Dennis Onyango
23 March 2008
column
Nairobi — As he joins the grand coalition government Raila holds a powerful position. Going by his presidential manifesto launched last year, the PM-designate has powers to influence what he promised but only if he is given the resources.
On May 6, last year, Mr Raila Amolo Odinga, now set to be Prime Minister, mounted the platform at the formal launch of his presidential vision.
Prime Minister-designate Raila Odinga. He toyed with the construction of several highways to open up the countryside.
Raila declared himself 'the bridge' that would link Kenya to its past, present and future.
At that function at the Kenyatta International Conference Centre, Raila laid out harsh judgement on what went wrong with Kenya and his plans to cure it.
He said then that something went wrong between 1963, when the forefathers of the nation "coined and encapsulated the Kenyan Dream" in the National Anthem.
When he made that speech that Sunday afternoon, Raila was submitting his application "to the people of Kenya for the position of president". In the campaigns that followed, Raila made "change" his rallying call.
He promised the most radical reorganisation ever witnessed in government since independence in 1963, if he became President.
He planned to "decongest" the Office of the President (OP), take away a number of departments and functions currently lumped in there to make it more transparent and accountable. His team talked of "a government of talent, experience, full of new faces and highly representative".
Unlike past regimes which put their faith in the OP, Raila was widely expected to invest heavily in a new ministry of Social Development, which was to deal specifically with poverty and efforts to bridge the gap between the rich and the poor.
That ministry was to handle welfare programmes, including the money transfers to the poor, which the party had promised in its manifesto. Raila estimated that his government would spend up to $2 billion (more than Sh120 billion) on infrastructure ministries like Roads and Energy.
Some of this money was to come from bonds. He toyed with the construction of several highways to open up the countryside.
Raila did not become President. But at the end of last month, together with President Kibaki, he signed the National Accord and Reconciliation Act, which put him on the path to be PM.
The accord has now become law and could see Raila sworn in as PM this week. It gives him authority to co-ordinate and supervise the execution of the functions and affairs of the government, including those of ministries.
The PM will also perform any other duties assigned to him by the President or by law.
With this arrangement, Raila has got a bit of what he wanted and also missed out on some. He has come close to realising his dream of the parliamentary system of government he promised during the campaigns, as opposed to presidential system.
Raila had argued during the campaigns that nearly all the mature democracies in the world have parliamentary systems of government.
He envisaged a parliamentary system in which the role and powers of the Head of State - whether president, king or queen - are separate from but complementary to the role and powers of the head of government, usually the prime minister.
Power brokers
Going with Raila into the same government are leaders from an era he singled out to have let down the nation. With his powers and role being interpreted by all sorts of people, the question remains, will the PM-designate have adequate powers and room to deliver the Kenya he promised during the campaigns?
The PM-designate promised to begin by "removing power from power-brokers and giving it back to the people".
The ODM leader promised to tackle poverty, insecurity, poor education, inadequate health services, lack of social welfare programmes, huge disparities in income, absence of opportunity, disempowerment and consequent hopelessness and despair.
"We have been spinning out of control on a downward spiral for more than 40 years. Experts have described Kenya as 'a country of great potential but a disappointing under-achiever'," he said last year.
Raila argued that at Independence, Kenya's economy was at par with that of South Korea. All the major economic indicators in the two nations - GDP, per capita income, literacy, industrialisation - were comparable.
"Forty-three years down the road, the South Korean economy is 40 times the size of Kenya's. Forty times! Not double, or triple, or even 10 times, but 40 times larger. What did the South Koreans do right that Kenyans did wrong? We believe we have the answer to that question."
Do the supervisory and coordination roles the ODM leader has landed as PM give him room to implement those programmes?
A long time political activist, now an official of an international organisation in Kenya, says the PM-designate does have some chance to deliver "the Kenyan dream" even if only part of it.
"Raila will be co-president of sorts. He will have some political muscle. He will have a bit of presidential and government powers. A lot will depend on what he negotiates with Kibaki, but it looks like the President is ready to give him some leeway," the official said.
The supervisory role, according to the official, gives Raila powers to ensure ministries do not divert or steal resources. It should make the PM-designate ensure resources are spent where they are needed most and with best results.
Political interpretation
The coordinating role is expected to see the PM deal with issues like marginalisation of women, the youth and regions. It will get more important when the new constitution comes and responsibilities have to be assigned.
"It is not the legal interpretation that will matter. It is the political interpretation that will count. Kenyans expect the ordinary meaning of coordination and supervision. There are people who will push for a restrictive role for Raila. But the supervisory and coordination roles give him powers to rein in corruption and to bring marginalised regions on board," the official said.
During his campaign, Raila talked of "grand larceny on an unprecedented scale", particularly in the field of government procurement, and particularly regarding infrastructure, defence and government supplies.
"This corruption has fleeced the country of billions and billions of shillings. Where a lot of this money has gone is more than evident in the way senior civil servants and military personnel retire from public service as multi-billionaires," he said when he formally launched his campaign.
On this, there is fair agreement that he has a battle to do, not only with President Kibaki's team, but also with interests that date two regimes back well into the First Republic.
When he talked at the KICC, the PM designate promised that Kenya under his watch would stop the "worship of the false god of corruption".
He also promised an end to the "seven ills we must guard against lest we are destroyed as a country".
These ills include; "Politics without principle, pleasure without conscience, wealth without work, and knowledge without character."
Other ills, he said, were "business without morality, science without humanity and worship without sacrifice."
And he promised heavy investment in infrastructure and to pay special attention to creating opportunities within rural areas, where the majority of Kenyans live. We shall provide support and training to farmers, fishermen and pastoralist communities. We shall also pursue a policy of investing in facilities that add value to locally available produce.
The manifestos of PNU and ODM have since been merged. But former government officials, some of them in Raila's party, fear that if he is not financed, the PM may not achieve much, the more reason why he should be given Finance ministry.
"There is very little leeway, especially if you don't control finance. A lot of these have budgetary implications. Unless you control the funding system, you cannot achieve much," a former civil servant said.
"Raila had good plans as minister for Roads. The bypasses would have been built. But they were not because somebody refused to finance him," he added.
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