If the Election Bill 2007 sails through as it is, then it means that future mayors in Kenya will have to be university graduates with 10 years management experience that is relevant to the management of a local authority.
This university graduates requirement first came up in the Ghai draft constitution for the highest office in the land and now it has re-emerged for a lower office. The reason why it surprises me is that apart from the fact that Kenya will be one of the very few countries in the world, if not the only one to enact such a law, it also displays a very clear lack of knowledge of the crux of our problems in Kenya. Coming from the civil society, whom I am told had a lot of input in this bill, this worries me very much.
Our problem is not that our leaders are not well educated; the big problem is that they all lack integrity and being well-educated does not automatically give a person leadership qualities.
Probably the best illustration of this is the Kibaki presidency. I heard several comments after the 2002 elections (and I am ashamed to say that I was one of the people who strongly concurred) to the effect that things in Kenya were going to improve dramatically since we now had an educated person at the helm. One elderly man called Kibaki Mwalimu wa maprofessor (referring to his stint as a lecturer at Makere University before Tom Mboya fetched him in a VW all the way from Kampala to be Kanu's first executive officer in the early 60s.
Not only has this theory been proved dead wrong but we have seen the Mwalimu wa maprofessor seeking help in governing from a person who never saw the inside of a high school (let alone a university campus) in former President Moi.
In my view passing such a law requiring a mayor to be a graduate can cause a lot of trouble in Kenya because it will further widen the gap between the rich and the poor. Only the rich can afford to take their children up to University in the current system we have in Kenya. So in many ways, this small clause is another way of ensuring that the ruling class is able to comfortably hand over power to their children with little competition from others.
There are many examples of people without a university degree making exceptionally good leaders and professionals. I will give just three examples. John Major, former British Prime Minister never saw the inside of a university. Closer to home, outgoing KCB CEO who has managed an amazing turnaround at one of Kenya's largest bank is not a university graduate. Yet there are few people who know more about managing a bank successfully than Terry Davidson.
If we still insist on passing such a clause then we should start at the top with the highest office in the land and insist that the president has to be a university graduate.
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Are u saying nothing has improved since Kibs took the reigns of power? What is wrong with Kibs asking for tips from the professor of politics? This president-should-know-it-all notion is a thing of the past. People should consult and that is why we moved to cut the one man show in odm in the bud. Everybody there is an equal player now.
ReplyDeletePhil Says,
ReplyDeleteThe fact that thousands of Kenyans do not qualify to join university each year, and many others cannot afford moduleII programmes or private universities means that the bill will be limiting democractic space by categorizing civic leaders as university graduates. The bill may be a having good intentions, but what gains will a university graduate bring if chief officers at local councils are still controlled by the local government minister or if the mayor himself owes his allegiance to the dominant political party?