Every marketer knows a rallying call - or brand slogan, is
very useful in positioning a product or service in the minds of the customers.
President Kenyatta has said his biggest challenge is uniting Kenyans. Given the
huge tribal, political, economic and cultural divisions currently existing in
the Kenyan society, this is not going to be an easy task. Almost everyone
however agrees with Mr. Kenyatta that his priority is right on.
Former presidents have branded their
presidencies differently – with varying degrees of success. As one who gained
political maturity under President Moi, I would imagine the Nyayo philosophy of
“Peace, Love and Unity” had the greatest brand recognition. I am not sure Mr.
Kibaki’s “Working Nation” or was it “Kazi Iendelee” gained much traction. Perhaps
1st Kenyatta had success with the “Uhuru na Kazi” – the fact that we
still remember it so poignantly, does indicate its success.
Time is certainly running out on Mr.
Kenyatta to position his “Presidency.” I think Kenyatta should position his
presidency as an E^2 administration. E^2 is in reference to Efficiency and
Effectiveness. The president does not have a lot of resources to play with. Mr.
Kibaki started his presidency with a shrinking economy, turned it around and
grew it by 7%. By doing this, the economy had a small debt to GDP ratio, which
then gave him opportunity to borrow heavily to finance the huge infrastructural
projects that became the hallmark of his presidency.
Kenyatta needs to work on a diminished
financial basket given top heavy administrative structure and devolved
governments. He cannot increase taxes without negatively impacting on growth
prospects nor can he bring any new tax payers given huge poverty rates in the
country. What he can however ensure that he derives more value for every
shilling spent in the country by improving on efficiency and proper targeting
of government services.
The E^2 positioning would enable Mr Kenyatta deliver more government
services and products even with the same amount of resources or maintain
similar outcomes from reduced resources. This he would have to do by identifying
optimal service and product mix with capacity to retain or increase the impact of
government services. Mr Kenyatta then would also seek to cut out wasteful
programs and have empirical justification for their nixing and redirect
resources to high-impact programs.
President Kenyatta may have missed the
opportunity to position his presidency during the proverbial first 100 days but
he can use the sad event of the fire at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport to
reclaim this positioning opportunity. The E^2 motif is topical, memorable and catchy enough, yet at the same
motivating Kenyans into action. Of course it would also hold government
officials to account on the use of public resources.
It would also bring about an opportunity
to develop a National culture – tribalism leads to allocation of resources on
grounds other than E^2. It would also be
necessary to integrate this positioning with the National values as outlined in
the Kenya constitution.
