Yes, be ambitious not just for raw power but to uplift others

Unyielding self-focus is what Saboti MP Caleb Amisi, seems to desire in leadership. He is disappointed that he does not see ambition in former Amani National Congress (ANC) party leader Musalia Mudavadi.

Mr Amisi is, however, happy with his own ambition and growth. His happiness blurs his vision from the drama of his growth. Hence, he sets out to ridicule the one man who has contributed significantly to this growth.

Ambition seems to have a strange sense of gratitude. 'You were a minister in 1989, that time I was three years old,' he told Mudavadi this week, 'You even paid my fees... I remember vividly you presenting a cheque to me, to enable me go to Starehe.... Now I am serving my second term in Parliament, vetting you, for a position that is still mesmerising Kenyans. Does it portray you as a man who lacks ambition, or options? Thank you.'

Admittedly, Amisi prefaces his question with a disclaimer. All the questions have been asked. He has nothing useful to add. 'The problem with asking (your question) last, Chair, is that you find that all (your) questions have been asked (before),' he says.

Still, as an ambitious gentleman, he must ask something, hence the faux pas on ambition. An unflappable and affable Mudavadi responds with Shakespearean wisdom. Shakespeare in Macbeth made reference to how you should manage your ambition. He called it vaulting your ambition. If you can't vault your ambition, as you try to climb on your horse, you can land on the other side... It is important that you manage your ambition as you go forward.'

Macbeth is the tragic hero of Shakespeare's play that is named after the hero. He is a perfect example of the corrupting power of unrestrained ambition for power. He is a Scottish military general, and essentially a good man. Yet, he profoundly desires growth and more power, possibly of the kind the honourable Amisi dreams of. Urged on by his wife Lady Macbeth, and three witches, he commits a series of murders. He eliminates all those who appear to stand between him and his ambition.

Yes, have ambition, by all means. Have even an overwhelming sense of self-fulfillment. But, also, manage your ambition. Macbeth demonstrates that unchecked ambition is unhelpful. It destroys not just to those upon whom the ambition tramples, but to the ambitious one as well.

Ambition must be checked by ethics and morality. It must be chained by astute wakefulness to social norms. Mudavadi's response to Amisi reveals an individual who understands himself, even as Amisi fails to understand both himself and the man he attempts to ridicule.

Over the years, Mudavadi has given precedence to others, not because he has lacked ambition, but out of pragmatism. He has supported Uhuru Kenyatta, Raila Odinga and William Ruto for higher office, not because he lacks ambition.

His ambition is of a different kind. Julius Caesar is another one of Shakespeare's heroes. He nurses the ambition to bring glory and military victories to his people of the ancient Roman empire.

Caesar's concern is not power, however. Thrice, he rejects the crown. There is an uncanny resemblance between Mudavadi allowing three other leaders to run for office and Caesar's rejection of the crown.

In Shakespeare's time, however, ambition was understood in the 'Amisian' sense. It was about power and personal glory. Hence, the conspirators who kill Caesar report they did so because he was ambitious.

Mark Antony, Caesar's friend, deconstructs this notion of ambition. Ambition must be about the people, not a maddening craving for power. We don't know how many people Macbeth kills in his ambitious pursuit for power.

But we know that he eventually can't live with his tormented conscience - the conscience of a good man corrupted by the desire for power. As Kenya's newly arrived politicians scale the heights of ambition, they will do well to recall Macbeth's pithy words, 'I have no spur to prick the sides of my intent, but only vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself and falls on th'other.'