Political Management Opinion
Chogoria, Mountain region –“Wake up Steve, leli (not his real name) has won the election,” my mother roused me from my sleep on the night of August 10, after the announcement of the 2017 general elections. Those were the words I vividly remember that my mum let out as jubilation rented the markets’ air outside. The words I later on wished I hadn’t heard.
Leli, a leader with the excellence the people had been scouring for throughout the 2017 campaign period, had finally managed to secure the position albeit through thick and thin in a highly contested race. The people were glad that because of electing dishonorable people in previous elections, they had fallen culprit to the bonds of misery through abandonment and misuse of their money. The new leader was the ‘anointed one, a selfless, consecrated individual who wouldn’t buy to the appetites of a corrupt regime, -they believed and even confessed it.
They expected happiness, but unfortunately their came suffering, accompanied by a brutal exchange of blames when the leader they had even called their ‘son, vanished deep inside the regime’s hidden chambers. He had forsaken them. No one ever believed he was capable of that. But he did it right at the front of their eyes.
The blame game tossed the country into chaos and into a war of words- and even worst, of weapons. The unforeseen neglect by an individual known as one with a gentle face, ‘who couldn’t even snatch a one shilling coin’ validated that the people had for sure mistaken on the best candidate for the position, the second or even third or fourth time in a row. His turnaround challenged the validity of the decisions most Kenyans made at the ballot. Hence most ended up convinced they made a blunder in their selections. Kenyans thereby proclaim the root of corruption and underdevelopment to the chronic culture of electing inappropriate aspirants. But is it?
In 2017, when Leli defeated some other bigwigs in the top seat he had been contesting for, he had exemplified himself as a helper, and a compassionate figure who even before vying for the seat had engaged in several acts of benevolence. And this made him a go-for, for many people as he had what they yearned for. Even his demeanor and his vows asserted he was eligible for the position. So, did the voters fail to elect a good leader?
They didn’t. Days later, while already in office, something mysterious happened and he changed. Although his sudden changeover might have been caused by some external factors of his new workplace, the fact remains that he changed and the citizens are not blame for it. Whether this transformation comes willingly or unwillingly, leaders must come into terms with one thing. They fail us. His appearances to the public became minimal just like the funds, and desperation begun to strike the people. Hence, while some would point their fingers to the election of unfit leaders, I disown it and point at the leaders susceptibility to the wave of transformation.
I believe my people had done everything to reign in a leader who would not have forsaken them. Given there is no means to accurately gauge whether a leader will stick to his vows once elected, the major task for voters is to cast the ballot and set a leader forward whether he is truly good or he is a hyena camouflaged in a sheep’s skin. Thereafter whether the chosen leader was good or bad, it should be the responsibility of the leader to rise to the demands and deliver. But that is afar none of their distressing concerns. Hence their grievous failure upon their most fundamental obligations.
Leaders in elective positions all this while are the rightful owners to the blames. They should feel the guilt for disappointing their people and their supporters, and think twice on the toll, their covetousness has fetched for Kenya as an East African powerhouse. When they allow history to keep repeating itself, Kenyans loose hope in not just an election, but one of the most important things in a democratic nation and proceed to deem their leaders as useless people drunk down by their greed. Presently, with apathy having donned the 2022 general elections people are losing hope in it at a fast rate and unless leaders bear the failure things might get worse.
Future of work as a Kenyan ruler.
Seemingly, it is so that aspirants who join the political elite with a pure attitude are recruited into the money laundering missions, purposely to create a safe haven for older and senior perpetrators. This is seen to by the circumstances of a workplace governed through dishonesty, which gradually gains victory over these submissive employees hence blindfolding them from noticing and getting bothered by the needs of their people.
The future of work for a Kenyan ruler despite being at loggerheads with the citizens at par, will get more tough and shadowy if it’s not rectified. Both the county and the National governments have been turned into a system where trustable leaders are intimidated to backslide and where the already-corrupt normalize duping peoples needs, to bloom their selfish ambitions. The future then will dock at a serious juncture where possibly citizens will never have a glimpse of the national cake, leave alone getting to lick a piece of it. And instead of growing to higher levels by day, the regime will jeep shrinking and through the leaders downfalls, end up costing the country a lot. Aspiring and incoming leaders should watch out on it’s corrupted climate even before they are in and prepare to withstand and rise over it.
The absence of trust with the countries calcified political elite, who are famous for their shifting alliances and endemic corruption, also is largely persuading many Kenyans to shun participating in election. And if elections will remain relevant in the future, leaders ought to commit to deliver in their duties.
Steve Ireri is a junior writer at the Kenya Management magazine . My focus is mainly on management and how well organisations are able to deal with the much changing workplace reforms.
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