We must have new leaders for real change

Pevin Achieng casts her ballot during the Kibra by-elections at Jamhuri Primary School on November 7, 2019. We must be led by people who like us at the very least. PHOTO | FILE | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • The excuse that the system alone is a monster without singling out those who feed and water the monster must stop.
  • When we have people in power whose fundamental ideals are hinged on racial, religious, gender or class prejudices, you will have prejudicial laws and policies.

There's an odd way in which things seem to change but somehow manage to remain the same, particularly in State leadership, where regime change never leads to actual progressive change in people's lives or livelihoods.

We must foremost be cognisant that Kenya's leadership is an extension of the insidious colonial system.

A system of oppression that was built on the biases and beliefs that colonialists are superior.

Because of this, those who were in proximity to colonial power at the time of negotiating independence automatically inherited leadership.

They also inherited a system that operated on a superiority model; isolating people from their leaders.

This system could have been changed from the get-go but unfortunately, the people who took control carried it forward.

They ranked people as subjects whose needs and wants were disparaged. They played favour to those close to power and treated democratic rule as a lineage right.

MONSTER SYSTEM

They thrive on populism by appealing to ordinary people who feel that their concerns are disregarded by established elite groups without addressing what keeps these elites in control.

They offer no solution to the carefully crafted decades of institutional plunder, high unemployment rate, lack of representation, the rising cost of living and many other problems facing ordinary folk.

Instead, those in control use the law to protect themselves from the consequences of their failures.

They limit freedom of speech, create bureaucracies to wear out anyone trying to do right, and keep people in a cruel circle of blame and division.

All these happen because of the people at the helm. We must therefore begin identifying and consciously pointing out that people are systems.

The excuse that the system alone is a monster without singling out those who feed and water the monster must stop.

FRESH LEADERSHIP

People make systems, which means that systems are a subjective construct based upon the biases and beliefs of those in power.

These biases and beliefs are then manifested in policies or laws that can create progression or digression.

When we have people in power whose fundamental ideals are hinged on racial, religious, gender or class prejudices, you will have prejudicial laws and policies.

This will be evident in the choices made whether to strengthen or weaken institutions, support or undermine economic growth, enhance or inhibit prosperity of youth, champion or ridicule gender equity, climate change, et cetera.

We must make it our mission to build a leadership that steers away from the superiority complexes.

We must be led by people who like us at the very least. These new leaders will seek inclusive policies, implement laws that protect minorities and grant everyone dignity.

Reality is, the people in the system that got us where we are today can't take us where we want to go; we need new leaders.

Scheaffer Okore is a policy analyst; [email protected]