These leaders can't bring change

Story by MAKAU MUTUA
Publication Date: 10/27/2006

If Martians landed on Kenya, they would be forgiven for thinking that we are a nation of lunatics. The reason is simple enough: how does a country of 30 million, largely honest and hardworking citizens, permit itself to be taken hostage by a few kleptocrats?
Of these, about a dozen seem to consume all the nation's oxygen. Kenyans must show their greatness and reject these plutocrats by anointing an alternative leadership - a real third force to take over the state in 2007.

I know that my compatriots are starved of world-class leadership. For the last four decades, Kenya has been an unforgiving graveyard for progressive, patriotic leaders. Instead, our political culture tends to produce a retarded political class.

Unfortunately, this political class has shown remarkable resiliency and capacity to reproduce itself, either through genealogy or sycophantic mentorship. Political barons who have looted the country survive on passing the mantle to their children or handpicked proteges.
Political parties

Like maggots, these cabals sit on every lever of power in Kenya. They sit astride all key sectors: the private, the State, political parties, Opposition, civil society, and even religious organisations. They are a cancer gone malignant. That is why our country is dying, one cell at a time. They have suffocated the political landscape that Kenyans believe that there is no room for an alternative leadership. Even the Press reports on these tribal barons as though they were our natural leaders.

Obviously, it is to the advantage of the political class to perpetuate the myth that leadership belongs to it by right, and that there are no viable - or even possible - alternatives. As a result, every time you turn on the TV, listen to the radio, or open the newspaper, the voices and faces of the same aforementioned cabals greet you. Their surnames have been seared into your brain.
I need not mention them because you know them only too well, and even have nightmares about them in your dreams. Their talking heads attacking each incessantly are a fixture of your daily life. Sometimes you wish you could move to another country just to get away from them.
What is painfully obvious to any observer is that all these mandarins are nothing but self-seekers. Political gluttony is their signature. The question for those who desire to free Kenya from the dreadful clutches of these men and women is how to convince the country that there others in this country who have a vision for leadership beyond the self? Even more important, how does the national political discourse change to focus on who those alternative political leaders might be? How do we as a country jumpstart a national conservation about a fundamental change in our leadership?

My view is that it all should start with the instruments of the mass media. Rather than subject the country to a drumbeat of non-news about the empty talking of the cabals, the media ought to participate in a national project that identifies and highlights the alternative leadership. Frankly, to do otherwise is irresponsible journalism. I strongly believe that it is only the media that can save Kenya from this crisis of leadership.

Inevitably, I know that I will asked to identify those whom I think would constitute the alternative leadership. For now, I only wish to indicate the sectors from which we should look for the alternative leadership, and what criteria we should use for identifying such leadership. Once these critical questions are asked and answered, then we can fill in the blanks. To do otherwise is to put the proverbial cart before the horse. In any case, we ought first to be concerned with principles, not personalities.

I know for sure that it would wrong to look for alternative leaders in either ODM or Narc Kenya. Those are the natural lairs of the cabals that Kenyans must foreswear from national leadership. A real third force must be post-ODM and post-Narc-K. Both are vehicles that seek to keep Kenyans poor, ignorant, and marginalised. Both are composed of Kanu-era and Narc betrayers and looters. We have seen what they have done to the country.

Second, we must look for principled men and women - individuals who have always stood for the vital principles that would lead our country to a renaissance. Consistency and commitment to the ideals of social justice, democracy, reform, human rights, gender equity, nationalism, and anti-chauvinism must guide our choices.

No one who practices or invokes the imagery of tribalism or racism can qualify. Importantly, no one who has been implicated in atrocities or looting of the public purse should offer their services. Only those with clean hands can be candidates for public office. I strongly believe that there is a ton of Kenyans who fit this profile.

Third, we need to look for new leaders in every sector. It is true that good people are generally reluctant to enter the rough and tumble of politics. But this is about our national salvation. That is why we need every clean hand on deck. I would be very interested in mining the private sector for political leadership.

Many folks in the business sector have done well by playing by the rules. We must pick the best among them and ask them to join the movement for political reform. Their skills in wealth creation and corporate responsibility are solely needed in a new reformist state. We must resist the temptation to demonise all business people as corrupt or unethical.

The civil society, the professions, the academy, and the Kenyan Diaspora are obvious recruitment grounds for alternative leaders. The unsung profiles and achievements of many Kenyans in these sectors are breath taking and would cleanse our politics for generations to come. This is the only way our national salvation can be achieved. We must embark on this project right away so that come 2007 Kenyans have an alternative slate of leaders. The media must lead us in this exercise. Time is running out. We must start now.