This Week's Post

Staging - Why or Why Not?

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Staging is a layered, complex, and interesting word.   “ Staging is the fine art of pretending your lived environment has always resembled an IKEA showroom. Sociologists call this ‘false consciousness’; Realtors call it ‘value added.’” “Every home showing is just Hamlet without the swords: you stand in someone else’s kitchen, whispering, ‘To buy, or not to buy?’ while the throw rug takes center stage.” “ Staging : the process of arranging items in a manner designed to suggest functionality, but not actual human occupation. See also: government flowcharts.” ---  witticisms generated by ChatGPT, 9/4/2025 That's AI's wit. The dictionary definition includes the method of presenting a play, a temporary platform, a phase in a progressive disease, and the arrangement of sequential components of a rocket. But in North America, it includes setting up a house for sale with art and furnishings so as to increase the appeal. A.I. now allows one to stage and unstage. A potential buyer ...
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USAID Insights: Thwarting Politicians

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The 40-day mourning period for USAID has passed (see my earlier obituary). This post articulates one of USAID’s many little-known accomplishments. 

“I want to emphasize the unwavering determination of the United States to push for and support implementation of the reform agenda. President Obama and Secretary Clinton believe strongly that Kenya must seize this historic opportunity to bring about fundamental change. . . .

The constitution is, in many respects, the sine qua non of the reform process. Without a new constitution, implementation of other reforms will not prove sufficient to steer the country in the right direction. If a new constitution is put in place, then implementation of other reforms, along with the new constitution, will help ensure future democratic stability and prosperity.”

—Ambassador Michael Ranneberger, “Reform, Partnership, and the Future of Kenya,” speech, American Chamber of Commerce, Nairobi, January 26, 2010. 

What Do I Think:

A constitution is a nation’s supreme law; it establishes governance structures and defines the relationship between the state and the people. Constitutions vary. They may be empowering, progressive, and visionary, or they may be restrictive, out of touch with the times, and closedminded. 

A chapter in my upcoming book demonstrates how the United States, through USAID, meaningfully contributed to long-term peace and security in Kenya by strategically and tactically using diplomacy and development to advance Kenya’s constitution building process during three distinct periods: 

(1) 1960, before independence;

(2) 1990–1991; and 

(3) 20 years later in 2009–2010. 

The United States invests in such efforts because it seeks to promote peace and security across the globe and, as demonstrated in the quotation above, believes constitutions are inextricably linked with stability, peace, and governance. 

I played a lead role in the most recent US efforts in Kenya as the deputy country representative for USAID’s Kenya Transition Initiative, a program set up specifically to help Kenya rebuild after the 2007/2008 postelection violence. Between February 2008 when the peace agreement was signed and August 2010 when Kenyans overwhelmingly voted for a new constitution, the nation successfully completed the first task listed in the agreement’s fourth agenda. 

This agenda identified long-term issues and solutions for prosperity, none of which could commence before the first task of completing a comprehensive constitutional review process. Like many Kenyan roads, the process was riddled with potholes, diversions, and corrupt policemen. 

Members of the Kenyan elite who did not want a new constitution attempted to stall, delay, or derail the process. Since 1963, Kenyan politicians have used, abused, or modified their constitution to advance their nefarious ways—holding on to power, crushing the opposition, fixing legislative and administrative structures, and facilitating rampant corruption to feed Swiss bank accounts. 

They did not want Kenyans to have a document focusing on the common person, one that could be a new, powerful, protective document with the potential of ushering in a new dawn. 

Using both blatant and subtle tactics, they obstructed those charged with developing the new document; hampered public access to the pre-referendum draft; used misinformation to pit communities against each other to facilitate a rejection at the polls; introduced 150 self-serving legislative amendments to the final draft; illegally changed the text after the public and parliament had approved the document; attacked US support with help from elected US officials; and attempted, in the spirit of the old Kenya, to amend the document during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Why Should You Care?

Politicians and the elite will use every available tool to serve their interests. What happened in this Kenya example? Did Kenyans thwart these tactics? Read the book to understand how significant USAID support may have helped establish and maintain peace and security for over 50 million people and a key US ally.

Peace and Security in Kenya: The USAID Approach, will be available September 15, 2025. You may pre-order it now from your favorite bookstore. Please ask your local library to order it too.


What do others say? "Galeeb Kachra truly is one of a kind. A unique combination of optimism, can-do determination and relentless energy, he has the wiliness and moral integrity required to shake up sclerotic systems and sweep away logjams." (Michela Wrong, 2021)

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