Skip to main content

The Room of two contradicting speeches

The miss link in communication in the Government as a unit is a puzzle.

President William Ruto was today on May 3, expected to address the nation on the state of the nation in regard to the flood.
Just before the President addressed the nation, there was a memo circulating already of how the school reopening would go on as planned.
The Ministry of Education while addressing the safety of the learners through the memo directed that the School Board of Management to ensure that the learners are ready for learning and precautionary measures are undertaken to avoid hindrances.
Later, two hours after the memo, the President addressed the nation and ordered that the postponement of school reopening be suspended until further notice.
Out of the impossible, the ministry of education seemed to be having the stand of opening schools.
The Education Cabinet Secretary seems to be under pressure when he was releasing the memo since the last was released on the wee hours of the morning hence today's early communication was to avoid further pressure from the parliamentarians and the public uproar.

The contradictory statements from two high profile leaders whereas one is greater than the other tells a lot from the Government's boardroom.
The junior speaking different from the boss speech, yet they are directing their message towards one audience.

The current scenario is akin to that of March 2020 when the country had all its learning institutions shutdown and learning suspended following the entrance and reported cases of COVID-19.
The former regime never had this form of gainsaying in either of the speech.
The Education Cabinet Secretary by then, the late Professor George Magoha never delivered a speech contradicting that of his boss, the President emeritus Uhuru Kenyatta. 
As a way of not brewing any sense of confusion, the former CS never delivered any form of communication when the president was to address the nation, I think this is because every matter was to be addressed in the President's speech.

In any entity, communication is the key. It is through communication that the public earn the trust of the leaders. This can explicitly referenced to previous untimely communication that led to a section of students going to school while other going to their beds waiting to begin their journey to school only for the circular to be released at 1.am, when the school going children are asleep, this also owing to the fact that in media industry as per the regulation by the government only adults are allowed to stay awake due to content broadcasted past 10.pm.
The previous communication disappointed the parents, students and even the school staff as they had assumably prepared for the reopening, we cannot also forget to speak of the reprieve that was in the parents side as they may have been worried about the state of the nation.
The parallel messages from the Government within a span of hours, clearly indicates that each department is working on its own without consulting each other.
Did Mr. Machogu know that His Excellency was going to suspend the postponement of the school opening until further notice?
Why was Mr. Machogu in hurry to release a memo yet hours later the president would come and clarify the same issue he was addressing?
Why did they not consult each other, or is it that someone came behind and offered a piece of advice as opposed to the earlier agreed solution?

Communication is important in critical moments, especially at these moments when the country is marooned with deluge.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

SINGAPORE AND KENYA: DAY AND NIGHT

Kenya got its independence 1963 from the British colony, while Singapore got it two years in the month of August 9, 1965 from Malaysia after they had intense political differences which resulted to racial riots. Standing on the mirror line reflecting on the two countries between Kenya and Singapore, Kenya is extremely behind Singapore in terms of development.  Singapore hastily rose from third world country to first world country while Kenya still maintained the third world class.  Recently, Kenya's President Dr. William Ruto, is full of comparison statements: between Kenya and Singapore. Surprisingly, the phrase of boosting Kenya's world class has taken a beautiful twist where every politician is dreaming of Kenya to be futuristically the same level as Singapore. Pausing a bit, what's a dream? pondering on this; a dream literally means imaginary events while sleeping.  Our politicians are forgetting the dogmatic saying that goes 'action speaks louder than...

THE CHANGE EXPECTED IN REVERSE: GEN Z'S FADING STRENGTH

Photo Courtesy   Waking up to find the sun rising from the West and not East at dawn is enough to signal a whirl of change in the cosmological history. As a product of imagination it can be, who knew Gen Z would emerge as with a wave of change in a sundry of generations unexpectedly.  With this wave, the political sphere in every country worldwide is experiencing an overhaul.  Recently, protests have marred different countries with calls for change.  Bangladesh, Nepal, Morocco, Madagascar, Kenya are some of the countries that have at least tasted the pinch of the GenZ protests, while some of the protests have resulted in a change in the political sphere of the affected countries others have left less impact with mission and vision unreached due to fanciful impulse.  Generation Z, globally have not only expressed their anger through anger through protests and demonstrations, but also in politics where some of the African countries like Seychelles and...

NOT-NOW: HAVE SOME HUMANITY

photo courtesy (unknown) A person cannot retract a message that has reached a mass audience invariant of where it was said. One of the characteristics of communication is that you cannot uncommunicate.  A silent person remains wise until he utters a word. His Excellency Mutahi Kahiga might exemplify this phrase considering his tracenda during his speech at a funeral in Kiambu county, where he was addressing them in the local dialect.  Mr. Kahiga, seems to be deficient in emotions especially concerning the latest tragedy that befell the country when he cast aspersions on Raila Odinga's demise.  Raila Odinga, without doubt was akin to mumbo-jumbo within the luo community yet to his capacity during his lifetime did he not only benefit the Luo but became a national figure and perhaps a trademark in Kenya's politics.  In the history of human life, man is mortal and from soil we come, to soil shall we return. Regardless of the circumstances, man is...