LEADERSHIP INCOMPETENCY KNOWS NO BOUNDS: BE IT INTELLECTUALS OR OUR HONOR-REBEL

"Seated back watching our intellectual, one could not toy around with the hypothesis that Kenyan youths will ever be used and misused for Machiavellian prospects...With the current interest in political matters, money is the motivation not joy to serve

VARSITY ELECTION, WHAT A SHAME ON INTELLECTUALISM

The cyclic wave of political incorrectness in Kenya must be broken. As much as we envisage the much coveted vision 2030, much has to be done if at all it is something to go by. It’s only in Kenya where anything, anybody and everything must have a political slant in one way or another. If you get heckled because of your traitor-ship, it's politics. Kenyans not reading the constitution, it's politics. And speaking of constitution (allow me to digress briefly), after taking a choreographed research, the shockingly leading place where the steamy harmonized constitution has not been read totally, is in our varsities. Wonder what we can do if we cannot dissect such an important document-- making noise on Uhuru Highway? Universities are the apples of Kenyans’ eyes much as I hate to admit it. In fact I am completely dumb-founded, like any other Kenyan, by my fellow UoN brains. It is not the rampage, it is not the raucous cacophony, it is not the burning of precious properties worth millions, it is not their paralysis of the traffic despite our incapability to beat the jam on our roads. How do you burn a Mercedes Benz worth millions to protest against re-election of some useless student leader who will not champion your rights anywhere except milk enough to replenish what s/he used to campaign with!

Today I couldn’t agree more, comparing politicians and SONU leaders, I wonder which defines us more. The just concluded SONU election has volumes to teach us: Kenya is teetering on the brink of hopelessness, simply because our politicians are no longer paragon of virtue for the youth to look upon.
The reduction and ultimate elimination of Kenyan’s poverty is the pre-eminent socioeconomic priority. This truth must be part of the university commitment to the development and dissemination of knowledge. The challenge of our intellectuals is to rekindle the citizenry’s dying embers of revolutionary particularly in public offices. But does leadership incompetency’s know no bounds? The sheer displays of political reincarnation in our student intellectuals not only put a grim caricature of what was once a beautiful leadership in campuses but also slacken our realization of real change- the Kenya we want. When we capture student organization of Nairobi university (SONU) elections, Kenyan deteriorating politics comes into big picture and this is not just another case of crying ‘wolf’. Seated back watching our intellectual, one could not toy around with the hypothesis that Kenyan youths will ever be used and misused for Machiavellian prospects. In case you disagree, focus on this eye-opener of a lifetime. I played an partly active role in the SONU election 2010/2011 and I have a testament testimony. First the game has no rule.

With the current interest in political matters, money is the motivation not joy to serve. God fearing me could not hold back my trauma when I saw real brains voting somebody depending on the amount of liquor he’s ‘splashed’ out. This is an enchantment that makes people behave ‘well’ during their campaigns, chanting incantations like “Osianyi forever, Never without Osianyi”, lie in front of a speeding car while invariably reminding people “I am not drunk!” Consequently, the business of’ security’ measures and counter aggression squads of ‘nyaunyo waving’ ethnic goons are jolted into action. If one proclaimed that violent politicians in the nation are bred in the University of Nairobi, I will easily buy it. (But this is where I throw in a disclaimer and say not all politicians are just that).

The discrepancy of chieftainship cannot be marginalized to politicians alone. I was dumbfounded, like any other Kenyan that tribalism thrives well among the cream of the crop. The unfolding event underlines the urgent need to educate our “Osianys, Muendos, Cheruiyots and Ng'ang'as” how to handle matters sagaciously particularly ethnic equation fallacy. The so called stalwarts plainly demonstrate immaturity when they blindly adopt to ballot somebody by the virtue of his or her mother-tongue and not specifically on the leadership touchstones. They believe leadership is a birthright and nothing less. I wonder why we complain over their undoing and not delivering.
Comrades, is there such a thing as taking a good idea too far? Yes, of course but not for the less moneyed. The eyesore posters from the public benches to the wash-room sinks cannot be overlooked. The fake phony opinion polls are an equivalent of local Synovate Opinion group. The Gallup poll, like any other, is engineered and choreographed from the ‘centre’ and devoid of a homogenous statistics with the aim of swaying voters at these amenable moments.

Contestants talk the talk but never walk it. ”I will ensure hot milk supply to your rooms...I promise you a reloaded SONU of the days of Karl Max...” are the examples of the fantastic election pledges that incite many. The many who’ll never use the hindsight to foretell the future. But after triumph, like honorable so and so elsewhere, the change their phone numbers and become inaccessible to the ordinary mortals who placed them at the point they hang from.

So why am I writing this? The answer is three dimensional. In pointing out the major difficulties attendant to changing the way Kenyans live, I do not wish to cast doubt on the authenticity of people’s desire for better way of living. However, old habits die hard. The ball is in our court, we have to switch habit to habitat mode when it comes to politics. Sit-ins, setting up and leading think tanks, and engaging in sober and reasoned open debates is the absolution. And as crème de la crème of the society, change has to start with us right here right now, all these in a bid to invite reason to prevail in political arena, distilling constitutional etiquette. We shall only be fully liberated, as history has proven, when our leaders (SONU or elsewhere) understand the real meaning of simplicity and upload joy in serving.

Given our incomplete knowledge of better politics we cannot rule out the possibility of shocking surprises to our economy. Let us do it while we still can, trying hard to reconcile the mishap that is a slap in the face of our intellectualism. For now, all this chest thumping and scramble for ‘power’ will drive us deeper into quagmire. Is it politics or Kenyan? What portfolio does one get by serving in as the 'unwanted' leader? Time and hard work will tell.
ALPHONCE MAGATI