BY GEORGE NYONGESA:-Kenya: Leadership recycling an impediment to development

by Bunge La Mwananchi It is close to 50 years since the British left us to determine our socio-economic and political progress. At the time of independence our country, development wise, we ranked the same as the Asian tigers such as Singapore and Malaysia. Today the Asian tigers are 100 years ahead of us in development. What happened to Kenya? There are many reasons one could give, but one is clearly a major one, and that is leadership. In matter of societal progress, natural endowment of resources such as gold, oil, copper, good soil, rivers etc cannot be a substitute to having an effective leadership. Our past and present leadership is characterized by individuals who were socialized in colonialism. Colonialism main thrust was domination for self-good. The colonialist first dominated the Africans politically and used that political domination to influence our economics and social affairs. Once they dismantle the Africans way of socio-political organization they had us captive. They embarked on the mission to exploit and repatriate the loot. Forget those stupid arguments that the Whites colonized Africa so as to civilize or to trade with African. There sole mission was to exploit human and natural resources enrich themselves and their mother country. Moving on, don’t our leaders exhibit similar characteristics? Isn’t there mission for leadership closely related to the colonization mission? First, like colonialists these leaders have an ego that they are best of us and they are the ones who know what is good for all of us. Do you read a similarity to the white’s racist thinking? Our leaders seek office to acquire riches; first themselves and then their friends, and all these take place at the expense of the dominated. During colonial time, the dominated was an African. The African were dominated and forced to work in the plantations of coffee, tea, sisal, pyrethrum etc for small pay so that they can pay tax to the colonial government. The Africans who were forced to grow coffee and tea they did not need were not even given a chance to decide what price to sell to the white man. Let us relate this to today. The characters that took over leadership from the British today continue the same economic policies of exploitation. They are the middlemen selling coffee and tea abroad and exploitative price. The coffee and tea workers continue to pay tax from their meager earnings from the coffee farm. During elections they come together and divide us into different tribes and assign themselves who will be the governor of which region. Isn’t that what happened during Berlin conference when the Europeans decided that instead of coming to wrestle each other and display there barbaric and savage behavior before a black man they Africa quietly and then collaborate in exploitation of African resources as long as no one crosses the border of the other. Same thing happens with our leadership just think about… Now all these things are obvious but what we must ask why is it continuing unmitigated? How can we stop it? To start with we must realize the irreplaceable role leadership plays in the development of any society. It is the leaders who manage the human and natural resource for the good of all. When you have people who think they are God’s gift to the people, they are best and they must lead you then you have a problem. When you have leadership that divides into ethnic groups so as to rule you then you have a problem right there. When you have selfish people who are seeking to enrich themselves presiding over distribution of resources then there is a problem. When you have leaders whose worldview was socialized in the mentality of exploiting the masses then there is a problem. When you have people who are in their diminishing return years making decisions that they won’t live to see their impact then you have a problem. Do you think that Jimmy Kibaki or Fidel Odinga takes the advice their fathers Mwai Kibaki and Raila Odinga without questioning it? If there sons think that these men are old, just the same way you look at your father; to make sound decisions for the family why should we allow these type of to make national decision that affects 40 million Kenyans? The current leadership has individuals who grew up in the tutelage of either Kenyatta or Moi. We all agree that our problems started with kenyatta leadership. It was worsened by Moi leadership. Doesn’t that just mean that all these people laying claim on 2012 presidency are full of primitive leadership of Kenyatta and Moi? If they did not advice Kenyatta or Moi on better society organizing when they were cabinet ministers what has happened to them to be good leaders today? This is a different generation and the world is revolving faster. The word today is operating on technology and most of these cannot even send an text message. Not long from today UN Assembly will be done through teleconference and these characters know nothing about technology how will they survive? Only fools and madmen keep doing the same thing and expect different results. We have first hand lessons that the current crop of leaders is all bogus without a vision or ideology for organizing Kenya to realize it is potential. We need a leadership that has a well thought ideology to organize us politically so as to realize our economic and social dreams. Let me emphasis that we must get it right politically for us to realize our economics and then followed by social tidings. Ideology is the framework for organizing the society and that is what we don’t have. The ideology we require is one that will give each person opportunity to play their rightful role in developing Kenya. That ideology must ensure that all of us get returns from our input and no one puts in less and gets more or everything. Therefore, why can’t we as Kenyans think seriously and decide not to recycle leaders especially those we know they cannot perform? (unedited text). George Nyongesa +254 720 451 235

JUST WHO WILL SAVE KENYA FROM THESE NAPOLEONS OF CORRUPTION?

Dear Sir/Madam, T S Elliot, a 1948 Nobel Prize winner in Literature wrote a poem titled “Macavity –The Mystery cat.” Macavity was described as having a hidden paw, having the movement of a snake and a criminal who used his intellect to defy the law. He was bafflement to Scotland Yard and caused constant despair to the Flying Squad; for when they reached the scene of the crime, Macavity was simply not there. This was suavity and deceitfulness par excellence. He always had an alibi and spared one or two more alibis just in case they came in handy. He was outwardly respectable in spite of being a Napoleon of corruption, the crème de la crème. It was therefore not surprising that his footsteps could not be found in any file of the Scotland Yard. Today, the fictitious Macavity has acquired life. He is alive and kicking in Kenya. He is not one. There are many. The edacious Macavity are more emboldened in the perpetuation of noxious graft as they are equipped with impunity. They are often surrounded with the exquisite Harvard legalese. They are not in the same league with the pusillanimous. They are true master minds of crime, the fat cats who supervise the pillaging of public coffers on grand scales. You have heard the ravenous Macavity spin legal webs in defense of the well executed schemes that led to loss of billions of shillings in the Golden Berg, Anglo leasing, Grand Regency and the porous Kenya Pipeline Company (KPC). You recently heard of him in the ministry of Youth Affairs, Ministry of water, you have seen him in the Ministry of basic Education (remember the 109 million in a mysterious account?) And now he has surfaced in the Ministry of finance; in the infamous Passat deal. And the list goes on ad infinitum. It is rumored that all the voracious cats whose wicked deeds are widely known are nothing more than agents of these Napoleons of crime. Are we not almost certain that when the pilferage has taken place blame for the scandal is always heaped on junior officers? When the subordinates are nabbed, which isn't often, there is no evidence linking the crimes to the masters. The master mind of crime is the mysterious "Macavity” who plans the crimes that lesser criminals execute. With alacrity unmatched, these master minds in cahoots with senior officers have methodically sealed all the possible avenues for the unraveling of the scandals. Their rendition always almost made us believe that there was no iota of evidence to warrant prosecutions. Of course you and I were so sure that the Ministerial statements read in parliament in the wake of the scandals were as clear as mud. Just who will save Kenya from the litany of grand scams; from the avaricious clutches of these napoleons of corruption? TOME FRANCIS, BUMULA.

EXAM CHEATING: KENYA IS AN EXAM CRAZY COUNTRY.

Dear Sir/Madam, Kenya is an “exam crazy country” to be precise. Everything seems to revolve around exams. At a summative level, these exams are highly competitive as they are highly relied upon to measure learners’ achievement. They provide a final judgment of who goes where and gets what educationally, occupationally and promotion wise. This has made excelling in summative school exams a fierce survival of the fittest battle. Students and teachers go to extraordinary strengths trying to make sure they excel in these exams. They have no choice. Performance, apart from being largely dependent on the amount of knowledge a student brings to the exam, is also greatly influenced by how the student is able to manage and confront its challenges. Difficult exam items, memory let downs, fluctuations in motivational and attention levels, mental fatigue and lack of understanding of specific test items may impede performance. It is against this backdrop that many school administrators resort to uncanny methods that will see them be regarded as the crème de la crème. Cheating comes in handy. That is why irrefutable reports by some sections of the Kenyan media of rampant cheating in this year`s KCSE do not come as a surprise. This is in spite of the constant assurances by the Kenya National Examination Council (KNEC) that the genie of examination cheating had finally been put back in the bottle. Because of the fear of reprisals from their schools, TSC and KNEC honest classroom teachers will opt to remain silent even though they are fully aware of the prevalence of such malpractices in their schools. Indeed, many schools have accessed the national examination papers at least two hours before candidates sit for that exam. Most of the papers affected are those done in the afternoon. Unlike previously where officers manning the strong rooms in the police stations were compromised, it is now the supervisors in the examination centers colluding with school administrators to open these exams between two to eight hours before the scheduled time and allow their most trusted teachers and students’ humble time to reproduce answers. Schools` administrators collude with corrupt KNEC officials to obtain substitute polythene envelopes in which the exam papers are packed in. They thus in cahoots with dishonest supervisors open the envelopes, take an exam paper, destroy the original envelope and re-pack the remaining papers in the substitute envelope and then reseal it. This is just but one of the many loopholes that have seriously dented KNEC`s credibility. I have previously argued that cheating stretches all the way to the time that the setting of the examination takes place. This is because KNEC relies heavily on teachers from select schools to provide it with examination data bank for various examinable disciplines. Coincidentally, schools privileged to have examination setters in particular subjects perform quite well in the same subjects. Much as one may argue that the excellent performance is a reflection of the competencies of such examination setters, it is also probable that such unscrupulous setters may collude to expose their students to replicas of prospective national exams. There are also insinuations that unethical senior officers from KNEC establish call centres to mint money from desperate school administrators. In lieu of the above concerns, it is doubtable whether KNEC`s policy not administer examinations beyond 2pm will significantly minimize cheating. The way forward is for the Ministry and KNEC to device water tight measures both in examination setting and administration. Most importantly is for the ministry to review the policy of using a single examination in a four year period to measure performance. TOME FRANCIS, BUMULA.