President Uhuru Kenyatta (right), talking to a member of parliament. He issued a directive to MPs to wage war against illicit drinks (https://www.facebook.com/myuhurukenyatta?fref=ts).
I like the fact that President Uhuru Kenyatta gets angry every now and then. In his latest expression of anger, he gave an order to members of parliament, mostly from Central Kenya, to go back to their constituencies and get rid of illicit liquor that is destroying the lives of young people. Compared to the former president of Kenya, I like the current president because he shows that he is in touch with the afflictions of the people by issuing timely statements. Looking at the two, the current president is more emotionally intelligent than the former president. That is commendable. In the wake of the directive, members of MPs and members of the public in parts of the country, have gone ahead to implement the president’s directive by destroying alcohol-producing facilities and other property belonging to those who are suspected of selling illicit liquor, which locals says is destroying families. On the down-side, the raids have led to closing down and / or destruction of property belonging to genuine businessmen, who have licenses issued by the same government led by Kenyatta. An example is Keroche Breweries in Naivasha, which recently invested more than 5 billion in its new plant. East African Breweries Limited, the largest brewer in the country has also announced that it is closing its distribution outlets in parts of Central Kenya after suffering losses close to Ksh. 250 million due to vandalism and closures. Another example of this kind of angry reaction was when terrorists made a raid in northern Kenya earlier in the year and the president responded by asking the Inspector General of Police to go ahead and finalise the process of admitting for training young men who had earlier been recruited to join the police service. This was against a court order that had stopped the process. Later, the president was forced to rescind his decision. However, I don’t like the fact that the president, when angry, issues orders that seem to be more of knee-jerk reactions than well-thought out long-term strategic decisions. Whereas the intentions of the president seem to be noble, it is the execution of some of these directives that leaves a lot to be desired. In the present case, we have seen MPs going to companies manufacturing liquor to carry out inspections. The question that arises is, what capacity to these MPs have to carry out such inspections then go ahead and give clean bills of health to some of these institutions? At the same time, what the directive has managed to do is to cut the supply of alcohol from reaching the intended drinkers, without addressing the other side of the equation, which is the demand side. Even if the supply has been cut, and the young men still have the urge to drink, what will stop them from finding ways of meeting that need? This is the question that the president and his advisers should have thought of even as they sought to cut the supply of dangerous alcohol from reaching drinkers. Members of parliament are supposed to legislate laws in parliament and oversee the legislature and the judiciary on behalf of the public. It is absurd for the same MPs to go out and purport to implement an executive directive like the one that the president issued. In his directive, the president told the MPs to go back to him and report on what they had done. Now, does this mean that members of the legislature now report to the executive? It is unfortunate that we have institutions in this land that have failed to carry out their mandate. The war the president declared is supposed to be waged by Kenya Bureau of Standards and the National Campaign Against Drug Abuse, among other government agencies. But the failure of these state agencies should not be the reason and excuse for the president to issue ridiculous directives which border on encouraging the rule of the jungle.
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