Here’s my view of leadership in light of strong Christian values

From left: Opposition leaders Kalonzo Musyoka, Musalia Mudavadi, Raila Odinga and Moses Wetang'ula after they signed the Nasa coalition agreement in Nairobi on February 22, 2017. PHOTO | JEFF ANGOTE | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • Leadership that establishes itself through violence can never be the kind of leadership that will lead our country to the levels that future generations will want to be part of.
  • If leadership belongs to that immovable mover who I call God, then we must agree that whichever way we organise leadership it has to be according to his plan.
  • By washing his disciples’ feet, he introduced servant leadership.

Last Sunday, I was talking about peace as a prerequisite for holistic development. Leadership that establishes itself through violence can never – in my mind – be the kind of leadership that will lead our country to the levels that future generations will want to be part of.

In fact, if we recognise ourselves as a democracy, we may want to rethink what we are talking about because truthfully violence can never have any place in a genuine democracy.

Some people may want to say that our democracy is still young or must still grow and, therefore, some violence should be understood.

I argue that if, when we make our constitution we can go and borrow – or is it benchmark – from the more established democracies, then we have to ask ourselves whether we still need to reinvent the wheel.

AURA OF MYSTERY

My concern today is the meaning of leadership. Kindly allow me to discuss this question of leadership in reference to the Christian celebration of Easter.

You might all agree with me that there is an aura of mystery that surrounds whoever is called a leader of whichever kind.

This is amplified even more by the conventional titles that society allocates to such people. “Mheshimiwa”, “Governor”, “Senator”, “Bishop”, “Pastor”, “Father”, “Apostle”, and the like.

This aura of mystery – one might even call it sacredness – is according to me not an accident.

The people that political leaders, religious leaders or leaders of whichever other kind lead do not belong to them.

POWER GOD

They belong to a power that is totally beyond our understanding. Since human beings have to explain their origin and existence whatever their tradition, they call this power God.

Whichever way any one of our faith or religious communities understands God, for ease of ecumenical communication, I wish to call him “the immovable mover”. That one is the ultimate leader.

In that case whoever becomes a leader – by election or by anointing – becomes a participant in the leadership of God.

That explains the aura of mystery – or is it sacredness? – that surrounds people who are called leaders. Some do, of course, abuse that. If leadership belongs to that immovable mover who I call God, then we must agree that whichever way we organise leadership it has to be according to his plan. Christians believe that he revealed his plan through Jesus Christ who introduced a new way of understanding leadership.

By washing his disciples’ feet, he introduced servant leadership.

Writer is Dean of Students at the University of Nairobi [email protected]