Kenya’s president Mwai Kibaki’s recent take on who should inherit his office is commendable. He stated categorically that he is not going to busy himself looking for his stooge or protégé to take over from him as soon his term in office lapses. This wisdom should be emulated by other east African rulers who have shown no signs of relinquishing power even when the constitution states so. We recently evidenced some machinations in Rwanda and Uganda where the constitutions were tampered with to enable current rulers cling unto power illegally and unnecessarily.
Kibaki’s take shows the world that he does not intend to mess his legacy. Despite his dark side especially the way he secured his second term in office, Kenyans are likely to forgive him shall they consider the changes Kibaki ushered in. One of his legacies is the new constitution of Kenya. Through new constitution, accountability is now reality in Kenya. Bigwigs are paying tax and those that seem to be in slumber are forced to toe the line. Again, under Kibaki’s watch, Kenya’s economy has performed relatively well compared to other countries in the bloc. Kibaki will be remembered as the African president who harbingered power sharing in Africa ahead of Zimbabwe and partly Zanzibar.
Another feather on Kibaki’s hat is devolution of power. Kenyans are now used to the president that can be faulted when he goes wrong. Refer to how Kibaki’s choice of Chief Justice was shot down by the opposition. Kibaki did not superimpose his choice. Instead, he let the constitution produce the CJ everybody appreciated. This is different from former regimes under which the president was a demi-god who apart from being the law, he was above the law. Kenya’s president is now a mortal being that can make mistake and be taxed just like any other common mwananchi.
If anything, Kibaki’s take is a new wake up call for other rulers who still cling unto frozen ideas of ‘me forever’ as seen in Uganda where the strong man has been in power for more three decades and has never shown signs of retiring despite being above normal retiring age. If he does think about it, he’d like to see his son or his stooge takes over from him so as to protect him and be controlled by proxy.
In Tanzania, the current president came to power by suspicious means whereby public coffers were broken to enhance his rise to power. He has nary stood to defend himself, deny or take on those implicated in this heinous crime against the poor.
Currently, Kenya is an ideal and exemplary democracy ahead of all countries in East Africa bloc. Freedom of expression and freedom to receive and disseminate information is real. Media is awash with stories on corruption. The Kenya that used to kill, silence and force journalists into exile is long gone and forgotten. Kenyans can demonstrate at any time they deem fit. This cannot be done in Uganda. Refer to the recent beatings and humiliation of opposition leader Kizza Besigye when he decided to support the walk to work move that aimed at reminding the authorities that economic situation in Uganda was worse.
Thanks to Kibaki Kenyan police force is currently undergoing a lot of face lift among which is being taught human rights and accountability. Kenya’s army is for the protection of mwananchi instead of big men and their bootlickers.
To Kibaki’s credit, his spouse, sons and daughters don’t featuring high when it comes to running the country as in Uganda and Tanzania. During Daniel arap Moi’s notorious era, Moi’s children were power brokers to reckon with. This is still going on in Tanzania and Uganda where the names of the sons of the presidents Ridhiwan Kikwete and Muhoozi Museveni are featuring high respectively. Again, if those responsible watched how publicly Egyptian former strong man was presented lying in a stretcher in court, sick, caged and on drip, surely they might have gotten a very crucial lesson if they nicely use their brains.
Shall Kibaki live up to his promise of not planting his protégé in the office of president; he will be remembered as a statesman who shaped the future of Kenya. Retire well Mwai Kibaki. All this depends on how you are going to live up to your promise of honouring the constitution. Importantly, your colleagues need to borrow a leaf from you shall they want to leave good and sound legacies behind.
Source: The African Executive Magazine August 10, 2011.
4 comments:
Good thing they are doing in Kenya. It would have been super if it could only be duplicated in Tanzania. But alas! I will probably not see that in my lifetime. People are easily confused, the economy is in shambles, country is in the dark, gas lines everywhere. But to hear our resident leeches, I mean leaders; everything is fabulous and would be better if only people worked harder. Poor wretches, aren't we?
Kenyans are able to do what they are doing even exploing our resources thanks to having leaders with vision not our mission to town. Kenya is a half of our country in size. But again Kenya's population is about 40M just like us. But they were able to convince us to cobble ourselves in the so called EA so that they can use our land to relocate their landless millions.
Thanks to having gone down the capitalist road much earlier than us, they have a leg up on all scamming and exploiting. Seeing that we have dunces for leaders, they try to exploit that fact by entering into these questionable arrangements. They try to look out for their own. So should we, instead of worrying about who is bombing Ghaddafi or something else that is not in our national interest.
That question needs to be answered by our people who busy themselves with unreasonable things like war in Libya instead of focusing on the war of oil shortage, hike and power rationing at home. If anything, had our people been mentally mature enough, time for pulling the current regime down is this. Much money is bilked out of the treasurer to fund nonexisting projects like tipping the waishiwa to pass the budget.
We are like animals that do not bother with how to change their lives but show how insane and doomed they always are.
Our carbuncular looters take as for a ride knowingly our people are zombies that can not thing logically. Our people's minds are now busied by their stomachs thanks to hardiship they are currently facing whilst a cabal of looters are amassing wealth siphoned from them.
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