Members of the Kenya Police band play the National Anthem during Madaraka Day celebrations. The National Anthem embodies some of the country’s values. Photo/JOSEPH KANYI
I like the way our National Economic and Social Council (NESC) works, and I like the initiatives it comes up with.
After incubating such projects as Brand Kenya and Vision 2030, it is now spearheading the development of a national system to promote the living of healthy values.
I’m delighted NESC has concluded (as I did in one of my columns a couple of years ago) that without us practising better values we don’t stand the remotest chance of becoming a middle income country, not by 2030 and not by 2040.
It’s by no means a straightforward venture, as in my experience most people feel our attitudes and behaviour are what they are, and there’s nothing you can do to change them.
Fatalistically, we accept that Kenyans are doomed to be little more than a reflection of our fractious politician and matatu driver role models.
But there’s no doubt: Our values are far from what we would like them to be and this holds us back from fulfilling our individual and national potential.
Stephen M.R. Covey’s book, The Speed of Trust, eloquently spells out the debilitating consequences of mistrust, and he could well be writing about Kenya.
Even at the corporate level, while more and more organisations are having a go at defining their visions and missions, only a smaller number bother to come up with a set of needed supportive core values.
After all, they say, why bother when they’re merely aspirational, and when no one has a clue about how to fill the yawning gap between how they are and how they’d like them to be?
So kudos to NESC – and its partner, the Ministry of Justice, National Cohesion and Constitutional Affairs – for having a go at teasing out what our national values should be – for the whole country, no less – and how to move towards them.
What does the process involve, and how is NESC going about it?
First, a collection of worthy people gathered all kinds of domestic and international material on values.
Locally, a survey of various ethnic and religious groups was undertaken, as a result of which 79 common values were harvested.
These were then clustered under 18 umbrella ones, and aligned with those expressed in the National Anthem (a great inspirational call to Kenyans!), before comparisons were made with how other countries express their values.
Among the countries selected (America, Australia, China, Malaysia, Rwanda, Singapore and Tanzania) the list that particularly caught my eye was Rwanda’s, in that it spoke powerfully of a high performance culture that any CEO would be proud of.
Here’s what it comprises: speed and respect for time – a country in a hurry; a customer service mentality – constant improvement and anticipation; quality of delivery – high standards, excellence, efficiency; completion – towards results, we finish what we start; and self respect and national pride.
The Kenyan formulation is still work in progress, and there’s ongoing passionate debate about how to mix personal values (such as the Chinese ones, that include ‘undemonstrative behaviour’, ‘industriousness’ and ‘politeness’) with more collective ones (as in the Australian emphasis on values like ‘freedom of speech’ and ‘equality under the law’).
Some insist that ‘honouring God’ should be included, while others – including me – feel that to be a personal issue, and a natural outcome of living spiritual values.
Many have praised the way Tanzania’s Arusha Declaration provided a moving expression of national aspirations, one that led to a remarkable actualisation thanks to the relentless pursuit of national integration championed by Julius Nyerere.
We too must do better than simply list a clutch of key words (justice, integrity, hard work…); we too must inspire with punchy memorable expressions, that can be understood in villages as much as in boardrooms.
And just to get us into the spirit here’s a thought for the first of them, from a friend of mine: ‘One Kenya’.
Isn’t that so much more powerful than ‘appreciation of diversity’ or even ‘unity in diversity’?
A stakeholder workshop to review progress on the Values System was held last week, and a proposal is to be put to the April meeting of NESC.
A great deal of work has been done, not only to converge on an agreeable list of target values, but on a whole policy framework that will guide the country towards adopting them.
NESC is in no doubt about the magnitude of the challenge.
In a recent briefing paper it pulled no punches, commenting that ‘even though there is more education, knowledge and awareness of positive values, regrettably now more than ever before there is apparently more greed, dishonesty, corruption, selfishness, tribalism, cronyism, nepotism, lack of integrity, poor work ethic, impunity and low patriotism’.
And as if this damning list is not enough to shake us out of any complacency it adds: ‘there are also not many role models to champion the promotion of virtuous and ethical behaviour.’ At least not many celebrated ones.
School curricula
The draft policy provides for a home for this worthy project, maybe a new Commission for National Values, maybe a broadening of the mandate of the National Cohesion and Integration Commission (my personal preference).
And it sets out strategies for everything from formulating and rolling out suitable school curricula, to ways of widely publicising the values, to having a go at the delicate business of assessing progress.
How optimistic can we be that this well-intentioned initiative can or will make a real difference?
As in all important things, if those in top leadership own and drive the project it will.
That’s the way it is in families, it’s how it works in organisations, and the same is true at the national level.
This indeed is the central challenge: Our national political leaders are so immersed in their permanent wrangling that they have little time to think about either our long term national vision or the values that must support their achievement.
So it’s for the rest of us to make up the deficit.
That’s very hard, but it’s more vital that we apply ourselves urgently and wholeheartedly.
