Will Uhuru offer real assessment of Kenya’s status?

President Uhuru Kenyatta delivering his State of the Nation Address in Parliament last year. PHOTO | FILE 

By DENNIS KABAARA

In Summary

• State of the Nation Address has a more specific demand beyond populist spin.

History across the world has always recorded a firm line of resistance against any sort of official spin in the face of public despondency.

That might be why America’s first Secretary of State and subsequent President Thomas Jefferson preferred “a press without government” to “a government without the press”.

“Front office” stuff almost always never works without cogent “back office” efforts, and the two never agree without the “middleware” we call “communication, co-operation, collaboration and co-ordination”.

Thursday, March 31, offers us our latest potential “spin” moment, so let’s think a little about it.

The President’s State of the Nation (SOTN) Address might not be the most eagerly awaited event in the Kenyan calendar. It is not even a public holiday but it is one of four annual constitutional opportunities offered to the incumbent to address us on the state of our nation. 

Because the other three opportunities to address the nation outside of panic, emergency or crisis – Madaraka, Mashujaa and Jamhuri Day – are mostly jolly public holiday events full of fanfare, the President’s accountability threshold is far lower, and our tradition has always favoured an official “technocratic” speech embellished by decidedly populist monologue in the national Kiswahili language.

SOTN, as it is now commonly referred to, has a more specific demand beyond populist spin. Article 132 requires that the President reports to Parliament and the nation at large on measures taken and progress achieved in realising the national values and principles set out in Article 10 of the constitution.

Article 10 outlines four groups of values and principles in promoting the constitution’s inclusivity – figuratively, “providing a legal roof over every Kenyan’s head”.

First, those underpinning our democratic nation-state -- patriotism, national unity, sharing and devolution of power, the rule of law, democracy and participation of the people. 

Second, those that undergird the essential humanity of the state -- human dignity, equity, social justice, inclusiveness, equality, human rights, non-discrimination and protection of the marginalised.

Third, the important values and principles we need to enforce “good government” — integrity, transparency and accountability. 

And fourth, an underlying principle that speaks to sustainable development (not greed). This final principle is rather important, not simply as a check against inhuman proclivities such as corruption, but as a benchmark for a societal long-term in which today’s urgency is duly informed by tomorrow’s future.

Simply, the first part of SOTN is an honest assessment of our democracy, humanity, governance order and development dreams, through political choices and policy outcomes, not projects and transactions. 

Each of these aspects is not simply a speech, but a research topic on its own merit. More humbly, a SOTN address that speaks to these values and principles would surely reflect our political maturation.

The second part of SOTN, also informed by Article 132, requires a report on our international obligations, inspired no doubt by Article 2 (5) which basically commits Kenya to a “monist” legal order that automatically adopts international law and regulation