#GoKDelivers and Other Ways that GoK is failing at Public Communication

Today I happily stumbled on a wonderful development in our country. The new Kenya National Library HQ is a wonder to behold. I am told it’s been open to the public since April 2017 and during the recent December holidays it was packed to the rafters with students and readers who even opted to sit in stair wells.

It’s something we should be proud of as a nation; when institutions work and serve the public. We never get to hear enough of these stories so when we come across such experiences it’s almost a "holy" moment for the average Kenyan. 

Like most Kenyans, the most reliable way to come across information on government activity is through the news. Sadly, it is never good news most of the time. If you put your mind to it and go looking for news on GoK developments you will come across websites that hover between propagandist sounding material and policy document material.

There is hardly any content for consumption by the average Kenyan who just wants something to celebrate about our beloved country. Don’t get me wrong, I know of several websites like https://www.mygov.go.ke/, https://www.president.go.ke/, and https://www.delivery.go.ke/ I shall shortly make a point about these sites in my 5 Fails in GOK communication.

Fail #1: The Voice of Kenya

Most content in the public domain is written for consumption by policy experts or to satisfy "an agenda" of making "someone look good." Here I present the National Communications Secretariat, The Office of the Government Spokesperson, The State House Spokesperson, GOK Delivers, MyGov, and an assortment of billboards and advertisements.

There is a plethora of govt. institutions tasked with different communication pursuits yet none of these lends itself to communicating to the average mwananchi at their level (read appropriate tone, language, channel and context) about how government is working to improve their everyday lives. Save maybe KBC. (haven't tuned in for a while)

While GoK can hardly be called lax in communication, it certainly has some glaring lapses in how it has formally organized public communication.

Consider that, there is a National Communications Secretariat https://ncs.go.ke/, The Communications Authority https://ca.go.ke/ and the ICT Authority https://icta.go.ke/.All three organizations address some form of policy from ICT to postal union law. (yes it is a thing).

Yet there is no centralized, independent, public communications agency that coordinates a comprehensive communications strategy that covers every audience demographic throughout the nation. Such an agency would collate all government achievements into a publicly, consumable format, that’s rich in the practicalities of improving citizens’ lives and devoid of propaganda. It would also consistently measure the pulse of public perception and know what must be communicated and how in order to strengthen and shape national life.

Fail No. 2 The Hangover

The era of static, bureaucratic, top down communication is still with us. Never mind that Kenya is one of the most active countries in the world on social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook.

Here again I present #GOKDelivers. A campaign communication tool that was rightly called out by the courts during last year’s heated election period. To justify this assertion, the GOK Delivers Facebook page was last updated on August 4th 2017.

It would be fair to presume that GoK sees no sufficient reason to engage the public and update us on all the wonderful ways it’s working to improve our lives as citizens, until elections come around.

It is probably imagined that each govt. body has its own mandate to communicate its efficacy to the general public. But here come the glaring gaps of bureaucracy.

Most communication officials within government offices are probably overwhelmed by the sheer number of events like “Open Days” seminars and workshops they need to organize. Not to mention the time consuming meetings and procurement processes deciding frippery such as budgets for banners, polo shirts and caps to distribute within staff teams for the next official engagement.

Fail No. 3 Silence of the Lambs

From a concerned stakeholder perspective, it would seem that GoK’s approach to public communication can be summed up as “You will hear from us, if we think you need to know”

The problem with this approach is that the only time government will determine the urgency to communicate to the public is when a crisis occurs. The Government Spokesperson, State House Spokesperson, etc will all emerge with a flurry of statements trying to assure us of the sitting government’s position on matters. It is no wonder our primary response as citizens is often to regard these statements with mistrust or contempt.

When we do get to hear about positive developments, this will most likely be from the Press. The problem with this is that using the Press to disseminate positive stories about government is like setting a hawk to watch over “baby chicks”. There is a reason why Press is often referred to the 4th Estate.

Journalistic instincts are trained to swipe in for blood. Only if a government story is completely fool proof (i.e. no hint of scandal) will we share only just the Good News. Even then, our enthusiasm in reporting the story is greatly diminished because we live for bleeding leads.

Fail No. 4 The “Kenyan” Idol

Remember the days of Alfred Mutua, Government Spokesperson per extraordinaire?  It could be said those were the glory days when Kenya stepped into the 20th Century of public communication.

A spokesperson is an extremely important cog in the wheel of public communication. Someone at GOK should underline the word cog. Just one part of a great big machinery of communication that should be well oiled and constantly sharing information, shaping public opinion, measuring public perception, acting on behalf of ALL public institutions and not just the single office of the Presidency.

If you want to know the positive impact GoK is achieving, you are most likely to find content on https://www.mygov.go.ke/ or https://www.president.go.ke/ . These two websites are heavily skewed towards promoting a favorable view of the presidency.

For example the “Good Govt. News” in Kenya today is that World Health Organization will back the Universal Healthcare in 5 Years for every Kenyan initiative. The story is credited to the President’s Four Point Action Plan on Health. That’s the Lead and the frame of the entire story. There is hardly any detail as to what the Universal Healthcare Plan will do to help ordinary Kenyans and why we as nation should embrace its potentially outstanding impact.

For those so politically inclined, it’s really easy to reject this as smacking of a “Jubilee/Uhuru Project” and miss out on the national aspiration for better healthcare for every Kenyan. This is the frame that should precede all communication about this project and not merely making it a presidential/personality issue.

The problem here is when the President looks Kenyans in the eye via their TV screens and says “Kenya is bigger than all of us”, forgive viewers for their involuntary eye roll because our national communication reduces the greatness of government accomplishment to a personality and not to the collective of great institutions that should work on our behalf. So when that personality exits we can be forgiven for feeling our hopes for a great nation have retired together with him.

Fail No. 5 Dunia Wiki Hii

There was a time when Kenyan media, VOK, would only broadcast content that GoK deemed appropriate for public consumption. Those were dark days and we are glad that they are behind us.

But there was something good that government let go of. Regular broadcasts on government projects. We were constantly ”updated” on President Moi’s trips to the Rift Valley to build gabions, inaugurating new parastatals etc.

Moving away from the propaganda, it’s good for citizens to hear how far along we have come with Vision 2030, hopefully before 2029. It would be nationally inspiring to hear facts, figures, real-life stories from Kenyans whose lives have been transformed through improved service delivery. It would be awesome if we did not have to wait for the next election cycle to hear these kinds of stories feverishly delivered in favor of a candidate.

This should not be too hard to do given that social media is rather prevalent in Kenya and readily provides the power to constantly engage and communicate with the masses at a fraction of the cost of traditional broadcast production.

It is fully my intention that this gross fails should make someone in government sit up and think through public communication at a national level as holistic strategy.

If we wanted to unite Kenyans shouldn’t we move past cult personality, propagandist tone of communication and give people faith  in the totality of the institutions of Government constantly working for the good of its people?

Consistently engaging publics in meaningful ways, at their level (appropriate channels, tone and language) about positive developments helps create a pride and trust that our institutions are working for us.

 That’s something Magical Kenya https://www.magicalkenya.com/ does very well. But then again, that a very niche form of communication, another cog in the Great Wheel of Government Communication.