Some stories sound stranger than fiction. When a whole senator is mentioned on social media as having misbehaved at an international airport and causing a security breach simply because he refuses to follow procedure of producing correct identification documents because he is a big shot yet such demands should be made on the hoi polloi ‘watu’ then we need to get really scared.
When an MP in obvious disregard of firearms handling protocols discharges his gun accidentally at an airport then we must ask ourselves some questions regarding his competence to carry a dagger let alone a loaded firearm. When another MP is accidentally shot by his own trained body guard who should be last person to shoot his charge then we must ask ourselves some searching questions about whether there was more to this saga than meets the eye!
When a senators wife is sensationally on national TV complaining to the world how her husband has made her life a living hell by removing all the furniture in the house, cutting off the water and electricity and even carting away the gas cylinder from the house just so that she can be forced to vacate a property where she resides courtesy of a court order, then brethren we need to ask ourselves what kind of leadership we have while running for the hills at full tilt!
When other elected leaders blatantly and in the full view of the world are named as beneficiaries of grabbed parcels of land worth billions of Kenya shillings from Lamu, Kisii, Makueni, Nairobi and other parts of the country then surely we must all be dreaming and shall soon wake up to find that it was indeed all just a bad nightmare!
I could go on and on with various examples of a leadership run amok but these examples should suffice being the most recent ones that come to mind because all this is happening while we are wide awake, sober, of sound mind and in a state of righteous indignation! Whether the stories are true or false is neither here nor there because as responsible leaders, like Ceaser’s wife, our leaders should be above suspicion and reproach. However, the regularity and continued mentions of scandalous behavior among one or other of our leadership gives rise to a probable likelihood of some truth in the tales to be believed even by their most diehard supporters!
Wikipedia describes leadership as "a process of social influence in which one person can enlist the aid and support of others in the accomplishment of a common task". For example, some understand a leader simply as somebody whom people follow or as somebody who guides or directs others, while others define leadership as "organizing a group of people to achieve a common goal". But, do our leaders really fit into this description of leadership based on the few examples portrayed above?
Looked at another way, and going by the popular adage that the people choose the leaders they deserve, does it mean that we are really no better than those that we elect from the hundreds of leaders that try to convince us that they are our best bet to get us from Sodom & Gomorrah to the Promised Land be it at the county or national level? Are we so narrow minded and parochial that we cannot elect any other leaders other than the same ones guaranteed to embarrass us one more time as their last hurray?
Many of the antics of the leaders (that we have collectively chosen) are nothing short of criminal and a blatant disregard for the rights under the constitution of those that have elected them and for which they have taken an oath to defend since they continue to trample us underfoot, ride roughshod on us and generally get away with literally murder.
Many of their antics would result in an immediate arrest for those less connected in the hallowed precincts of the corridors of power as has been demonstrated time and time again from as far back as any of us can remember and many of our retired politicians must be surely gnashing their teeth and tearing off their hair (where it exists) when they see these excesses whether they be still alive and (barely) kicking or somewhere in heaven, hell or that in between place called purgatory!! There must surely be two sets of criminal laws in existence in Kenya today, for the leaders and then for the rest of us hoi polloi ‘watu’ otherwise how else do you explain the apparent disconnect in the application of the law?
In the Kenyan context, we need to redefine leadership to include some of the antics and excesses portrayed by our leaders because why should be keep making the same mistakes year in year out of electing people with similar characteristics if they do not fit into the mold of responsible leaders and as per the universally accepted description from Wikipedia unless we are the perfect example of doing the same thing day in day out and hoping for different results!! It is likely that other countries out there also suffer from a dearth of good leadership but as good Africans we must firstly be intent on cleaning up our own leaders within our homestead before venturing out to correct the leadership in the next homestead!
I know we have some hard working and genuine leaders out there who are as unhappy with the state of affairs in our country as the majority of us voters are to whom I apologize to in advance. I am miffed and feeling utterly helpless about our predicament and a ‘ventfest’ was long overdue. If it is not one drama, it is another and twice on weekends just to piss us off more by Monday.
I shall not blame the devil for our predicament nor ask God for his intercession for that matter because we are where we are because we chose those that now lead us today - dirty socks, torn undies and all!!
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