Mr. David Kimaiyo resigned as the Police Inspector General
of the Kenya Police Service on a Tuesday afternoon. The clamor to have him
resign had risen to a crescendo in the wake of continued and unchecked excesses
of Al-Shabaab in the northeastern region of Kenya.
This week I wanted to investigate a number of questions arising
from this event.
Why
have political leaders in Africa been steadfast in refusing to resign when all
else pointed to their ineptness? Is this situation changing? What power has
social media given the masses? What is at the core of leaders not wanting to
resign their positions? What can alleviate this anxiety?
We start this piece at Tahrir Square the epicenter of the Egyptian
Revolution of 2011. It is from this location that Egyptians actively
participated in unshackling themselves from Hosni Mubarak’s rule while using
social media and its omnipresent ability to disperse information
instantaneously, in real-time, across the world. A revolution was born that shook
age-old political foundations in its wake.
President Blaise Compaoré of
Burkina Faso finally resigned in late October amid growing public anger that
was fueled by the same social media that was used in the Arab Spring.
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The reason why this event is
symptomatic of what is going to be seen across Africa, has a lot to do with
some central changes in societal communication that are being necessitated by
social media. These include:
1.
The near absence of traditional methods
of regulation that has allowed social media to become the source of uncensored
and un-sanitized news and information.
2.
The different roles played by the users
in the generation of information allow it to grow organically, locally and divergently.
And gives it richness and diversity.
3.
The relationships between users, the
lack of a clear hierarchy in social media and how fast information disperses on
the back of these relationships.
4.
The omnipresence of social media driven
by the mobile revolution across Africa and a growing population with increased
access to the Internet.
5.
A move from confirmed, responsibly generated
information that allows for objective communication to the generation of
anonymous, rumor-driven information that is subjective and in some instances
toxic.
As all this is happening you wonder how
it has affected the ruling styles of leaders, and how responsive they are to
the onslaught of social media.
It is at the back of this that hashtag #WhyKimaiyoMustResign began trending on
twitter driven by Kenyans on Twitter (#KOT).
Eventually the Government of Kenya known for its prolific use of social
media had to respond to the negative feedback it was garnering with every turn
it took. In response, Kimayo resigned and Internal security cabinet secretary Joseph Ole Lenku was fired.
For the longest time, political leaders
in Africa have been steadfast in refusing to resign when all else pointed to
their ineptness. Why was this the case? To answer this question you have to
look at how most of these leaders gained power and retained it .
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There is no full democracy in Africa
and countries like South Africa and Botswana are termed as flawed democracies
in a 2012 democracy index done
by the Economist Intelligence Unit. The
vast majority of African countries are either authoritarian or hybrid regimes.
Only Mauritius is a full democracy.
So an African leader gets into office
by hook or crook (read corruption or force), most of them have retained their
power though the same manner and created systems that essentially cascade down
to the citizens. Where merit is shunned upon and transparency is an unknown
concept. What is paramount is the need to enrich one’s family and self at the
expense of the citizenry.
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| longest serving african leaders. Source rappler |
It is in this context that resignation
is a foreign concept. Indeed why should one resign when there is no mandate or
measure thereof to curb the excesses of power. And when one is not answerable
to the citizenry.
In fact in the past, subordinates have
been fired (either with a bullet or literary) because they either did not offer
their allegiance to the leader or they mistook their mandate to be one of
serving the people.
In Kenya, president Uhuru no longer has
this privilege a preserve for bygone presidents mainly because he was elected
on a mandate and he and his team are measured on how they perform on a year-by-year
basis.
As social media establishes itself
across Africa, the citizenry is discovering its voice, and placing certain
demands cohesively.
News in Kenya is news in Zimbabwe,
Angola, Chad and Sudan in the same level of appreciation. Even as the
government of Sudan has taken
the attack on social media using a ‘Cyber Jihadist Unit’ that curtails social
media’s efficacy; with its ability to hack emails and social media accounts, as
well as monitor online activity, cracking down on those it considers to be the
most dangerous activists. The tide is turning.
I believe part of the solution lies in
having a democratic system of electing leaders, devoid of corrupt practices
during the electioneering period and subsequently during a leader’s rule. The appointment of leaders has to be based on
merit and strength of character. These hopefully will supplant a system of
cronyism, where on appointment, leaders seek to payback favors rendered.
A culture needs to develop that will
measure these leaders based on service rendered and frown on those who result
to political wizardry to hide ineptness.
If such a caliber of leaders is elected
into office, and the citizenry keeps a steady watch of their performance
record, with the understanding that they resign if they don't meet set
expectations, then it will be more likely that resignation will not be an
anathema for them.
Or so I hope.
For the leaders who came into power by
force, the only way to make them resign or leave is through mass action, a
revolution led by the masses and ultimately driven by social media.
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