Has Kenyan manifestos matured?

When I was young there came a time when I was allowed a wish list just as I entered high school, in the ‘budget’ (more or less a wish list) I wrote the necessary (sugar) to the uttermost mediocre (zesta plum jam). When I presented the wish-list to my father he had to slash down the budget not only on basis of finances but on school rules and physical modalities that allowed me only realistic options of my wish-list.

Kenya has for a long time been a bed of fantasy when it comes to manifestos. It is not really a party thing because it comes from the party owners and not members. Maybe it is high time it came from party members I think. This will allow us, Kenyans, a construct of our wish-list, which will be rationalized by the parties we belong to, slashing it to realistic achievable options.

Where we are presently is a phase where Kenyans demand for issue based manifestos and when the issues are incorporated in party wish lists we slash them down ourselves arguing they are unachievable.

Are Kenyan parties ready to do a Yash Pal Ghai like consultation of the electorate to construct manifestos, or amass a delegation’s expectation of parties? If so will Kenyan’s wish list be as farfetched
as their parties wish-list which we continue to tarnish as unrealistic.

The lessons we might learn from this year’s party manifestos is not the pomp of manifesto launch, the design of the same said or the in depth details that they possess but our own skepticism and what we
would come up if given chance.

We will learn that it’s due time parties consulted with its constituents in coming up with the manifestos rather than consult designers, experts and grandeur launchers in coming up with manifestos.

The arguably biggest challenge hence comes up if Kenyans have risen above personality politics to party politics that can allow parties considerable rational constituents to consult from. If we are not ready as Kenyans to lobby as an interest group how do we expect parties to formulate manifestos that are real to our interest?

I hold that parties are ready to make formidable manifestos but Kenyans are too detached from the issue based political agenda they publicly clamor for. It is not until we all coalesce on issues to join party not merely on basis of personalities but on ideals that we can expect the same said parties to consult us making manifestos cum wish-lists.

It is high time Kenyans shifted the blame to themselves rather than laughing of the mediocrity posited by the manifestos we see in present time. Seriously a computer for all when we haven’t even gotten all North Eastern children to school or say employment which the manifestos claim to have a magic bullet solution to.

Hitherto, political parties presently continue to be vehicles for political success and as politicians demonstrate their ability to learn from the voters tune (who are pseudo members characterized by inertia, opportunism, coming alive only when elections are announced and being more of voters than party members) they have objectively lent their resources to consultants in creating manifestos. It has come a time for Kenyans to grip on the maturity that is entering politics ensnaring it to the needs of the Kenyan polity to belong to parties and be part and parcel of developing manifestos which they will see as real, justified and achievable and they will fund themselves from the taxes they remit to a government that will be more responsive to their needs.

I stand corrected but Kenyans can no longer dismiss party manifestos as my first year political science class as duplicated and detached, Kenyans can only blame themselves for not being part of the same said manifesto constructs because they simply belong to no party as such.

As legislation in the new constitution has forced parties to be national and be formed in time Kenyans must find it in their nerve to belong to parties that reflect their morals and are in tune for their aspirations. They must then assist parties to come up with manifestoes. It is due time that we realize that when we point a finger three are pointing back at us.