Voters must be watchdogs all the time

With the launch of Kenya Kwanza and Roots Party manifestoes, three of the four parties and coalitions on the presidential ticket have articulated ideas about how they would like to govern. Azimio launched earlier.

There has been debate about which manifesto best diagnoses the Kenyan problem and has strategies likely to accelerate the country’s development journey.

With just over one month to the next election, contrary to the rosy promises they make on the campaign trail, the country will require difficult economic decisions. These may be a big departure from the goodies that they have promised to dole out once in power.

The rationale for the above is that the economic challenges facing Kenya are partly a global phenomenon. A review of the world’s media demonstrates rising inflation, the dire food and living situation and the shrinking space for economic manoeuvre.

Such an environment requires bold and creative, sometimes painful short-term decisions to enable their country weather the storm before meaningful progress can be realised.

The greatest challenge in this season though is two-fold. In the rush for votes, politicians promise what is unachievable. In addition, the voters are invariably too excited to interrogate the promises.

If the politicians are to take voters more seriously in the future, it is important that effort is put not only in analysing the promises before elections, but more importantly, post-election strategies for monitoring compliance are necessary.

Other political contenders for MCA to Governor positions are also promising a lot.

The biggest concern is that the bulk of these promises were just vote-hunting gimmicks. This was fortified by media reports a few days later that several counties were worse off 10 years after devolution while some had seen no change in their situation. This is despite the fact that there have been two elections since devolution.

Citizens must recognise that holding leaders accountable is as important as deciding which leader to govern. A starting point would be to document both the written and verbal commitments that the political contestants make as they seek votes at various elective levels.

Soon after elections, these can be summarised and disseminated as the expectations that citizens have of the leadership that gets elected.

Doing so as soon as they come to office would ensure they know from Day One that citizens are watching and expect them to match their talk with action.

Regular sessions should then be set by citizen groups to take stock of progress. During these sessions, the leadership should be invited. Whether they come or not, a scorecard on the status of implementation should be discussed and agreed and published. This should be done objectively. At the county level, professional groups can be key actors in this regular assessment.

It is only by setting in place clear and objective mechanisms to monitor implementation that the manifestoes and promises by politician during this campaign season will deliver action. Further, such an approach will move Kenyan voters more towards issue-based decision making as opposed to electoral choices based on ethnicity and vote buying.

If one visits constituencies, they will be shocked at how politicians have been rushing to deliver development goodies using constituency development funds, even for those for the past four years were largely absent from the scene.

They do so because voters have short memory spans and embrace leaders who they have complained about for ignoring them just because they at the last-minute built this and that.

Effective engagement in the electoral and governance process must shift from being episodic tied to a five-year cycle and become a daily occurrence for citizens.

This way the manifestoes will be a useful tool for governance between the leaders and the led.