Provost reflections: What ails Kenya most is lack of integrity

Policemen watch from afar as protestors burn tyres along Outer Ring road, Nairobi. [Boniface Okendo, Standard]

In my sermons last month, I observed that Kenya is not in short supply of leaders, but leadership; a value-based leadership. All around us, people are looking for leadership in the church, in business, and in government. We know instinctively that we need leadership in all areas of our life, but where do leaders come from? How do we recognise them? How are authority and responsibility given to them? Most of us have been conditioned to think about leadership in a certain way.

A principle is an external truth that is reliable. The danger of leadership is to have leaders without values. Caleb (Joshua 14:14) had a value system: a man of conviction, consistent, wholehearted and people-centred. Principles are important because they function like a map allowing us to make wise decisions. If we ignore them or deny their reliability, we become like travellers refusing to use a roadmap because we dispute its accuracy. While we may acknowledge the reliability of many principles, we only internalise those we deem important. When that happens, the principle has become a value that serves as the internal map we use to direct our lives. A value, then, is an internalised principle that guides our decisions.