What President Kibaki And His Closest Aides Think Of Younger Generation Leaders

My firm conviction is that the younger generation in this nation will confound critics and rise to the occasion, at this, the nation’s hour of need. It does not matter what newspaper surveys say about how ignorant they are.

But my main point in making this post was to leave no doubt on the minds of Kenyans what the leaders in this country think about a younger generation of Kenyan leaders taking over power in 2007.

You will remember at the height of the memorandum of understanding quarrel between the Kibaki camp and the LDP camp, the President used a public meeting to warn a certain young man. Analysts are convince that the President was referring to Raila Odinga, although Raila denied it (probably to dare the president to name names).

Now if President Kibaki considers Raila a young man, then any 45 year old seeking leadership in this country is a “toddler”.

What is important here is for Kenyans to realize where this thinking is coming from. The Kibaki administration has hinted severally that it is an administration that aspires to be closely linked to the Kenyatta administration in the way they do their things. The thinking behind this is for the golden era (when the president was finance minister) should be recreated in Kenya. This is one reason why this administration has run into so many problems tackling the main problems facing the nation, namely unemployment and escalating crime. There can be no solutions from the 70s for these two twin-related challenges. But that is a story for another post.

The point to be made here is that people like the President himself were often teased by older cabinet ministers because of their youthful ages. It is instructive that the youthful ministers in Jomo Kenyatta’s administration were the most brilliant. Two names come to mind immeditaley. Fiannce Minister Mwai Kibaki and Minsiter for Economic Planning Tom Mboya. However advanced age was greatly valued in those days and there is no doubt that there were plenty of derogatory references to “young men.”

That is where the President is coming from and this explains why those surrounding him are of the age where staying awake in the afternoons can be quite challenging at times (cabinet meetings in Kenya are mostly held on Thursday afternoons).

Younger generation candidates, especially for the presidency, should prepare their strategy well with these facts in mind.

This is one of the reasons why I have suggested that the thrust of the compaign should be repackaged to stress new leadership and new ideas (which can only come from younger Kenyans).

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