Let's learn from Pope Francis the importance of servant leadership

Henry Munene

There is a lot to learn from Pope Francis, who has just fulfilled his promise to visit Africa this month. The fact that he chose Kenya as his first country to visit speaks volumes about her rightful place in the community of nations. But perhaps the most enduring lesson from the pontiff should be that one can be at the pinnacle of power and still remain humble and focused on the ideals of high office. Yes, Pope Francis has his own controversial side, especially his liberal views on gay people in a rather conservative church, but he still personifies the leadership ideals that sorely lack here. Take for instance his modest and humble mien and lifestyle. Here is a man who is at once a head of state and runs a social institution embraced by well over a sixth of the world’s population.

According to Wikipedia, there were about 1.254 billion Catholics by the end of 2013. That means the pope has easily the largest followership in the world. It also makes the widely-held belief that the US President is the most powerful man on earth to sound like another Rambo fiction. For while the US controls the world’s economy and sits at the head of the global military table, we cannot ignore the vice-like grip that religion continues to exact on the world.