Are youth expected to emulate Kenyan leaders?

A scuffle at Nairobi's County Assembly on October 4, 2016. PHOTO | DENNIS ONSONGO | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • There was a time in Kenya when leadership at every level was held with awe.
  • When we were growing up, we respected leaders.

I believe all those of us who care about the younger people that are coming up in our schools and colleges should be worried. Many of those young people will want to become professionals of one kind or another. Others will start their own businesses and become employers in their own right.

There will be those who may venture into political leadership. I must say that this is the lot that I’m most worried about.

The truth is that whatever each one of our youth would want to become is based on what they have seen in an older person before them. When I see the behaviour of some of our so-called leaders, I begin to get worried.

One has just to look at what has been happening in some County Assemblies around the country – the latest being the Nairobi one.

Are these the leaders that our youth are expected to emulate?

There was a time in this country when leadership at every level was held with awe. When we were growing up, we respected leaders because they came through as useful role models.

Most of them were not associated with scandals related to economic crimes and the like. When we thought of leadership, we saw something noble and respectable.

ASSOCIATE LEADER

More often than not we did not associate a leader with theft or violence. We believed that leaders sat down and agreed or disagreed but kept looking for solutions without resorting to violence.

In our very own National Assembly not so long ago there was an ugly scenario during the passing of security laws.

We keep boasting that we are a democracy. What part has violence to play in civilised democratic practice? I am sure if you ask students what they think about leadership, they will give you two or three variables.

The first one, and perhaps the most important, is money. What they have seen from their leaders is that leadership is about money whatever way that money can be obtained. Here, we are talking about money to be received as well as money to be dished out.

The second element the young people will point out is use of force to get to leadership if the need arises. This is the model they have seen from many of the leaders on offer. If we care about our growing generation and wish to be part of a civilised democratic society, we must change our ways.

 

Fr Dominic Wamugunda is dean of students, University of Nairobi.