Kenya has a surplus of Mugabe-like politicians

By: Okech Kendo
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[ Posted On: 2008-07-18 ]

Even as leaders without passion and conviction proclaim support for the national good on public podiums, they are beholden to vested interests, especially tribal and class chains.

They are the ones who shout loudest about 'forgiveness’ but reject 'amnesty’ as perpetuation of impunity. Forgiveness follows confessions of sins, just like amnesty precedes conviction.

If it is true, as some observers have concluded, that the Electoral Commission pulled the trigger of post-election violence, it could also be a fact the prefect of democracy was hostage to vested interests. ECK may have then been acting on behalf of a class of hostage-takers. These leaders’ actions are variants of what Robert Mugabe is doing with impunity in Zimbabwe.

!B>Self interest

Few of these leaders, if any, are willing to play all their cards, even those related to their public offices, above the table. They have not outgrown the debasing effects of raw self-interest.

They rarely listen to the counsel of great leaders. Actually they hear nothing. They listen to no one except the echo of their unexamined assertions about "the rule of law". The powerful they let go; the weak they torment with self-serving efficiency.

"As I have said, the first thing is to be honest with yourself," says Nelson Mandela. "You can never have an impact on society if you have not changed yourself... Great peacemakers are all people of integrity, of honesty and humility."

Such are the leaders who see public office as an opportunity for self-aggrandisement; an opportunity to collect rent and for personal empire building; a chance to make money through hawking sometimes unmerited power.

Yet such beneficiaries of patronage now seem to admire American voters for their willingness to elect a man of unknown quantity, but one who has hitched his persona to the right wagon, at the right time; one whose message of change and hope resonates with his audience.

The man has ideas and knows how to express them. He believes in something bigger than himself and understands the vanity of selfishness. The man, Senator Barack Obama, the Democratic presidential nominee, tells us: "Focusing your life solely on making a buck shows a certain poverty of ambition. It asks too little of yourself, because it’s only when you hitch your wagon to something larger than yourself that you realise your true potential."

Obama has hitched his wagon to hope and change. The world, much larger than his US constituency, is singing along.

Mobutu Sese Seko

Local Mugabe-type leaders think Nelson Mandela is an angel among men, not a mortal like them who is trying to be so that others can become.

That some leaders should ask for 'forgiveness’ and condemn 'amnesty’ underlies the hypocrisy that undermines national stability, at a time reconciliation should be the driving spirit.

It an absurd display of remorselessness and impunity even after Kenyans were persuaded, by perilous circumstances, to live a sanitised lie, that we do not know who won the presidential election. And that only small people can be wrong, even after they have been officiously provoked. Impunity is infectious, distressing, and depressing.

Sadly, individuals in positions of trust take their cue from the top and indulge in business as usual, trying to shield themselves and their patrons from their crimes.

Unless these primordial cleavages are severed, notwithstanding Vision 2030, or even 2050, much should not be expected. Unless there is a rebirth of conscience, these surfeit commissions — the Kriegler Commission inquiring into the blunders of the last presidential election, the commission of inquiry into post-election violence, and others proposed for truth, justice and reconciliation, may be a waste of public time and resources. They could buy the real perpetuators of our crises time to entrench vested interests.

Sadly, many political leaders have a Robert Mugabe-type persona. The hostage-taking President of Zimbabwe is an absurd study of the wrong type of leadership that glorifies the indispensability of an individual at the expense of the majority.

Mobutu Sese Seko was where Mugabe is for 30 years, but when the people came for him, he had to escape through a window into exile in Morocco.

He died four months later. Only nine people — members of his family — attended the funeral of a man who took hostage a country of more than 30 million.

Article Source: http://www.afroarticles.com/article-dashboard

About The Author: Okech Kendo -- is The Standard Newspaper's Managing Editor, Quality and Production - Nairobi, Kenya. Contact him at: kendo@eastandard.net

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