Push to extend presidential term reeks of ulterior motive

 State House Building, Nairobi. [File, Standard]

Contemplating extending the elective term be it for the President, Senators, Members of Parliament or Members of the County Assembly (MCAs) is just a bad idea. In the Kenya context, it is time-barred by the 2010 Constitution. The country has moved on.

If you understand globalisation and its impact on governance systems across the world, you will appreciate that Kenya is not an island. The direction of global governance is “SMART Governance.”

The yesteryears of staying in power for long are long gone. I understand countries that have gone through wars may have a different justification for leaders to hold on to power but certainly not Kenya and not Tanzania. Stay longer in the office? What for?

Five years is a very long time to demonstrate what is in store. Should one be added five more years to make a statement of competency? If in one year, there is no statement of transformative intent, there is no public trust or sparks of hope among the opposition voters, it is just wishful thinking that something better can happen if given more time.

It requires a person with inner strength to gracefully admit that after all, they may not deliver what they promised. This kind of admitting is a legacy in itself. The tendency is to keep drilling a borehole whose signs are evident there is no water underneath.

And, whoever feels they need more time in office does not have to change the Constitution to stay longer in office. Their record will attract votes. Leaders like Mwai Kibaki, Martin Shikuku, and Keneth Matiba did not need to run expensive campaigns to win back their seats. Their actions endeared them to the electorate.

If a president has done 10 years and still feels he or she has some transformative agenda to accomplish, there are a million other ways the same can be achieved.

Nelson Mandela led the country from prison, symbolic as that may have been, and only stayed in office for five years and passed the mantle. Even those outside the political cycles like Bishop Alexander Muge are held high because they had a vision for the country and defended that vision at the cost of their lives.

To be a visionary leader one must have the people at heart. I don’t mean the bla bla blas of “we are working for mwananchi.” Anyone can say and defend that. I also don’t mean the self-seeking and rent-seeking visionaries. Those we have in plenty. Visionary leadership strikes codes with the electorate from day one.

Moreover, in a country where an elected leader is voted in one party but champions the ideals of another party and continues to draw salary as if no law is broken, an extended term in office will spell doom for “a government in waiting.” Well, there won’t be any in waiting anyway.

We thank God. In the past three decades, we have had visionary leaders with undoubtedly pure intentions to leave the country better than they found it. We are blessed with a handful of those leaders among us enjoying sunset years or are on the verge of exiting politics.

Further, extending a term of office from the current five is a disguise for an ulterior motive. It aims to retain power as an end. That is not a wise thought to entertain. Wisdom dictates that do your best and let the electorate decide whether your vision is working or not. Have the humility and a patriotic spirit to call it a day when voters reconsider their choices.

Rather than seeking to extend the years from five to whatever, it is prudent in this time and age of Artificial Intelligence to realise that people will be fed up hearing the same voice again and again.

The rapid technological changes we experience every day, including unimagined innovations with profound transformations in the way we live, think and act, will require faster generational leadership changes, adaptive leadership or visionaries truly rooted in Ubuntu. Therefore, we should be considerate of the emerging global leadership trends and how they shape the future of GenZs and Alphas.