Kenya’s future depends on the kind of leaders voters will elect

With another General Election looming and a tribally divisive presidential battle in the offing, it is another decisive time in the history of Kenya’s politics.

But some critical issues remain unresolved. Top among them are poor leadership, the high level of unemployment, and poverty. These issues have the ability to cause chaos.

Unless something is urgently done on poverty and runaway unemployment, Kenya might be headed for a worse political situation than that engineered by the 2007-8 polls.

The next leadership has its job cut out. First it must be responsive to voters’ needs. It must be transparent and thrifty too. The beauty of the new Constitution lies is in the fact that it devolves state functions and funds management.

Counties will no longer blame the central government if their regions are unable to make the best of resources in their areas. Leaders at the county level will take the blame.

The new Constitution is a promising document. However, even with the best of constitutions nothing is achieved without the right leaders in place.

Ethnic emotions

Great corporations like General Electric, Microsoft, Coca-Cola, Samsung, Toyota, Exxon Mobil, CNN, and Pepsi have thrived due to good leadership. No organisation has become successful without great people at the helm.

A government’s operations and productivity are no different from that of large corporations. It thus requires great minds to lead a country to prosperity.

A government means a lot to the lives of its citizens. The chaos in Somalia are prove that without sound leadership a country’s citizens are doomed.

A malfunctioning state brings pain to local and global citizens. Somalia’s leadership failure has led to piracy and the spread of terrorism which affect a large swath of the world.

Kenya requires strong, intelligent, and transparent leadership to take the nation to a higher level. Some fundamental economic changes have occurred in President Kibaki’s era, but they have not been far-reaching.

We still have too many malfunctioning government institutions and a weak economy.

A poor country like Kenya can’t afford the luxury of poor leadership. The biggest hurdle that stands between Kenyans and enlightened leadership is tribalism.

Kenyans are easily put under the tribal spell, with politicians raising ethnic emotions every election time.