The Computational Social Scientist and Communication for Social Change Specialist
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!
Dear Mr President,
First, kindly allow me, on behalf of fellow Kenyans, to wish you a prosperous and a focused new year 2011 and to congratulate you for a job well done and an impressive CV for 2010, having achieved your targets as per your performance record.
Mr President, as you keep your cool and juggle your mind on the ongoing antics of MPs and denying potential gatecrashers free state parties, Kenyans are keenly looking forward to your decision on the motion to pull Kenya out of the ICC. You, as the President, will have the final say.
MPs have put you in a dilemma. You are between a rock and a hard place.
It is obvious that you do have a soft spot for some of the suspects on the Ocampo List and would like to show gratitude for the good things they have done to your presidency by trying to save their skin.
Mr President, the irony is that these MPs, some of whom sit in your Cabinet, said they ‘‘never wanted to be vague but to go for The Hague option’’ and continuously turned down the local tribunal option.
They were deaf to your pleas for a local judicial process, thus opening the doors to Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo, who was eager to prove to the world that justice at The Hague does not take 99 years to materialise as some of the MPs believed.
Moreno-Ocampo also wanted to set an example to perpetrators of crimes against humanity using Kenya’s post-election violence case.
Kenyans have spoken out loudly and clearly that they have faith in the International Criminal Court process and they want the six suspects to face justice.
Pulling Kenya out of the Rome Statute and ICC will be a setback to our international relations and commitment to universal human rights.
We understand it is a politically turbulent time but we urge you to be steadfast and stand with Kenyans.
And, remember, you were elected on a platform of reforms.
Once again, thank you for the gains you made in 2010 and mostly for putting the three most important commissions in place. This shows your full commitment to the implementation of the new Constitution.
I also hope that in 2011, you will give us a lean and effective Cabinet.
Aggrey
Dr. Aggrey Willis Otieno 