Recycling top officials will lead us nowhere

If it is true that recycling leaders is a sign of being shortsighted, then we need retrospection. From a cursory look at recent big appointments, there's a common threat - that of usual and tired faces bound by history, political loyalty and deep interests.

Scholar Godday Ojore terms this an injurious leadership formula which can readily kill a country's future, its raw talents and potential.

He is emphatic, and rightly so, that the youth are the bedrock of progress, and where their veracity is undermined, a country runs the risk of fatal decays or even total collapse.

It is intriguing seeing a country like Kenya with passionate minds treat leadership as a preserve of a select few who swap jobs at will.

It has become a true reflection of what author George Orwell spoke about in the famous Animal Farm.

Three rhetorical questions come to mind. Is there an elite club domiciled in the public service? Have we shut the doors on new creative energies? Or is our civil service grossly incapable of attracting fresh talent?

Of the CSs, PSs and now the CAS picks released yesterday, few would pass for newcomers in the political space bubbling up with fresh ideas. The CASs list has 50 allies of President William Ruto many of whom lost in the last election.

By always appointing loyal political dinosaurs to every portfolio, we've made it awfully impossible for Kenyans to enjoy the beauty of freshness. Perhaps it might now help to investigate why political loyalty, even if blind, has traditionally superseded competence and other considerations like passion and zeal in our republic.

There's no denying that Kenyans who aren't politicians but professionals in their own right have no space to prove their mettle.

The shunning of youth and women to a big extent, embodies a cycle of doom. The numerous pro-youth sentiments we heard during the campaigns last year were only but a tenuous grasp of reality.

Jobs are advertised with occupants in mind. Then the ritual is followed by a vetting 'entertainment' in Parliament.

Young technocrats and emerging leaders remain cast off. Why? They lack the so-called experience. They deserve no rewards. To cap it all, they are broke and come with zero political value.

It is important to bring qualified young leaders on board. They hold the promise. There's something about them. How would you, for instance, explain the excitement that greeted the 'unopposed' election of 24-year-old Bomet Woman Rep Linet Toto?

At a youth summit in Kigali, Rwanda recently, Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua termed her Kenya's miracle.

As many observers marvel at the prospects of a few political leaders embracing young leaders and allowing them space to be heard, the question remains how the youth will create 'the Africa we want' if no one appoints them to top decision-making organs like the Cabinet. While it's myopic to gauge people's capabilities on account of age, it is bad to placate Kenyans that they have a 'dream team' that holds the key to their emancipation yet they are the usual 'suspects' who have been around for eons with no achievements to write home about.

As we reward loyalty - what they call 'standing with you because you stood with me' - substance and commitment should matter.

Author Onyi Anyando says leadership is about impact and inspiration. We should care not to reward mediocrity in the name of gifting our allies with lucrative jobs. Competence and patriotism should be the cut. Truth may be bitter but my conviction, and indeed that of many Kenyans of goodwill, is that top civil servants and politicians who have made a career out of being 'recycled' should give way for 1st century technocrats who will steer this country to new frontiers. In this case, old wine may not always be better.

The writer is an editor at The Standard. Twitter: @markoloo