Campaign to promote leadership dialogue

As she filled out her form for the Uongozi (leadership) Campaign at Mlango Kubwa, Anne Jepchumba was surrounded by the dirt and dust that is unavoidable in this part of Nairobi.

The ditch running under the culvert where the Uongozi crew set up their desk has been blocked and choked with smelly green water and plastic bags for as long as the residents can remember.

While it would seem odd in some parts of the city, or the world, it is not unusual here.

Ms Jepchumba is a student at the Kenya Medical Training College but she believes she has the potential to be much more useful to society. She was a scout’s commander and the organising secretary at college.

She figures that if the country needs people like her, she understands well enough what it takes to be a leader and she can take a shot at it.

What kind of leadership does Kenya need if it is to achieve the goals of Vision 2030? What does leadership mean in Kenya? How can we avoid getting into the mess that followed the 2007 General Election?

These are some of the questions that will be repeated over the next four weeks as the country begins to have a conversation that is often repeated whenever there is an election. (READ: Uongozi: Time the nation talked to itself)

These were also the main themes as the Uongozi Campaign was flagged off at a dusty playground in Huruma, a low and middle income residential area east of Nairobi’s city centre. (SEE IN PICTURES: Uongozi 2012 campaign)

The campaign started with the national anthem as a lone flag waved over the youthful crowd at the grounds in the middle of the estate.

With support provided by the United States Aid Agency, the Government of Japan in conjunction with the United Nations Development Programme, the Swiss embassy and the Nation Media Group (NMG), the campaign seeks to create a virtual national election process.

Other organisations involved include the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission, Posta Kenya, AIESEC, YWCA, the Yes Youth Can Network and Inuka Kenya.

Former Ethics and Governance permanent secretary John Githongo is CEO of Inuka Trust. It was no accident that the organisers elected to launch the campaign in Huruma.

According to NMG chief executive officer Linus Gitahi, Huruma was chosen because it was hard hit during the post-election violence with tens of people killed here.

Huruma is a mix of low and middle-income settlements and is a breath away from Mathare slum, Eastleigh and Mlango Kubwa, areas scarred by the visible effects of poor leadership.

Mathare with its slums, Eastleigh with its pot holed streets, open sewers side by side with shopping malls, Mlango Kubwa with the perpetual cloud of dust and smoke from the vehicles on Juja Road and the blocked sewage.

“This is not the kind of thing to launch at KICC with a few people,” said Mr Gitahi. “We need to remember that everybody has one vote, whether they are in the middle-income areas or here.”

Mr Githongo said the idea was to take the campaign to the people who really ought to be participating in it, and to do this by starting in Eastlands.

“We came where the majority of people in Nairobi live. We could have very easily done this at the New Stanley or somewhere like that… the nice hotels we have in Nairobi but it would have cost us a lot more money. But here we had an opportunity to engage with the public,” said Mr Githongo.

He said the idea of the campaign is to have every Kenyan understand they can be a leader, and to move away from their fixation with a few people over the past 49 years.

It hopes to move away from a culture where the electorate believes their vote can be bought, leaders are known to show up every five years and a leader who actually gets their job done is hailed as a hero.

It also hopes to get Kenyans to disengage themselves from the notion that the most useful leader would have to come from their tribe or that tribal patronage has a role to play in governance.

With the creation of the new elective positions – governors, senators, youth and women representatives and the council assemblies – Kenyans will also need to know what sort of people they want in power.

Uongozi will be offering wananchi the opportunity to test their leadership skills on a reality show to be aired by NTV. With an emphasis on the youth, Uongozi will also be offering an opportunity for them to become the leaders of today and not tomorrow.

“We are seeking people to apply to participate in the reality show where we’ll have people from 48 counties. The 48th county is the Diaspora,” said Mr Githongo.

Mr Ibrahim Diba arrived at the tent at Huruma as the last of the application forms was being handed out. The 37-year-old father of three is a security guard.

Despite having lived in Nairobi over the past 17 years, Mr Diba’s heart is in Isiolo. He has voted three times since he came of age and always makes the journey north to cast his ballot.

“I don’t want to die a poor man yet I know there is so much we can do with the resources we have in Isiolo. People call it ‘reserve’ but I know with development going to the counties, we will get the chance to change things,” he added.

Mr Diba’s ideas are around developing a system through which the arable land around Isiolo can be irrigated and cultivated. He said he would get a form and apply for a chance to participate in the TV show.

Is there a chance for security guard or a student to become a leader in Kenya? “It’s very high, and that’s what I have been telling them. Apply. Apply. Apply. There is one young man who came up to me today and he was telling me all the great things he is doing in his own community as a businessman,” said Mr Githongo.

“So I said, ‘Listen, if you’ve mobilised all those people to do that kind of business, you  are a leader. A leader is not only that politician who dishes out cash. So I told him to apply, and he did.”