Hichilema’s Communication Crisis, Forces him to hire Kenyan Firm to bolster Government Failing Communication
Amb. Emmanuel Mwamba writes:
Government has hired a Public Relations agency and communications consulting firm, to structure its communications strategy and train Ministers and the Permanent Secretaries on how to drive and deliver communication.
Instead of attending to his communication crisis and failure of both the strategy and team, President Hichilema has chosen, once again, to pick another layer of bureaucracy to mask the crisis his government faces.
He has hired Gina Din-Kariuki of Gina Din Corporate Communications (GDCC) from Kenya.
A BRIEF BACKGROUND
When President Hichilema appointed Anthony Bwalya as Special Assistant for Press and Public Relations, and later Clayson Hamasaka as Communications Specialist,for whatever reason, Anthony, a well performing Spokesperson, was shown the door and shipped to Tanzania as a diplomat but leaving a lacklustre Hamasaka at the helm of Presidential communication.
At the Ministry of Information and Media, Hichilema appointed Chisamba Member of Parliament Chushi Kasanda, who also acted as Chief Government Spokesperson.
This was highly risky and quickly proved to be a false start as Kasanda was clearly unprepared for the job and appeared to be constantly engaged in learning to do her job.
To cure this, a new position was specifically created to complement the failing Minister, Director Spokesperson!
MDC party and UPND Alliance Spokesperson, Thabo Kawana was appointed as Director Spokesperson.
New CEOs were hired for ZNBC, Times, Daily Mail and ZANIS.
This was at a crucial stage of Hichilema’s new government and he should not have gambled as he was expected to set stage and set a narrative for the next five years.
But as the economy tanked, and the cost-of-living crisis became worse, so did the glaring Information gap widen and its systemic failure became clearly apparent.
President Hichilema dropped Kasanda, clearly a fall guy ( girl), to the failing communication crisis at State House and Government.
President Hichilema transferred and promoted Southern Province Minister and UPND Spokesperson, Hon. Cornelius Mweetwa to become the new Minister of Information and Chief Government Spokesperson.
He hired former ZESCO Spokesperson, Henry Kapata as Director Spokesperson at the Ministry and elevated Thabo Kawana as Permanent Secretary.
This shake-up appeared that it would succeed. But it was not to be!
All these were occurring with the background of the Brenrhurst Foundation, a Johannesburg-based think-tank established by the Oppenheimer family and the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, providing advisory services to Hichilema.
It wasn’t long before the feelings of anger welled up in the country against President Hichilema and his government, as his 2021 campaign promises and pledges became broken, national crises from high food prices,
lack of medicines in hospitals, failing agriculture programs, volatile exchange rate, drought, rising debt, rising inflation, hunger and load-shedding took centre stage and ravaged the country and its people.
MORE LAYERS CREATED
In March 2023, President Hichilema created the Presidential Delivery Unit ( PDU) to attempt to monitor and accelerate implementation of his programs and appointed Kusobile Kamwambi and Chipokota Mwanawasa as head and Deputy respectively.
The PDU was expected to act as a nexus of power between State House, Cabinet Office, Government Ministries and agencies.
PDUs have been criticized as a new layer of bureaucracy that create more problems than it solves them.
The emergence of delivery units has been driven by the political and reputational risks associated with governments struggling to deliver on their commitments.
The delivery unit approach depends on the visible backing of the head of government, and his/her successor will often not want to continue an initiative developed by his/her predecessor.
So they are now deemed to be a short-term intervention linked to a particular administration and may not be a permanent feature at the centre of government.
President Hichilema touted the Presidential Delivery Unit as a magic bullet against bureaucracy, stalled project and failing public service delivery.
The naivety of it all was that a quick and simple solution would resolve the complex and difficult problems Hichilema was facing.
The problems have NOT gone away, they have been compounded.
APPOINTED Whitney Mulobela
To mitigate the continued crisis of communications, Hichilema recently appointed veteran journalist and lawyer, Whitney Mulobela as State House Chief Communications Strategist!
Mulobela’s impact is yet to be dertermined.
However, President Hichilema is now constantly blaming social-media for his poor image while the economy flounders and his policies falter.
Infact, as seen by his public utterances, Hichilema sounds increasingly more frustrated than ever, always blaming his predecessor Edgar Lungu, the former ruling, Patriotic Front, for the current problems.
So the action to hire Gina, a Kenyan businesswoman specializing in strategic communication and public relations in Kenya,is yet another layer masking Hichilema’s policy and government failures.
And the various communication units will probably to falter more and act disjointedly.
But Hichilema’s biggest PR success will come when he delivers on resolving the troubles affecting the country and our people.