A mid-year opinion poll by TIFA showed that Kenyans are worried most about the economy and livelihoods. Forty-seven percent were worried about the cost of living.
Twenty-three percent worried about unemployment and poverty. One would expect these issues therefore to dominate the political discourse — that the opposition would be keeping government on its toes, by presenting their alternative policy platforms to solve these problems. But it is not happening. Why?
There is a glaring gap between daily political news, and the actual needs of Kenyans. And it seems to be a structural design of the country's political system, rather than an accident. While ordinary Kenyans are overwhelmingly focused on economic issues and daily household budgets, mainstream political discourse is primarily occupied with power positioning and legacy alliances.
For opposition politicians, the ultimate goal is acquiring and securing power. But leadership is about what one will do with the power — the social contract. The latter has been relegated, ignored or forgotten, as the daily news cycle focuses on political manoeuvring.
But there is reason to hope. Legacy politicians have stuck to the shareholder narrative, relying on ethnic balkanisation to build voting blocs. They are dividing the country into regional or tribal fiefdoms.
However, public polls show that a young, increasingly urban, and hyper-connected population is completely rejecting tribal alignments, and focused on issue-driven politics.
Young citizens care about systemic issues like how corruption drives up costs of living. But some political leaders continue to default to tribal arithmetic because it has worked in the past, as a way to consolidate regional voting blocks.
The public expects solutions for economic issues.
When politicians don’t have answers, they retreat to something they are highly adept at - creating sideshows, such as public insults, dramatic walkouts, or sudden regional spats, to dominate the headlines. They use media theatrics as a deliberate shield against their policy emptiness. The tactical noise fills the media landscape, drowning out data-driven conversations regarding economic prospects.
How can we bridge the gap between what matters to citizens and what politicians are talking about in the media, and give life to the social contract?
A well-functioning democratic system where power rests with the citizens, relies on citizen participation, protection of human rights and the rule of law, to ensure that it remains fair, accountable, and representative.
Citizens are expected and encouraged to engage in political life, most fundamentally through regular, free and fair elections. Tuko Kadi, #TuPartyCipate and other initiatives are, therefore, spot on.
In a presidential democracy like ours, power is separated into distinct branches, creating a high-friction system designed to prevent any single entity from gaining absolute control.
The executives (president and governors) can veto laws passed by the legislatures. The legislature can override vetoes, control government funding, and impeach the executives. Independent courts can declare laws or executive actions unconstitutional.
After an election, the manifesto of the Executive becomes the official government policy — because that is what the citizen is voting for. That is the social contract between the citizen and her elected executives.
Globally, government effectiveness and service delivery are strongly tied to average life satisfaction, even more than the specific type of democratic structure. Strong institutional governance significantly improves quality of life. When governance effectively controls corruption and enforces regulations, it enables better distribution of resources and higher average incomes.
But research also shows that governance systems and standards of living positively reinforce each other. Higher wealth gives nations the resources to build better institutions, and stable institutions consistently yield a higher quality of life for citizens.
Africa has a complex, highly debated relationship between the quality of democracy and economic performance - economic impact depends heavily on how long a democracy has survived (longevity), and the strength of its regulatory institutions.
The Africa Center for Strategic Studies found that Africa’s democratizing (since the 1990s) states, increased their median aggregate per capita income by 15 percent. Those that did not compared poorly, at just a seven percent expansion.
Democracy is, by empirical evidence, good for the quality of life.
Yet, by defeating the process of arriving at the social contract, politicians compromise both democracy and quality of life.
That is why many researchers now argue that holding of votes (electoral democracy) is meaningless for African economic performance, unless accompanied by the rule of law and control of corruption (liberal democracy). When institutional structures are weak, elections do not yield improvements in living standards.
@NdirituMuriithi, an economist, if partner at Ecocapp Capital LLP, an advisory firm.
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