With leaders like our politicians, what future do these young Kenyans have?

It was joy for some and heartache for others yesterday with that annual ritual of national school-leaving examination results.

Thousands of young men and women who went through the rigours of the modern day initiation rites are now pondering their individual futures.

Some will be looking forward to their dreams of becoming astronauts, nuclear scientists, neuro-surgeons, computer engineers, and whatever else it is that bright young men and women see as the apex of educational and professional achievements.

Many others will have set their sights much lower to mid-level colleges or simply to the humble employment one can secure with the ‘O’ Level certificate.

The common denominator is that the 360,000 impressionable teenagers just getting into adulthood will have enough on their plates pondering their individual futures and prospects. Therefore Mwai Kibaki, Raila Odinga, Kalonzo Musyoka, Uhuru Kenyatta, William Ruto, and all the other men fighting for power as if claiming title to the land of Kenya should be farthest from the young minds.

Yet those men will continue to intrude gratingly on everyone else’s space, forever at full decibel fighting for power, wealth and position instead of doing the jobs they were elected to do.

The aforementioned politicians were not entrusted with the burdens of leadership just so that they could have a vantage point from which to wage their selfish feuds. They were given the mandate to lead Kenya out of poverty, disease, crime, ignorance, and needless ethno-political violence.

Obviously, they have forgotten why they were given the privilege of leading the people of Kenya in the war against the common enemies and have instead diverted all their energies  to destructive pursuit of personal ambition.

It is not wrong that anyone should seek the presidency or other high political office. It is not wrong that anyone already holding high office may seek to retain it or a successor of his or her choice. It is wrong, however, that leaders should completely abandon their unexpired mandates to engage in premature campaigns.

What we are witnessing as we celebrate the third anniversary of the National Accord that pulled us out of the abyss can only be equated to criminal dereliction of duty.

The National Accord was not an end in itself; it was simply a ceasefire to provide the breathing space required for comprehensive re-engineering of our constitutional order and governance systems.

We have a transitional coalition government in place that is working reasonably well and presided over the epochal achievement of a new Constitution.

However, a power sharing deal and a new Constitution were not ends in themselves either. Until we solve the underlying issues — ethnic suspicions, wealth gap, lopsided development, poverty, discrimination, nepotism, unbridled corruption and so on — that so easily incite us to turn on each other with murderous intent, we will remain on the precipice.

The young men and women now looking towards plotting their futures could do with less distractions from politicians who are acting as if determined to wreck those dreams.

They could approach their plans with so much more confidence if not held hostage by wrangling politicians who would be prepared to bring the whole edifice crumbling down just to secure their greedy and selfish interests.

Life would be so much brighter for hopeful young Kenyans if they could ignore those who wield power and masquerade as leaders.

Unfortunately, however, the future of all those now pondering their higher education prospects is intricately entwined with the policies and programmes that will be driven or implemented by a political leadership more attuned to bad, violent language and internecine warfare.

Perhaps the answer might lie in electing a fresh crop of leaders more in sync with the hopes, dreams, and aspirations of the youth.

A look at the so-called youthful voices in Parliament presents a depressing picture. We see rude mercenaries and rabble rousers always at the service of the high and mighty. Or, worse, we see the emergence of a phenomenon now being referred to as “Sonkoism”.

If our young people are so easily captured by such travesty, then perhaps it is better they have no future at all to think about.

mgaitho@ke.nationmedia.com