The Follies Of Old Leadership

ONLY BRAND NEW LEADERSHIP AND BRAND NEW IDEAS CAN SAVE KENYA

Friday’s formation of the Government’s minimum wage committee was the second strongest signal yet sent to a growing number of right thinking and increasingly concerned Kenyans that the current leadership governing the affairs of the country does not represent the much anticipated change and desired break from the past old school of political thinking.

Are you really serious that we need another committee? What is it going to do other than turn stones that have already been turned in the past in the name of finding out how to improve the welfare of the Kenyan labourer?

The creation of this committee does not in anyway represent the radically different approach to governance Kenyans had hoped this monstrous 42 member “grand” coalition Government would adopt in restoring the dashed hopes many of us still feel after the post elections fiasco and at a time when the worlds problems are knocking on our door in the form of food crisis, soaring fuel prices, housing market collapses and credit crunches

But this is how “old” leadership thinks; instead of commissioning immediate emergency relief assistance to millions of people bearing the brunt of modern life's crisis and the disasters of nature, they assault their citizenry by hitting them over the head with a leadership style that lays the responsibility of progress and survival on anyone but those elected to lead.

In Zimbabwe old architect of past decay President Mugabe is mastering the art of assaulting by leading a dangerous cavalry charge against the clear outspoken will of a whole nation representing the determined voice of an international community unyielding in their wish to see the back of Bob for good.

This is the stigma that old leadership bears with it. Likewise, the time to form committees to address levels of corruption or measure the plight of the Kenyan worker or even air the grievances of prison warders is long over. There is no escaping the need for a embracing a steep reformist agenda-did the leaders we campaigned for in 2007 know the type of leadership we were serious about having in 2008?

ARE WE LOSING OUR WAY AS A NATION

How i long for bygone days when the then enigmatic local government minister late Karisa Maitha would bulldoze his way into a local town council and take immediate action against errant council workers, forcing them to mend their errant ways. During his stint as local government minister he even exorcised the dead in the name of sacking shady ghost employees scourging our local town councils of millions of Kenyan shillings

Even current environment minister John Michuki had his day in the sun when he rectified overnight the anomaly of the matatu menace that sadly returned to plague our roads with a vengeance after his stint at the ministry of transport was over. In 4 years, current transport minister Chirau Mwakwere is yet to accomplish even half of what Michuki did in his tenure

Those of you who are a little older may remember the famous crime buster Shaw now deceased. Here was a man who did not fear to tread where the criminal elements dominated. In his time the criminal elements of our society were shaken to their very core and his methods of operation were known to be effective, evoking fear in the hearts of the criminal underground. Where are such men of leadership and action nowadays?

Where are the men and women who will stem the tidal wave of corruption that is rooted in our systems and institutions? Where are the leaders who will inspire our nation to restore its lost green city in the sun status? Where are the men and women who will show the way when it comes to shunning tribalism?No wonder the whole of Kenya is groaning under a lead weight of hopelessness-we've lost our way and direction as a nation.

If we have lost our way as a nation (we need a path-finding committee to help us find our way (sic)) then now more than ever before we need brand new leadership and brand new ideas to get Kenya back on the right track. Age is but a number, and old dogs can learn new tricks if they want, but complacency and incompetence will not stand.

Time for change was yesterday. Any good new ideas being suggested today must be acted upon immediately and without fear or hesitation. I for one welcome Chris post yesterday "Lies, Lies" check out the comments section which is filled to the brim and overflowing with positive ideas from urxlnc, chris, mrembo, wanjiku, and infinite annons all willing to contribute to making this nation great once more

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Lies, Lies

My great concern for the motherland just now is how lies and pure fiction peddled as the truth have dominated and taken over public affairs in the country, even as we hurtle towards the most serious crisis ever seen in these shores since the beginning of life itself.

That crisis, unless checked will include widespread famine, hunger and very hard financial times for ordinary Kenyans.

It is not news to any Kenyan that Dr Alfred Mutua regularly tells lies in public in the name of practicing Public Relations. The training I have in public relations tells me that lies is NOT PR and will always catch up with you sooner rather than later and when it does nothing you do will be effective.

Shortly before the coalition cabinet was announced, Dr Mutua with cameras rolling and a straight face, told us that the extra ministries would definitely not be of budgetary concern. The reason he gave made me double up in stitches of laughter. What made the whole scene so comical is that some reporters (who shall remain nameless) were busy taking down notes and hanging on his every word, looking serious and attentive.

Dr Mutua said that what would happen is that existing departments previously clustered together would be split to create the new ministries and those departments still had their old budgets intact. So the huge cabinet would make very little difference to government expenditure.

Now last week a worried looking Finance Minister, Amos Kimunya admitted that the government was in great difficulty financing its’ expenditure which includes the new colossal cabinet. And as if that was not enough, Baba Jimmy himself, he of duly elected president fame, told angry workers at Uhuru Park that things were “not good” financially in the country. But that was a bitter pill for workers to swallow because the colossal cabinet is a serious cash guzzler and trimming it down to size can go a long way in helping afford salary increments for the lowest cadre of workers who are already going hungry on a regular basis, let alone starting to put aside cash to purchase food to deal with the coming famine. Let us not even talk about subsidizing food prices so that ordinary folk can afford to put food on the table. By the way ask yourself a simple question. If people who have jobs are going hungry, what about the jobless?

On the ground all the signs are there that this government is pretty broke. In fact it is now rather clear that had the Safaricom IPO not happened when it did the chaps at Treasury would be sweating a lot more than they are right now. But one thing I can assure you, they are still already in a cold sweat.

But Dr Alfred Mutua is not the only person in the Kenyan government to peddle lies on a regular basis. Mr Kimunya himself told us shortly before the grand coalition government was unveiled that the country would NOT be affected much by the post election crisis. Again any fool would have realized that the country’s bread basked bore the brunt of the violence, so how could the economy be barely affected? In fact as you read this, there are those who are predicting that the Kenyan economy will never recover in a long time. That is a view that is bound to gather currency in the weeks and months to come.

Then today Police Commissioner Maj Gen Ali came out with both barrels blazingto deny any involvement of the police department in the execution of Mungiki suspects. I am well aware of the sentiments of most readers of this blog who favor extra-judicial killings and believe that it is the only way of dealing with the murderous gang. But surely Kenyans deserve the truth on such a serious matter.

But then all these lies are hardly surprising are they? After all this government is headed by a man who won a single province decisively and lost 6 very decisively and yet insists to this day that he won the presidential elections. Not to mention the lesser liar but nevertheless still a liar in the ODM party which promised a new beginning and swore that they would do things differently and then went and appointed dinosaurs William Ole Ntimama and Fidelis Fred “slapped a woman returning officer” Gumo to the cabinet. Those appointments were a huge statement proving that we were told a lot of lies during the campaign period.

I am not naïve and I know that politicians the world over tell fibs on a regular basis. In fact there are those who define politics as the art of being able to tell lies with a straight face. If this is true then surely there is no hope for Mother Kenya.

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