President Uhuru Kenyatta was trounced in an East African Community Leadership online poll titled, "If East Africa was to be ruled by one person, who would you vote for?"
In the poll conducted by Kenyans.co.ke between Tuesday, May 5, and Wednesday, May 6, Kenyatta garnered only 8% of the nearly 10,000 votes, tied jointly at number two with Tanzania's President John Pombe Magufuli.
President Paul Kagame of Rwanda was the most preferred hypothetical leader of the unified East African 'nation' taking with 77% of the total votes, with Uganda's Yoweri Museveni coming in last with 7%
A majority of netizens argued that the Rwandan President was a visionary, and a self-professed Africans-for-Africa advocate.
"Paul Kagame is a visionary, industrious and transformative, definitely better than Uhuru Kenyatta," Ronald Selem argued.
His handling of the Covid-19 pandemic in Rwanda received a lot of praise with netizens being of the view that the other three East African presidents did not come close in their performance.
"Uhuru Kenyatta. Uhuru is more focused than all the East African leaders. He knows how to make people feel a sense of belonging and security," one Bernard differed while claiming that Kagame was a strong-armed ruler.
President Kenyatta was mainly criticised for his handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, with netizens arguing he had gotten it all wrong.
However, Political Analyst Mark Bichachi who spoke to Kenyans.co.ke on May 6, argued that President Kenyatta had done a good job and that members of the public are always inclined to judge from a negative angle.
"People are subjective thinkers, in the sense that, if things are not working in your county you blame the president. When things are working you take it for granted.
"I think it is clear that Uhuru has done a good job as far as Covid-19 pandemic is concerned," Bichachi stated.
"It is obvious the only reason Kagame has done better than Uhuru is that he is a dictator. You cannot compare a dictator who can tell you don't go anywhere with a free person who can tell you stay at home and you don't," he opined, weighing in in the poll.
If East Africa was to be ruled by one person, who would you vote for? #KenyansPoll
— Kenyans.co.ke (@Kenyans) May 5, 2020
Bichachi argued that every country had been affected by Covid-19 and that Kenyatta compared well with the rest of the world as far as containing the pandemic was concerned.
"The only country that is close to achieving hard immunity is Sweden. Its method of lockdown was very clever. They said if you stay home we will pay you 70% of your salary, so that was a form of lockdown, and people voluntarily stayed home.
"Did Uhuru lockdown the country? Did he tell people to reduce movement? Did he ask people to stay home? As far as comparing him with the international standards, he passed the exams," Bichachi remarked.
He argued that Kenya was a developing country and people needed to understand the reach of the country's economic might. He explained that the economic contingency measures put in place by President Kenyatta were effective, though many might not see or feel it.
University of Nairobi don and political analyst Herman Manyora argued that the President had done a good job in the fight against Covid-19, adding that there was no country in the world that had successfully handled the pandemic.
"If you ask me to be honest, he has done a good job, I am even surprised," Manyora told Kenyans.co.ke on May 6, 2020.
He, however, argued that the pandemic would force President Kenyatta to address various sectors of the economy, especially healthcare.
"The president was only paying elite service to universal health coverage. It was a big joke. It was only an enterprise for people to make money.
"But this pandemic will force him to do something, whether he likes it or not. There things we are going to do, things we have done that we could not have done in 20 years. We are even going to pay our doctors well. Already every county has an ICU facility," Manyora stated, further noting that Murang'a had erected an ICU in 21 days.
He argued that the Covid-19 period was not the right time to gage political legacies noting that President Kenyatta could achieve one of his projects before the end of his second term in 2022.
"The timing of what we are doing, even the scale of what we are doing has been imposed on us by the pandemic. Therefore, the president's Big Four Agenda may benefit by default," Manyora opined.
