Strategic Intelligence News

The launch of the TNA party by Uhuru Kenyatta was indeed momentous and well planned, but the truly profound about the launch is whether the intent achieved its principal objective.

During the launch, Strategic Intelligence followed the launch on ground and media and identified the critical stages of the launch besides its effect on the public.

While the objective of the launch was to send a message of hope and possibilities of prosperity and good governance to Kenyans, the effect on tribal cracks was minimal.

We examine the flaws in the objective, strategy, and most important, the evolving strategy of Uhuru Kenyatta.

Analysis on Public Policy

Uhuru Kenyatta has been struggling to delink himself from his father’s cronies and their legacy. In the launch of TNA, there was the objective was to dispel the myth and fallacy that the son of the first president stands in good stead using his dad’s riches and connections in the business and political class.

The outcome of the launch was good. In Central Kenya, Uhuru added value to his reputation and stamped his authority. More tribesmen confess, the man has become of age both politically and socially. Most tribesmen who felt he lacked character and charisma to lead were inspired and certainly pledged allegiance.

However, whoever created this strategy failed to understand the context of public policy and leadership. Kenyatta did not need his tribe’s faith only, rather a national outlook. The problem was the public policy paradigm with Kenya’s view as principal in the strategy.

Uhuru Kenyatta strategists did not look at public policy as about showing leadership and responding to changed circumstances or more comprehensively, public policy as about setting broad directions, rather sought to display possibility of largesse and prosperity.

The failure to identify effective public policy benchmarks leads to a poor score in countrywide ratings with regard to views and perceptions created or reinforced after a political event. The launch could have captured the objective if Kenyatta offered citizens more scope to take the initiative in their dealings with publicly funded services.

A Policy of Acquiesce

Uhuru maybe surrounded by many intelligent men and women hence he lets them set direction and course of his political duties. Uhuru watches from the background and with a team of experts does an audit on the events and outcomes of his strategists and secretariat’s.

In the background, he orchestrates events that shape the outlook of his intentions and sets in motion events and scenarios that he would want to play and create a public policy and political outlook; quite clever indeed.

The fatal flaws in this strategy manifest in assassination of his character and inclusion of too many players in the inner circles hence increasing margins of grave political errors.

Indeed these errors have manifested with individuals who incriminate and associate Uhuru with dark forces and criminal activity. This also manifested during the party’s launch.

The Evolving Strategy

Uhuru understands the constraints of political work and the ramifications of fatal errors in political missions. He understands that a poor political image and patronage will gradually edge him out of the limelight and lead him to a political death.

To ensure survival, Uhuru avoids being static and keeps reinventing his strategy, gradually dispelling myth and fallacy that he is a project and a progeny of previous regimes.

However, there is one aspect of Uhuru’s evolving strategy in politics that tinkers with his father’s handwork. He has very many friends but does not give any the credit of best friend, two, he seeks a Kenyan outlook with reconciliation as a weapon against discord and political comptetion.

Uhuru constantly and intentionally brings out this aspect to color his profile and stamp his authority as a good leader.

Jomo Kenyatta was a transitional leader and the Kenyan community en-masse loved him. Uhuru can gain such mileage by riding on his father’s legacy wagon. Unfortunately, he has not yet understood let alone mastered the tricks to play and gain this advantage due to the dynamic political weather and his political circles.

However, as far as his evolving strategy remains functional, he will be able to redefine what can put him in good stead as he surely hopes to.