Leadership

Behavior defines culture and what the leadership of a country values affects the way they behave and subsequently the entire nation. Citizens for their part, shape their behavior to match what is acceptable and what’s not acceptable according to behavior of the institutional leadership. 

Kenyan political leadership evolved first as traditional and paternalistic led by the first president -Kenyatta - who due to circumstances, having being jailed and in his seventies was considered to be the father of the nation. Moi administration that followed was more concerned with maintaining the status quo and managing instead of leadership or mobilizing resources. Moi and Kenyatta both emphasized personalized power and the deference to elders, which probably conditioned the patriarchal style after independence. With colonization, Kenyans learnt of the monarchy and aristocracy and imitated these forms of leadership whereby they handpicked persons to leadership, created and surrounded themselves with a class of ostentatious consumers, and treated any opposition as treason.This has shaped the leadership quagmire in Kenya, be it political or otherwise.

Most African cultures emphasized belonging, connectedness and community participation; it was always assumed individuals can expect their relatives, clan, or other group to look after them in exchange for unquestioning loyalty. This features aren’t unique to Africans, all cultures pre-modernization were collectivist, with time and evolutionary forces, societies become more individualize to match with modern institutions which demand and reward individual responsibility. 

Already Kenya is transitioning, and while communitarian features still persist due to poverty, the well off members of society practice individualism while still seeking the adoration and deference from their less off members. 

Why don’t our economic elites and companies invest in public goods where they operate e.g. put time and resources into local schools and colleges, and engage in civic organizations? This engagement would establish ties based on performance and activity setting an example of meritocracy instead of adoration and deference for merely being wealth. 

Kenya desperately needs to identify and assert positive values and traditions – those that make a nation of people where the public has a hope for the future, and in which the people know right from wrong and know there are serious consequences for violations. Society needs figures of authority, firmness, consistency and certainty, a national identity, and a plan. Being purposeful is not incompatible with democracy. 

I have meandered a bit, but generally my argument is that we have a leadership void that can be explained by our culture which was in turn shaped by history. Secondly, the leadership gaps are by design i.e. there are vested interests in keeping the status quo. Thus we need a strong leader to change the structures.

Social structures part III

You often hear people calling on the government for help for things they can easily solve for themselves. This is partly because they don’t know what they or the government is responsible for i.e. their rights and duties as citizens. 

One of the problems caused by this ignorance is a perpetual disconnect between the government and the people, in the sense that voters elect new people because they believe that the problem lies with individuals. The politicians can’t/won't change the narrative fueling cynicism amongst the electorate that only keeps the incumbent ethnic leaders in power. This isn’t to excuse the poor governance issues in Kenya but there should be an honest discussion between the people and the government on the role played by each. 

A concept lost in the Kenyan society in terms of public service is that if they don’t act for themselves then no one will act for them. This kind of civil responsibility could be found in schools and other organizations and if open to all it would permeate all spheres of society including political leadership. 

Civic engagements like parents associations and the trust it makes possible allows for people to know their rights and consequently their duty. Furthermore, involving citizens empowers them and mitigates a perception of being victims and helpless.  

  

 In a modern society people should have several connections ranging from personal to political. Multiple connections expose people to divergent views. Often in Kenya outside of family and church there are no other mediating institutions. This means many Kenyans don’t encounter habits, rules and procedures of formal institutions. This has an effect on our democracy and economy.

In dealing with the government, most people only interact with civil service on matters of acquiring ID; this gives formal institutions an aura of enigma, further fueling opportunities for insiders to be corrupt or a need for brokers. Furthermore, it creates room for propaganda, conspiracies, and various untruths because of lack of knowledge. Again this creates a cycle whereby the leaders can distort facts leading the public to further shun formal institutions out of fear and therefore cannot hold the institutions or politicians accountable.

Social structures - contd

Kenyans need to see themselves as individuals not in respect to others i.e tribe etc. 

In the intervening years; society has changed, people are less loyal to clans especially the urban areas but as a replacement there is an increased loyalty to churches, economic groupings (a variation of micro-finance) and socioeconomic class. 

Responsibility as a virtue in Kenya involves attention to the group like tithing to churches and regular contributions to self-help group, and religious or group meetings. Kenya being a poor country with low incomes it makes economic sense for people to pool resources but the prevailing mechanism eschews formal system and accountability - there have been numerous cases of pyramid schemes that defrauded Kenyans, often they are sanctioned by a micro-finance bank or a church. 

The government has stepped in to harness the pooling effect, for example, there are funds disbursed through commercial banks for women and the youth that can be accessed only through self help groups. One of the drawbacks to this, is that government picks favored banks creating an opportunity for rent-seeking and excluding women and youth from commercial competition fails to entrench the intended free enterprise ethos. 

With time the traditional authority (clan) set-up was replaced by a form of charismatic authority because legal authority didn’t take root. The 'prophets', religious ministers, group leaders, and even politicians are an example of the charismatic authority, a variation of tribal kinship - in contrast to legal authority i.e constitutional

 Kenya hasn’t afforded people opportunities to see themselves as individuals and the different forms of  kinship applied to a modern society have marginalized poor Kenyans by robbing them of private incentives, individual rewards and personal freedom which would help them compete or assess their leaders. 

With the new constitution, Kenyans felt a sense of ownership of the document but like many constitutions it fails to express the idea of a right as unintelligible without taking into account the responsibility one owes for the right. It would have been immensely helpful if the civil-society went around highlighting what it takes to have a right. Kenya’s sense of values would be better aligned with what it seeks to be; for example it would clearly delineate certain acts like corruption and abuses as criminal. Sadly for Kenya, it has conveniently failed to define or label particular offenses affecting how they are conceived or stigmatized and therefore punished. Furthermore, the penalties provided by the law are usually vague such that massive fraud is no more grave than simple stealing thereby providing no deterrence.

Social structures

As the face-to-face communal lives of small villages waned, Kenyans were confronted with a need to create new forms of community life capable of sustaining democracy in urban and national scales. 

A patch work of churches, familial and economic associations have substituted the small village-feel worn together by traditional morality and ethics dictated by a social elite regarding acceptable behavior. 

One of the problems in Kenya is that traditional morality and ethics have been adapted to conditions that no longer exist; polygamy has reduced, reduced communal living, subsistence living isn’t sustainable, and mobility is more common. All these changes would necessitate individualism because of competition but society still demands communitarianism leading to a chasm that is filled by opportunist. For example many preachers and politicians live an opulent life on the backs of public charity; some MPs argue that they get paid over $10,000 a month because they have to help their constituents.

Why Anti-corruption initiatives fail

Anti-corruption initiatives like declaring wealth were instituted in Kenya in 2003 when the current administration took over. However the only requirement was to fill out forms that would not be publicized and would only come in hand in case of an investigation by the anti-corruption agency. 

Secondly the anti-corruption commission of Kenya was launched with several directors who earned premium rumination as advised by foreign experts to deter corruption; the director of the anti-corruption commission monthly income was $30,000.   

Ownership laws in Kenya are very opaque, property rights enforcement is weak, and therefore the declaration of wealth was futile without the relevant reforms in creation, transfer and property registration and administration. Public property was transferred to private hands because politicians had exclusive rights to issue decrees, and the registry created legal private titles as long as one could afford to pay. 

It was always argued the reason the commission hasn’t been a success is because the agency doesn’t have sufficient powers to prosecute independent of the attorney general chambers. But the critical problem in Kenya’s anti-corruption efforts is not that there lacks institutions for tackling the problem, but that the efforts are systematically marginalized and consequently can’t investigate or prosecute officials and politicians at the highest level of government. Anti-corruption efforts should be systems-wide, every organization should have clear 

Kenya has apparently spent in excess of five billion dollars to investigate corruption with no results. Once it became clear the agency was failing, why didn’t the civil society or parliament call for reforms or disbandment of the organization?  My view is that the civil society has provided human capital for both politics and civil service therefore giving the illusion of change but no real institutional reforms. It also gave some legitimacy to the current government for example John Githogo formerly of Transparency International was appointed to be the newly formed Permanent Secretary for Governance and Ethics, and thereby weakened the civil society further. 

Of even more worrying is the fact that Kenyan populace is ambivalent to the direction and action to be taken to end impunity, or the kind of politics it wants. The daunting challenges facing Kenya lie deep in the flawed societal character as much as in the governance. Kenyan political problems are influenced by fundamental shifts in culture, involving things as fundamental as how the people appraise themselves. Kenyans are attracted to individuals gravely mentioned in corruption, and illegal activities. Often times an individual who goes against the grain and delivers a service honestly without enriching themselves is subjected to ridicule, thought to be stupid, and selfish for not securing contracts for friends. Addressing these issues would require a more comprehensive shift in values and makes the case for improved policies which can contribute to better politics. “Once constituents see that good policy-making can make a difference to their lives, they raise their expectations, and demand more”. 

The only way to fight corruption is through real political competition, independent courts, free media, knowledgeable public and a strong civil society.