A likely impossibility is always preferable to an unconvincing possibility, so the saying goes. In analyzing the current leadership structures, we realize that there is a lot of dynamism in place. Execution of different roles at various levels of leadership therefore requires a different approach.
Taking Kenya, for instance, the youth have always been referred to as leaders of tomorrow. This is totally fallacious because in the first place, nobody bothers to tell us when that tomorrow will come. Again there is genuine fear that when that tomorrow comes, the current youth won’t be youth any more.
Our current leaders need to borrow a leaf from Stephen R. Corey, the author of the seven Habit series – to redefine their role to society and to themselves. The catch phrase in the seven Habit series goes that, ‘’the essence of pro-activity lies in taking the responsibility and initiative to focus on the things in our lives we can actually do something about.’’
This means that our current leaders need a lot of self examination.
As youth aspiring to be successful leaders of today, we need to be in the limelight as active players in the running of our country.
For a long time, the Kenyan youth have been demobilized and depoliticed. Politics have been criminalized. We are told its dirty game. Yet there can be no development without politics.
Politics is the center of all development. If our fore fathers did not engage in politics to challenge the British colonizers, perhaps, I wouldn’t have been able to write what you are reading now.
Destructive politics and the culture of fear and silence instilled into us through decades of colonialism and dictatorship of the previous Governments and the omissions and commissions of the current Government are the main causes of the social and economic backwardness in Kenya today.
That’s why I fully support the need to inaugurate a forum that shall empower the youth in Kenya to chart a new political dispensation.
I concur with the former Sunday Nation columnist, Mutahi Ngunyi when he said that economic recovery is not our main priority, but governance is.
According to Ngunyi, we need to first address the problem of bad governance as a pre-requisite for economic recovery.
I would suggest that youth be part and parcel of fixing the governance question, as well as champions in the economic recovery project.
Towards this goal, we need to carefully assess the current leadership with a view to avoiding repeating past and current mistakes.
We need to be at the center of politics. We need to go to the people and be part of them, share their situations, plan with them and move at their pace.
In other words, we need to assess and prioritize issues with the people we are leading. For dynamism is a reality that we need to acknowledge as an ingredient of effective governance!
All we need to do is to be part of today’s leadership instead of waiting for the ubiquitous tomorrow. As the Waswahili put it, leo ni leo, asemaye kesho ni muongo!
Dr. Aggrey Willis Otieno 
That as proactive youth I must first find my clean way into active leadership, with which proper governance is erected. Then my chance to revamp economy for is come!
Agggrey your articls are so good and really hit the nail on the head on some of the issues you present for discussson. The thing that really bogs down most Kenyan youths is at times loosing hope and others waiting for speedy solutions to th…ier problems. I wish most youth especially in the sector that we work in would share a combined spirit from settlement level to the National level. This would really make the dofference and forcus on working together despite the challenges.Most important in this spirit of actvism towards being future leaders is never giving up on each other. We are bound to fall but what matters is how many times do we wake up and move on.Thats my two cents thought.
Well said. But don’t you think the youth themselves need to chat their own destiny instead of waiting for leadership to be handed down to them? Wouldn’t it be more helpful if scholars came up with a feasible plan for the youth on how to ascend to leadership position instead of complaining about the youth being marginalised by the old guards? For me, especially with regards to the Kenyan situation, the strategy would be to rid the youth off the apathy, dependency and lack of tact. At the root of this is addressing the socio-economic challenges afflicting the youth and re-organising the leadership structures…
I agree Mr. Otieno. Engage the youth and work with the people, don’t tell them to wait until other people bring speedy solutions to their outstretched hands (gifts are not the recipe for true empowerment). And I think that as long as politicians are the only ones who are engaged in politics then it will remain a dirty game. I think you articulated this very well when you wrote that: “For a long time, the Kenyan youth have been demobilized and depoliticed. Politics have been criminalized. We are told its dirty game. Yet there can be no development without politics.”
I also really liked the spirit and message behind your two cents Wanjiku Wairutu. And I agree with you Ruth when you say “the strategy would be to rid the youth of the apathy, dependency and lack of tact.” I think by including them in the discussions brings them out of marginalization and will naturally allow for leadership structures to shift.
“I would suggest that youth be part and parcel of fixing the governance question, as well as champions in the economic recovery project.”
Aggrey, I have seen this, and similar sounding epithets over the years and they sounded good, but deli…vered emptiness. Just yesterday, I watched leaders of the National Youth Forum on KTN, and they were as pathetic as they come. Honestly, it was like watching our old politicians in younger skins.
My question, as ever, remains the big HOW? First, the term youth is already a contested space. Ruto and his KKK alliance members refer to themselves as ‘Youth’, bent on ‘taking over power from the old guard’. Raila, in his mid-60s, said recently that while he is no longer a ‘young turk’ (which he was in his 50s), he is by no means an old man, and will vie for the top seat quite aggressively in 2012.
A look at our business owners, top businessmen and women, top CEOs, etc will show you that ‘youth’ are as marginalized as ever. MPs like Rachel Shebesh, who is in her early to mid 40s are lauded as the ‘young MPs in the House’. In the next devolved government, we see the old guard, the likes of Biwott and his old cronies, make known their intentions to run for Governor and Senate seats, and being sure of a win because they have the resources and power.
The only way to bring ‘youth’ up to par would be to arm ourselves with power. Plain and simple. Especially economic power. The HOW in this equation is what we must figure out. Forget discussions and participation- those are nothing but empty NGOesque talk that we will engage in till kingdom come. An economic resource base is what we need. Other than that, no one will take youth seriously. What we will see is 50 and 60 year old men appropriate the term ‘youth’ for their own politico-economic gain, content in owning vast acres of land, vast businesses, and therefore, controlling debates that take place in parliament and in courts, etc.