Voters looking for these key qualities in their next President to steer growth

• The person should be a visionary; of high integrity; able to diligently and fairly exercise authority; and also endowed with a good measure of patience.
• The next president will also need to be politically astute to effectively see the country through potential transitional hurdles as we implement the new Constitution.
• The first indicative test for the new leader will be in the quality and diversity of his/her first Cabinet and key official’s appointments. Inclusiveness, fairness and respect for professionalism should be strong guiding principles.
• We shall need to have a leader who believes in long term national socio-economic planning and one who is not likely to resort to populist “roadside” haphazard and random decision making.
• At the onset, the new head of state should acknowledge that the future of this country will mostly be defined by how effectively the nation harnesses the huge potential of our youth.
• Our new CEO will need to visibly prioritise agriculture as a top GDP contributor to support food security, wealth generation and employment creation.
• To leverage regional and global trade, the next national CEO will need to substantially increase Kenya’s manufacturing base, counting mainly on value addition of its agricultural and mineral resources.
• We are also looking for a leader who will steward the country to increase its brand value —a country that will be famous for the right reasons; a country that will command regional and global respect; and a country that will effortlessly attract investments and visitors.

I was recently invited to join an election policy formulation committee for an aspiring presidential candidate, an invitation which I wisely declined.

But this led me to think about what expectations I would have of our next head of state.

I first voted in Kenyan General Election in 1969, and the only election which I deliberately skipped was the 1988 queue-voting (mlolongo) election which was considered by many to be politically primitive.

In all those past elections, policy issues never played a critical role in electing a new government.

Kenya has transitioned through three post-independence heads of state. The late President Kenyatta laid a strong foundation for statehood and created economic systems to pull the country into economic self sufficiency.

President Moi may have missed the opportunity to build on economic successes of his predecessor thus resulting in mostly wasted opportunities and also diminished national esteem.

President Kibaki‘s reign has mostly stewarded resuscitation of economic and political governance systems and institutions which had been weakened during his predecessor’s tenure.

He has also established an environment in which the traditional Kenyan winning entrepreneurial spirit and confidence have been rejuvenated.

The next CEO of Kenya should essentially be a “take-off” president to lift the country into the next phase of national development, building on economic and political achievements already recorded.

The person should be a visionary; of high integrity; able to diligently and fairly exercise authority; and also endowed with a good measure of patience.

The next president will also need to be politically astute to effectively see the country through potential transitional hurdles as we implement the new constitution.

A prime agenda for the next head of state will be to continue to cement national cohesion which is still “work in progress”.

The first indicative test for the new leader will be in the quality and diversity of his/her first Cabinet and key official’s appointments. Inclusiveness, fairness and respect for professionalism should be strong guiding principles.

We shall need to have a leader who believes in long term national socio-economic planning and one who is not likely to resort to populist “roadside” haphazard and random decision making.

Vision 2030 has so far served as a coherent planning document, a script which all read from for implementation.