Kenyan leaders must remain sensitive to public interest

When Messer Annibale Bentivogli was ruler in Bologna, the Canneschi clan formed a conspiracy and murdered him; and even though no members of his family survived except the infant Giovanni, the people rose up and slew all of the Canneschi. This was a consequence of the popularity the Bentivogli then enjoyed in Bologna. Their popularity was so great, in fact, that, with no member of the family left to rule in Bologna, the people sent to Florence where, according to reports, there was an illegitimate offspring of the Bentivogli who had been brought up by a blacksmith. They summoned him back to Bologna and entrusted him with the rule until Giovanni reached his age of majority.

This 1445 tale is used by Niccolo Machiavelli in his 1513 masterpiece, The Prince, to illustrate the supreme premium every leader must place on the trust of his people and the esteem in which they hold him. The essence of Machiavelli’s thesis here is that a leader (prince) must endeavour to avoid those things that would make him the object of hatred and contempt. So long as he avoids these, he will have done his part and will encounter no risk at all from other vice. He should conduct himself in such a way that greatness, boldness, gravity, and strength will be observed in his actions.