“Uhuru orders illegal road in Murang’a closed,” said a June 14 headline in the Daily Nation. The President of the Republic of Kenya is now closing village roads, the Nation told us. Great!
According to the story, six farmers from Murang’a wrote to President Kenyatta complaining that the Kenya Rural Roads Authority (Kerra) had illegally cut a public access road across their land. A picture of a dirt road on the brow of a hill accompanied the story. And a benevolent President promptly swung into action.
What’s wrong with this picture?
In the West Wing, a 1999-2006 American series that dramatizes the business of running a country from the White House, Episode 3 of Scene 2 opens with President Josiah Bartlet, who suffers no fools, in a foul mood.
A previous competitor whose policies the President vehemently opposed in a local election years ago, in his native state of New Hampshire, was now polling within the margin of victory in a city council board of education race. And the President couldn’t have it.
In the film, the President orders his senior staff to get involved and cut the man down to size. The staff declines. They tell the President that he can’t be seen getting involved in a local squabble.
The exchange between President Bartlet and his press secretary CJ Cregg goes like this:
“Sir, the President can’t publicly take sides in a local school board election.”
“Why can’t he?”
“Because it’s not done [meaning it’s not what a President does]. It’s not fair. It’s personal. And it’s irresponsible.”
By publicizing the story about the village road in Murang’a, the Nation probably doesn’t know it yet, but it may have shouted from rooftops that the king is naked.
The story painted a diminished President. Imagine how many people who work for the President that could have quietly taken care of that little matter in Murang’a. The President of the Republic of Kenya is not elected to close local roads.
