February 11 Presidential debate was mediocre and pointless

"They miss the point"
-Raila Odinga, CORD's Presidential candidate.

Just because we watch and/or perhaps follow US politics does not mean that what they do there, we should or must do here.

It is a symptom of mediocrity and even inferiority that we copy paste every foreign way of doing things without first getting the fundamentals right; in this context, first understanding the reason, purpose and objective of a presidential debate. It is after that that we can even attempt to replicate the debate here: Invite the right candidates, ask them the right questions and cause a debate amongst them.

(By the way I call it debate. It wasn't. We don't even copy well)

Let me start with my conclusion. The forthcoming elections and in particular the election of the President will be a single issue election-Tribalism as far as most of us or rather majority of Kenyans are concerned. Any so-called presidential 'debate' that ignores this fact has simply missed the point and is unhelpful.

So we have to stop pretending, as we often do, that we care about issues around fuel affordability, food prices, housing, education quality and costs, availability of healthcare, infrastructure and so on and so forth. We don't. Whether one is college educated or not, rich or poor, people will take sides on the basis of Tribe and vote accordingly.

Tribalism has corroded the political and socioeconomic fabric of the Kenyan society to an extent that it is, in my view, the most important political, economic, social and national security issue. Group polarization along the lines of Tribe is the biggest threat to democracy and by far the biggest threat to nationhood in this Country. No one is born a tribalist. So the study of the origin and consequences of tribalism and how to resolve the issue has got to recognize that it is the product of social influences on individual behavior.

It manifests itself, for example, in speech when you hear a nut case angrily make a crude statement about you because you belong to tribe from which crude generalizations have been formed over time. It also manifests itself in resource allocation in public and private sector. This by the way is the most consequential manifestation of tribalism.
My problem with the presidential debate was in its failure to recognize that fact and deal with it comprehensively, dispositively and definitively.

When Kenya became a sovereign Republic in 1963, it was no doubt the hopes of many that independence from white colonialists would lead towards the collective realization of all things all humans aspire to wherever they may be.  

Fast forward 50 years later. On 11 February 2013, we had our first presidential debate which brought together the eight presidential candidates to debate on issues they would be presented with by the two moderators Julie Gichuru and Linus Kaikai.


This should go on record, it is increasingly certain that the forthcoming elections, as far as the presidency is concerned will be a contest between two Coalitions; the CORD Coalition and the Jubilee Coalition. Of course there are other candidates, but by and large, they are fringe.

Lately the Jubilee Coalition, and this is on record, has raged against opinion polls which are indicating that the CORD's presidential candidate is leading in the race to the presidency. The polls are not stating that the race has been won. Not at all, though there would be nothing wrong with stating so if that is what the science of the polls is revealing as the likely outcome.

However the Jubilee Coalition have rejected the polling as inaccurate. Their first objection to the polling had nothing to do with polling itself. Instead, at Uhuru Park, while launching their campaign team they went after the Directorship of the pollster that had first released election polling trends i.e Infotrack Harris falsely claimed that the directorship of Infotrack Harris was composed of close relatives and friends of the CORD's nominee.

When a second opinion pollster revealed more or less the same trends, the objection changed from stupid attacks on persons to no less admirable attack on the science.Without a shred of shame about it, the Jubilee Coalition have shamefacedly rejected science.

And when the 3rd pollster did not fair any better, the attack on science has continued, but now the important detail of how many people belong to this or that tribe has become a national pastime. Their objections (against these 3 pollsters) are primarily premised on the 'fact' that they 'have the numbers' and thus the pollsters are polling at their opponents whim. Indeed recently a political-scientist-for-hire appeared on the national screen with the same message. It was his submission that since Jubilee Presidential candidate and his running mate come from the largest and third largest tribes in the country, the elections were in fact won on 18th December 2012 when the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission released the figures on voter registration.

So yesterday, this particular issue came up when the CORD's presidential candidate reprimanded those who peddle such figures. "They miss the Point" he said. "Such peddling of figures present a very dangerous proposition" He continued.

I agree.

Thus the debate was simply put: Irrelevant. Completely irrelevant. What it did was perhaps provide an opportunity for the electorate to tune in to listen to the side they have already opted to vote for.

That is why I think the organizers of yesterday's debate missed the point. Debaters were not strictly restricted to answering questions put to them. Very few of them actually answered the questions they were asked. I reckon even fewer listened to themselves giving the answers they gave.

So my opinion is that the debate should have been a two-hour discussion about tribalism. Of course even though there is the possibility that extensive deliberation on the subject may produce an even extreme polarization, it is the only way I know to acknowledge and start dealing with the problem.


UPDATE: Yesterday but one an opinion poll was released allegedly showing who won the debate.
If you have missed the fundamental in constructing the debate in the first place; of what value is such a polling.

Like I said, first we repudiate tribalism-a pervasive form of Identity Politics by talking candidly about it and voting against it once and for all this time round.