Of presidents, plays and paranoia: Kenya's ongoing drama

When a Chinese intones ‘may you live in interesting times’, they are not wishing you a future full of happiness, success and jollity: it is actually a curse.

Here in Kenya, we are indeed living in interesting times, the Chinese version that is. The last couple of weeks have been nothing short of drama at the national and international stage, both literally and figuratively.

A friend reckoned that the things happening here can only take place, well, here in Kenya, though the good ol’ United States of America is giving us competition, with President Donald Trump taking the country and indeed the world on a tariff rollercoaster.

Let’s start with the juicy revelations by former Attorney General Justin Muturi that were followed by even more detailed revelations from impeached Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua. The revelations of grand corruption and larceny were illuminating. The amount of money being mentioned is mind boggling. And the level the current government can go to net an extra billion or two for the powers that be is just stupendous. It can only happen in Kenya.

Of course, I have a big problem with the duo for not having resigned in protest when they were in government and spilling the beans then. Their believability would have been a notch higher. And they would not now be associated with the rot in government.

However, the kind of things they said during the TV interviews leaves one bewildered that we still have a country left, though, in my opinion, ours is no longer a going concern. Even if half of what the duo claimed took place, these are still enough grounds for some political re-alignments and even the collapse of the government through impeachment. But this will not happen in Kenya; as long as the current crop of politicians and their ilk is anything to go by.

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And then the other drama: a play slated for the drama festival by some girls. For me, the play that elicited a brutal response from the police echoes a slide into subtle dictatorship. What leadership is scared by a busload of harmless little girls just trying to have some little fun at the drama festival? As one wit said, were it not for the furore caused by government, the rest of us would never have heard of Butere Girls! 

And then comes Mr Trump with his voodoo economics whose main author is a man named Peter Navarro whose main claim to fame has been a couple of books that he has quoted this economist called Ron Varra. As it turned out, this man only existed in his head. In fact, he was quoting himself, since Ron Varra is an anagram of Navarro. Quite amazing this chap. Nevertheless, he is the architect of the most bizarre foreign trade policy that has had immense impact on the global trade.

By the time Trump was calling time off on his global tariffs, so much damage has been done that only time will tell the exact impact of these tariffs. However, we have already seen the devastation such a careless trade policy (if it can be called that) can have on the markets and the global supply chain.

In just a couple of days, the stock market shed US$6 trillion dollars due to the uncertainty surrounding the hastily enacted tariffs. That is a lot of money. To put it in perspective, Africa’s combined nominal GDP is slightly less than US$3 trillion. Yes, that’s correct. But, even if you look at the continent’s GDP from the purchasing power parity lens (which stands at slightly over US$10 trillion) it still means the huge loss will take time to correct itself.

Even more critically is the damage to US on the world stage and erosion of trust among trading partners. Indeed, we live in interesting times.

-The writer is a communications consultant