From 40m Kenyans, surely a real leader will emerge?

The field of Kenyan presidential hopefuls has a new entrant. Last Sunday, Raphael Tuju, a former minister in Mwai Kibaki’s government, officially launched his candidature for president, and unveiled the party on whose ticket he would be running — the Party of Action.

In his speech at the launch, Mr Tuju catalogued what the priority areas of his presidency would be, highlighting food security and, especially, employment creation.

Then, touching on our tribe-based politics, he declared that POA would be issue-based, concurring with conclusions from a myriad bodies that the killings and ethnic cleansing that accompany every election cycle are a direct result of tribal mobilisation by politicians.
Pointing to a group of victims of the 2008 post-election violence who attended the launch, Tuju narrated their horrifying experiences during those dark nights and even darker days following the announcement of the results of the presidential race.

Tuju’s policy intentions pointed in the right direction, his body language was dignified, his speech articulate, a welcome change from the ethnic baiting that stands for policy, and the undignified ranting that stands for speech making in the sickeningly egocentric performances we have come to expect from those who would lead us.

So, is Raphael Tuju the man in the cliché, “cometh the hour, cometh the man”?

Michael Kinsley, assessing the candidatures of Obama and McCain in Time magazine, wrote, “Both candidates are good men, but good isn’t enough. These times require greatness.” Given that our problems are so much bigger than America’s, and we are so far behind that country, how much more then the need for greatness in our leaders?

In 1963, South Korea’s economy was more or less equal to ours. Five decades later, that country is in the First World while we continue to be mired in poverty, groping for direction in conceptual darkness.

Every comparative study of how the Asian Tigers accomplished a feat that took Europe centuries, and why we have continued to mark time in the same developmental spot, points to leadership as the greatest impediment to our progress.

Our leadership failed to innovate in key areas such agriculture and education, failed to inculcate a sense of individual responsibility in those who ran our institutions or apply strict sanction for dereliction of duty, failed to plan for infrastructure, etc. And then executed a coup de grace on our waning national aspirations: It converted the state into a personal and tribal fiefdom in which a few gorged themselves on public resources.

Yet all is not lost. Our new Constitution provides us with an organising architecture for socio-economic development. The Vision 2030 — to make Kenya a middle-income country by 2030 — is an ambitious yet achievable goal. So we now have an enabling framework for our development project, and clear well-thought out goals. What we now need are men and women to bring alive the values and institutions proposed by the Constitution and to translate policies in Vision 2030 into systems of delivery.

It seems to me that, because of the sheer enormity of this task, even a textbook approach to development that might have worked in the 1960s will now be inadequate. This task will require a developmental paradigm shift, and a new kind of leader — selfless, empathetic, innovative, inspirational, highly intelligent; a leader of unquestionable integrity, committed to the transformative agenda in the Constitution and Vision 2030.

Some of those now offering themselves for leadership have been mentioned adversely in connection with or charged with corruption, others have been indicted by the ICC, others have served happily in inept administrations characterised by gross human-rights abuses and corruption, still others were against or lukewarm towards the new Constitution, etc. Given the distance we have yet to travel to reach our promised land, can these men and women be our Moses?

My view is that this is not Kenya’s best foot forward. I am convinced that somewhere among our 42 ethnic groups, among a population of 40 million souls, a leader equal to the task is waiting to burst onto the stage, grab this country by the scruff of its neck and shake it out of its tribal stupor, inspiring it towards the promise in the Constitution and Vision 2030.

Tee Ngugi is a social and political commentator based in Nairobi