Assess quality of leaders seeking your 2017 vote

NAIROBI: This year, there have been two very positive developments— President Barack Obama’s visit to Kenya in July with his message on patriotism, and the recent World Bank report on Kenya’s global competitiveness in business where the country has improved by 28 positions in global rankings. Despite these developments, Kenya is a nation whose reference point is doom and gloom. When we read our newspapers, social media, listen to radio stations and watch television programmes, the script is the same, rarely is there an expression of optimism or confidence.

This has partly been attributable to the misconduct of some county governors and MCAs who are often pre-occupied with or fending off impeachment threats as if that is all we elected them to do. We rarely get good news coming from counties except allegations of corruption, mismanagement, abuse and misuse of resources and endless travel for “benchmarking” by MCAs to this or that country. We are truly a “travelling nation” to nowhere while discarding the Kibaki tag of a working nation! This has created paralysis in the minds of Kenyans as to the value of devolution! This is despite the fact that, if we want meaningful development, devolution must work. How, do we measure the quality of the men and women we elect as MPs or MCAs? The majority of us give little or no thought to what leadership means as manifested during party nominations and the General Election. It is only after voting that we become “wise” and ask “why did we elect him/her?” Then it is too late.