Kenya is truly an
amazing
country
and those who went
through the harrow-
ing experience of this
year will attest that
the resilience of the
country and its capac-
ity to weather a great
deal of nonsense is to
say the least amazing
and only a Kenyan can
stomach it.
IEBC commissioners were removed, they
were and new ones sworn in.
Soon they changed their minds and wanted
the newly elected commissioners to be
removed because they had intelligence
that informed them that they had been
compromised and were going to decide
the elections in favor of the government.
The sitting government refused to comply
and elections were conducted and the
incumbents won and the elections were
contested and the Supreme Court in a
landmark ruling declared the election null
and void and ordered a fresh election.
Kenyans were amazed and the world was
shocked mainly because it is truly a rare
occurrence where an election is thrown
out especially when vote stealing is not the
main issue but that there was illegalities
and irregularities that compromised the
election.
The opposition was elated and reopened
their earlier demands to remove the IEBC
commissioners who we were informed
were IT experts and had introduced an
algorithm into the vote tallying computer
to inflate and decrease the votes of the
contestants to achieve a predetermined
output.
But through all this the Kenyan economy
was taking a battering and the businesses
and corporates in Kenya were taking stock
of the losses that they had incurred through
a year of electioneering and uncertainty. It
was a tough year for business.
Amazingly the Kenya shilling was not
battered as expected and continues to
hold steady even in the light of ongoing
litigation and counter litigations which
kept Kenyans on edge and the ever present
threat of peaceful demonstrations.
Astoundingly tourism seems to have
been untouched by the shenanigans in
the political arena too. The wildebeest
migration continued oblivious to the bad
press we were receiving internationally
because if you were to read any
communication it depicted a country on
fire.
The opposition, having won round one
at the Supreme Court surprised Kenyans
by withdrawing from the repeat elections
which they had asked for and decided they
were going to create a people’s assembly
and declare the opposition leader the
people’s president.
Their tool of operation was economic
sabotage while making the country
ungovernable through mass uprising and
dissent. The new catch phrase in Kenya
was ‘resist’ and a few corporates found
themselves in an unenviable list of funders
of oppression.
That is how one morning the Airtel and
Orange Marketing Directors found
themselves in unfamiliar ground whereby
they had previously done everything to
try and dislodge Safaricom’s dominance
of the market and had thus far failed but
here was a political windfall like no other.
Baba had asked the opposition to boycott
Safaricom.
Being marketers we were of course shocked
that a political tussle would target business
concerns but we were more interested in
the way the potential beneficiaries would
respond to the windfall from Eldorado
and cash in on the opportunity.
What we saw on the ground was a study
in confusion and lack of initiative. The
contenders to the mobile supremacy were
not only ill prepared to take advantage of
the windfall but they were overwhelmed
by the sudden demand for their services
and let down potential customers.
The other two boycotts of Brookside
and Bidco were also dead on arrival and
the opposition strategy of an economic
boycott seemed a great flop. All that
political interference had no effect on the
intended victims and opposition proved
again that they had not thought very well
through their strategy.
Repeat elections came and went and
the incumbent was re-elected minus the
opposition and although the election was
again contested at the Supreme Court the
victory was upheld and the president elect
was duly sworn in.
The expected swearing in of the people’s
president was put off until a date to be
advised and at last Kenya could begin
to have a semblance of normalcy and
direction. We had wasted a precious
business year and we have a lot to catch
up on.
What protected the Kenyan economy
from the political vagaries was the fact
that Kenya is a hard working nation and
can withstand political nonsense because
individual survival is paramount. Kenya
is the true nation of hustlers and on that
aspect we are united.
Our big question is how do we insulate the
Kenya businesses from politics and how
do we manage the destructive peaceful
demonstrations from crippling our nation
every five years. We cannot as a nation
afford to kick-start our economy every five
years no matter how amazing we are!
Our big question is
how do we insulate
the Kenya businesses
from politics and how
do we manage the
destructive peaceful
demonstrations from
crippling our nation
every five years. We
cannot as a nation af-
ford to kick-start our
economy every five
years no matter how
amazing we are!