Kibaki’s leadership was game-changer

President Mwai Kibaki passed on last week. This article is an extract from my Business Daily column in December 2012, written when the late President Mwai Kibaki was about to exit from his 10-year leadership.

It was an analysis of the socio-economic changes that he introduced during his tenure, and these I consider to be a baseline against which subsequent generations of leaders will be assessed.

In addition to acknowledged economic and infrastructure improvements over the 10 years, President Kibaki’s leadership redefined national leadership, governance and ethical standards which had significantly depreciated during the twenty-four years of President Moi’s presidency.

Kenyans regained sufficient freedom and breathing space as leader-worship and fear were replaced with freedom of expression and respect for leadership.

Leadership style

Political patronage and vendetta disappeared as politicians and businesses learned to survive on their merit guided by the laws and regulations of this country.

Kibaki’s leadership style of non-interference allowed fair competition in both business and politics.

He shunned issuing “roadside” instructions, a populist habit, which had introduced randomness, confusion, and informality in governance during the President Moi era.

The late President ably demonstrated that the presidency is a national institution and should not favour any one region for preferential development or public appointments.

The fact that people from his Nyeri backyard did not get special favours spoke a lot about his inclusiveness and fairness in the national development agenda.

The public in general learned to accept that they had to toil and earn an honest living and not to expect free populist handouts from government or politicians.

Specifically, the late President successfully de-institutionalised “harambee’ contributions, which had been entrenched in our political and social fabrics.

The role of government was to empower citizens to develop themselves by providing educational and economic opportunities through enabling institutions and critical infrastructure, while banks offered affordable credit.

Fiscal policies targeted the facilitation of business and enterprise, in addition to raising sufficient revenues to reduce dependence on debt and donors.

President Kibaki professionalised the Kenya Revenue Authority to become efficient, respectable and fairly independent from politics.

As revenues were put to targeted economic-multiplying development projects and programmes, citizens learned to pay taxes as a civic obligation.

Enhanced budgetary efficiency and significant reduction of dependence on foreign debt, was perhaps the largest gift President Kibaki gave Kenya as it enhanced national sovereign pride and economic independence.

Kenya could steward its development through association with various countries and investors on terms acceptable to Kenya, and this included forging new links with the East.

President Kibaki was a keen believer in the economic cooperation of East African nations as a vehicle for regional economic self-actualisation.

The other notable aspect of governance visible during the rule of President Kibaki was the principle of effective delegation of responsibilities to ministers and civil servants.

Unwarranted and frequent transfers (and firing) of civil servants as was the case in the 1980s and the 90s, became rare and this improved service delivery continuity and accountability.

Some have said the late President was at times slow to react to issues.

However, it can also be argued that sudden reactions to situations without adequate behind-the-scenes consultations can be counterproductive. It is political wisdom to weigh before reacting to heavy issues and situations, and President Kibaki had ample of this wisdom.

Corrupt cartel

President Kibaki’s battle with corruption was unfortunately short-lived, probably outsmarted by corrupt cartels from the Moi era.

Experience has so far taught us that corruption is a perpetual “institution” with unique succession linkages from one government to the next.

Corruption defines, shapes and defends economic and political power which it funds.

Containing corruption requires leadership that is fully ready to take political power debits, a reality that unfortunately looks like a tall order.

Successive leadership after Kibaki has not demonstrated effectiveness in disabling corruption with finality.

President Kibaki re-established systems to get out of an economic and political pit and to hopefully provide subsequent generations of leaders with a basis to continue with an upward trajectory.

We are just about to complete 10 years with the Jubilee government and will soon transition to new leadership.

While each leader has his style, Kenyans will be judged on how the leadership shift has matched the leadership ethics espoused by the late President.

May the Almighty Lord rest his soul in eternal peace.