation meetings in the village. When we open the meeting for questions and a village drunkard raises his hands, everyone laughs thinking he will say something stupid. To the surprise of everyone, the drunkard tends to speak about the most hidden village problem as opposed to those who sugar-coat issues.

Children can also give political advice hinged on innocence. The Bible states in Mark 9:36 that "whoever welcomes one of these children in my name welcomes me".

People living with disability should also not be ignored. When I was vying as a Councillor at the age of 22 years, I knew I had won when one Gituku came to the polling centre. Since he could not read or write, the returning officer asked him. "Gituku, who are you are voting for?"

He shouted," Kangata". I knew the race was over.

Positions of power

Third, give less weight to the advice given by persons holding positions of power or those under your employment. This category of advisors will always exist. Keep them as you must. But do not trust them 100 per cent. Give more weight to persons outside your orbit with little or nothing to gain.

Fourth, political advice is the opposite of wine: it gets worse with age. Best advice is real-time. In 2013 when I decided to seek the Kiharu MP seat, I sought the views of my friend James, who thought winning was a tall order.

I asked him to randomly call his friends from across the constituency and put them on speaker phone. “That Kangata guy has no chance here," some speakers would say. Of course, one needs strong shock absorbers to digest such raw random political advisory from the ground.

"He has a chance here," others would say.

That method was so effective that in 2017, I tried it in Vihiga gubernatorial politics. My friend, long-serving MP Yusuf Chanzu, was trying to remove incumbent Moses Akaranga. I would call Vihiga people randomly and Yusuf would listen in.

At times Yusuf would be shocked when a fellow he had wined and dined with a few days earlier would disclose he supports Akaranga on phone.

Russian invasion of Ukraine

Fifth, there are several instances when leaders get conflicting political advisories in problematic matters of "you are damned if you chose X, you are damned if you chose Y". The set of circumstances surrounding an issue can provide problematic outcomes and some advice exacerbates the problem.

Imagine yourself as an American President deciding how to counter the Russian invasion of Ukraine. If you decide not to intervene and help Ukraine, you are likely to incentivise Russia to attack NATO members — prompting America to enter the war as per Article 5 of the alliance’s treaty.

Some advisors urge you to stay out of the fray. But on the other hand, if you help Ukraine, you risk provoking Russia and probably cause third world war.

US Presidents have had such knife-edge decision-making instances. Like the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962.

United States faced off with Soviet Union when the latter decided to place Missiles in nearby Cuba.

Some advisors pushed US President John F Kennedy to strike and likely trigger a nuclear war. Others pushed him to negotiate. In the end he averted a crisis.

The same dilemma faced US President Franklin Roosevelt when Germany’s Adolf Hitler invaded Western Europe. Some advisors pushed him to remain neutral. Others said Hitler posed an existential risk to USA.

Two ways can help leaders when confronted with such acute problems. One is history. That means best political advice tends to have historical groundings as opposed to "newfangled inventions". Two is to ask: What is the right and moral option?

If an option goes haywire, the leader will have a clear conscience that he was on the right side of things and also for the public good. Therefore, when a leader is confronted with two hard choices and advisories, choosing the moral side is the best and safest option.

Finally, a leader should appear as “ignorant” as possible before his or her political advisors.

The best advice is given when the advisors see themselves as being superior to a recipient of advice, not the other way around. Political advisors must feel relaxed to talk the truth.

Dr Kangata is the Governor of Murang’a County. Email: [email protected]