It is a shame that nobody in power appears to show evidence of reading anything other than poorly delivered speeches, orders from above the odd biblical quote to hoodwink supporters, Bretton Woods directives and expensive shopping catalogues.
If they did read widely, including columns such as this one, they might learn one or two things that would help them achieve better governance scores.
But then again, from everything I have come to understand about successive Kenyan governments, since I began writing in the press back in 1989, they think they know everything and there is nothing they need to learn, and especially not from pesky journalists.
This is a pity because today I have some really good advice for them. Because I am in a charitable mood, I will dispense this advice in the spirit of the hyena that addressed the rock in spite of being ignored.
This government’s real challenge is poor communication. Actually, that is an affliction that has affected all the governments we have had since 1963.
Despite the Kenya government posing as a modern digital government that values open government and freedom of information, the reality is that in the words of President Jomo Kenyatta, serekali is still sirikali.
During the last couple of weeks, I have seen the President and the Interior CS put themselves forward for serious interviews with top TV journalists, and as far as I was concerned, the interviews did not go well for either the President or his Cabinet colleague.
This was a pity because both the President and the CS are seasoned political operators with the requisite public speaking chops.
As I watched both these interviews, I almost felt sorry for the interviewees. They appeared singularly unprepared for the hardball questions they were faced with.
The interviews made me wonder how people who I assume have access to highly rated communications experts had not bothered to get advice or properly prepare for the interviews.
Was it hubris by the President and the CS, or had their communications people been asleep at the wheel?
For the President, I would have thought that going toe-to-toe with three of the biggest names in the business to discuss live on TV the weighty matters of the Gen Z protests called for serious preparation.
I would have at the very least expected members of his team to have a run-through exercise over at least a couple of hours, with the team posing the sort of tough questions they should have been expecting.
As well as preparation for the hard questions, if I had been in charge of the presidential communications, I'd have ensured that he made an effort to come across as empathetic. That more than anything else was what the moment was crying out for.
Such interviews are designed for broadcasters to get clips of their journalists holding the President to account. It may be considered a public relations exercise in part, but it is also about accountability to the public via the media.
In the event I’m not sure the interviews served either State House or the Interior ministry particularly well.
I wondered if their media handlers (if they have any) were too scared to prepare them for the tough questions from the journos, or if perhaps the President and the then Interior Cabinet Secretary were too arrogant and full of themselves to accept any coaching.
Of course, there is also the possibility that their handlers were deluded into believing that they were in Kenya circa 1990, where it might have been assumed the journalists might be intimidated by the interviewee and would only pitch softball questions at them.
But in my spirit of being charitable, I will allow that perhaps the communications teams had given the right advice and just been ignored. Whatever happened, hopefully lessons have been learnt for the next time, if there is a next time.
Meanwhile, now that we are no longer paying for the offices, intercessors and other hangers-on of the first and second ladies, we might even have a budget with which to sort out a proper strategic communications team for the government.