As disquiet, disbelief and even embarrassment rippled through Parliament over the contentious Parliamentary Powers and Privileges Bill, 2014, a Somali saying crossed my mind: Somali folktale describes an enraged man who runs through a village of straw huts with a burning torch. An alarmed villager warns him not to set the village alight.
“You’ve just reminded me,” said the man. And he sets the homes on fire. Amidst the blizzard of accusations and finger-pointing about who might have sponsored who to do what, I asked myself whether we had missed the bigger picture.
Why would any right-thinking MP bring such trouble on themselves? Did you notice that the Opposition threw their weight behind the mover? Was it worth the trouble? One can understand that at times, the media has fallen short.
But that won’t justify the measures Parliamentarians were agitating for. And least of all, the Opposition who to me, should at all times seek for a partnership with the media as they hold government to account on certain critical decisions.
And that is where the irony of the tale comes in not just in relation to this particular law. MPs have great powers, powers if used well, can be for the good of the country. Why they resorted to wrong use of this power is a mystery.
One could say probably they were marking their territory. And therein lies the rub. Media holds a mirror to society. Sometimes, like in the case of Kenya, the mirror is broken.
The stand-off over the offensive clauses was unnecessary in the first place. But it portrays the extremes of our generation: greed, deceit and hunger for power. Evidently, the MPs intentions were to kick the legs underneath the media.
A properly curious media is an inconvenience when one believes they have something to hide. Two lines in a politician’s manual read; memory is unreliable and voters’ judgment is often relative. So you would ask; who loses when the media is gagged? Kenya or the MPs? Do the politicians rubbing their hands in glee at the prospect of a Parliament devoid of media scrutiny doing any justice to Kenya?
I admire the job of a reporter. You see, reporters walk around sniffing for a story, any story. I have a few friends working in the media and can’t help wondering what drives them. Forget that their senses are powered by an unremitting suspicion of the ruling class. There is something sacred about those fellows. Often, they hold the slimy politicians’ feet to the fire and dig up their dirt.
I am what I am because of the trust of the people of Isiolo county. I owe it to them to do my best. The media helps me stay on the straight and narrow. Period.hey actually help me. I view them as partners not as adversaries. I tell you what, I believe the ladies and gentlemen of the Fourth Estate are driven mostly by their love for their country. Yet as seen in the last couple of years, to be a journalist in Kenya is to walk a tight rope. They have been accused (sometimes) of pushing the envelope too far.
We politicians think of them as ravening wolves dragging our names through the muck. Quite the reverse. Where the broom does not reach, the dust will not vanish of itself, said Chairman Mao. It is the job of the reporters to point out where the dirt lies and for those in authority to clean it up. Because of this, often, reporters fall foul of the politicians. An obliging, pliant editor who lets the politicians have their way poses serious harm to the nation
The voter is smart. And often than most of us politicians, look at things with jaundiced eyes. After a few years on the political journey, I have come to appreciate that no amount of back-stabbing, intrigue or manoeuvring will obstruct the push for a better Kenya that is pressing forward. The quest for reforms in our body politic is long overdue. Nobody, least of all the MPs, doubts that to move forward, we ought to root out corruption, improve public service delivery, care for the environment and educate our children. Ask any of them to show their 5-year development plan.
Yet that just can’t happen if we have nobody digging up and finding out what we are up to with the positions we were given. Fairly speaking, Parliament is not lost on that though it seems caught up in a time warp. I guess (and I could be right) that they too know that we are damned if we sit back and do nothing because time is catching up with every one of us. I will conclude with food for thought from Cherian George’s, Air-conditioned Nation a collection of essays about Singapore which we like to quote in our daily conversations.
In the United States, the Constitution protects the press from the government, which, despite having been elected democratically, is assumed by American political culture to harbour undemocratic tendencies. In the Singapore model, the formula is reversed. Government, which expresses the will of the people, must be protected from the unelected press… In liberal democracies, it is all about freedom of the press from the government; in Singapore, it is about the government’s freedom from the press.
