What is the true legacy of good leadership?

By Ngari Gituku

Most of the ongoing talk about the Kibaki legacy seems to me hopelessly shallow, utterly misleading, and terribly steeped in ignorance.

While it is encouraging to see Kenyans debate presidential and leadership legacies in general, it is not worth an entry in a lay about’s diary so long as it does not expressly interrogate the total impact of the inspiration (or lack of it) deriving from a given leadership.

At the moment, popular street banter on the Kibaki legacy seems to suggest that a legacy is some jar-bound potion that can evaporate easily, or a trinket to be tied around the loins. Yet a leadership legacy, roughly put, is like an aroma wafting through the air and creating a presence that is impossible to ignore.

Bequeathing character

Great leadership legacies result from the bead work of thoughts and deeds that bequeath memorable character to a leader or a reign.

A notable reflection contained in a seminal 2006 publication titled ‘Leadership Legacy’ by James Kouzes and Barry Posner, delineates the outermost proportions of a legacy. The authors assert in their introductory notes that it is, “By asking ourselves how we want to be remembered, we plant the seeds for living our lives as if we matter. By living each day as if we matter, we offer up our own unique legacy. By offering up our own unique legacy, we make the world we inhabit a better place than we found it”.

So then what does a leadership legacy entail? Among other elements, according to Kouzes and Posner, the following are the minimum must-haves.

Service and sacrifice

One, a leadership legacy yields from service and sacrifice. Certainly not service to self or sacrifice of others for selfish ends. There is merit in the claim that, “Success in leadership is not measured only in numbers.

 Being a leader brings with it a responsibility to do something of significance that makes families, communities, work organisations, nations, the environment, and the world better places than they are today”.

Commitment

Yet, as noted in ‘Leadership Legacy’, “Not all these things can be quantified”. The questions to ask therefore is: Has Kibaki served Kenyans and if so to what effect? Has he sacrificed? Exactly how?

Two, a worthwhile leadership legacy must inspire commitment on the part of — for lack of a better word —the led.

The late John Gardner, a respected author and scholar and one-time Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, who served as an adviser to six US presidents, put it correctly that: “A loyal constituency is won when the people, consciously or unconsciously, judge the leader to be capable of solving their problems and meeting their needs”.

To this end the question: Is there a constituency of faithful lieutenants at every level that has offered laudable leadership during Kibaki’s reign?

Three, a leadership attended by the trappings of a great legacy is born of passion.

In Latin, passion is a direct synonym with suffering. In other words, the two belong together. The suffering in the leadership legacy context is not necessarily in the realm of martyrdom, nor does it have to manifest in extreme forms of anguish such as crucifixion.

Suffering can be the cost of worrying about how one may relieve others of their pain, a process that could demand sleepless nights or cause poor health.

In this respect, passion as a component that fires leadership legacies is best measured in real results, not wishful thinking, casual dismissals of others’ efforts, or mere catharsis during public rallies. The question is; can it be claimed that Kibaki possibly lacks passion?

As we mull over what Kibaki’s presidency will be remembered for, it is imperative that we retrace his influence as far back as records of his origins can indicate.

Law and vision 2030

Finally, for purposes of the debate on what a worthy legacy is all about, we may want to evaluate Kibaki’s legacy in its entirety, including interrogating how major players in his presidency have either enhanced or paled the tattoos of what his legacy is. Exactly how does the Kenya Constitution 2010 and Vision 2030 weave into Kibaki’s legacy?

Unless all possible dimensions are viewed as part of a greater whole, the Kibaki legacy will suffer unfavourable framing because of misinformation and deliberate distortions driven by not-too-noble intentions.

When all is said and done, a great legacy is unmistakable, despite all the efforts of detractors and disinformation. Like a mountain, it stands head-and-shoulders clear of lesser terrain.

Writer is the editor, Culture Section at Diplomat East Africa.