DIALOGUE OR ACTION? Mr President You are Being Fed with Wrong Fodder

By Prof. Dr. Halimu Shauri

Email, thecoastnewspaper@gmail.com

The events that have been unfolding for weeks now revolving around the youth and the government cannot escape the eyes and thoughts of any rightful thinking and patriotic Kenyan.

Following these events keenly one sees a serious socioeconomic and not a legal challenge.

As per my previous articles here and in other media forums, I have been discussing the issue of focus and not the issue of misfocus that you have been misadvised all along, Mr President.

Pertinent to solving any problem in society, Mr President, is diagnosis. This is the basic step each one, whether in hard science, social science, arts or humanities must do this. 

Where the diagnosis or cause of the problem is missed or where there is misdiagnosis, then the problem persists. While this is true, the process of diagnosing the problem must also be devoid of subjectivity and personal interests. 

That’s why in my profession as a Sociologist we have science as the guiding principle and sociological imagination as the practice.

On this regard positivism, critical and interpretive theory sharpens our imaginations about social realities. I want to tell you Mr President that those around you are not telling you what the real problem with the GenZees is.

They have either failed to diagnose the problem or they fear telling you the problem or they fear losing their power and privileges when they tell you the truth or probably you have refused to act on the real problem, they have advised you to handle for reasons known to yourself.

Allow me to be open and candid sir. I want to be so because I love the beautiful country called Kenya. Those around you are not telling you the truth. They fear telling the truth to power. They fear telling you, the king, that you are getting naked by the day.

Your advisors, your former cabinet members, your members of parliament in UDA and even the religious institutions, the last hope of the people, have failed you by not being truthful and candid enough to tell you the problem and what corrective action will solve the conflict. They are all giving you wrong fodder to safeguard and secure their personal interests.

Mr President, two things are key in solving conflicts. From where I stand as a professional, and experienced conflict and violent extremism expert, I will tell you that you need two pieces of thoughts to fix this.

First, you need to reflect on the real cause. The crux of the matter, which in simple terms is the youth bulge. Youth are most of our population and a blessing not a curse with correct and not wrong advice like they a feeding you with. 

We have, every ten years, done a census and we have seen the results in the increase of the number of youths in the country. More critical, we have had youth wastage from primary, secondary and even college dropping out without skills to make a decent living or having descent livelihoods.

Your excellence sir, we have been graduating at least 100,000 on average, youth from colleges and universities every year in colourful graduation ceremonies. Pose and ask yourself, how many graduations have we had as a country and where do these graduates go? 

While parents and children celebrate, the government also celebrates to have managed to usher many graduates into the economy. What they have not told you Mr President is the impact of such growth in monumental numbers of the youth.

While they have fed you with output and outcome, wrong fodder, they forgot or omitted the real deal, the impact of those numbers.

More youth and more graduates mean the need for more socioeconomic opportunities. While this is true, the previous governments failed and passed this problem over during every presidential swearing in ceremony. 

Even your government sir, though recognised this problem during the campaigns and even used it very successful by being sexy to the very youth, the so-called hustlers but you and your team forgot them sooner you took overpower. They say power corrupts and indeed your team got drunk in power and either lacked capacity to fix the conundrum of youth bulge or forgot the youth problem completely and concentrated on their personal interest, eating.

Second, your excellence, to solve a conflict you need to ask yourself two fundamental questions, both of which are reflective, personal and social, in nature. On one hand, you need to ask yourself what is my interest and what is the interest of the other conflicting party?

For your case, the GenZees. On the other hand, you and the GenZees need to ask yourselves, whether you are the problem for Kenya? Which goes like, or am I the problem?

Going by question one, the interests of both parties are clear. The GenZees have given their interests openly and all and sundry know them. While this is true, we also can see your interest and that of your team to keep power in your hands. 

While you are both right on your interests, what is missing is action not on your interest because you have acted to keep power by invoking not only the police force but the military to safeguard power but that of the GenZees.

From this argument, you can only dissolve this conflict by addressing not only your interests but also those of your worrying party, the GenZees satisfactorily. 

You have had and still can do so but you are procrastinating or been made to procrastinate by being fed with wrong fodder by your advisers. 

Please also reject the wrong folder and act immediately and with urgency to safeguard your interest. How may you be asking? Fix the poor leadership that surrounds you and embrace good corporate governance immediately and as a matter of urgency. This seems to be the last card you must pull, or big trouble may be looming sir.

The second question was on whether you are the problem or GenZees are the problem? Most often we don’t do self-reflection during conflicts. Sometimes conflicts can be resolved amicably by self-reflection.

I call upon your office to introspect and act where you objectively think, and feel is self-problematic in resolving this impasse with the youth. While from the present analysis this seems more a government reflection, the GenZees can also reflect on themselves to weed out excess that may be considered as problematic on their part. 

Where the GenZees conflict with the government has escalated to, no manner of internal dialogue will resolve it. The easy indicator to measure this is just to ask who or which institution in the country is trusted or has enough integrity and respect to mediate or lead the dialogue? 

Further, what is there that is not in public domain that needs to be dialogued? Everything is in the open and what remains is action. From the look of things, if Mr President you get the problem of the GenZees right and act by not using diversionary tactics of threats and dialogue, you will enjoy peace to the end of your term. It’s time to act and act fast and this is not time for dialogue or procrastination for time, opportunity and options may be running out fast.

#actionnotdialogue