KENYA NEEDS A POLITICAL LEADER AND NOT A POLITICIAN

      Maybe my view might be misplaced, but I think that a politician has no leader in it. That roughly translated means a politician lacks qualities enough to be a leader. In the past few years, Kenya has been manufacturing politicians out of leaders. Maybe, that is the element lacking in our systems, leadership.

      Do we really have a difference between a POLITICIAN and a POLITICAL LEADER? I think so. A POLITICIAN, according to my primitive dictionary, is someone who has the audacity to proclaim a change he himself cannot perpetuate or see to it that the change has been effected no matter how. A POLITICAL LEADER on the other hand, is an individual with well organized mind who is quick-witted and has the audacity not only to proclaim but also make good of his promise to the people and himself. A political leader too has a manifesto well written.

       It is not yet late to start voting in political leaders, it only begins by realizing that, that time has come, the time when we need a leader. Kenya needs a leader and it needs that leader so badly. The turnaround from politician to leader is now and not tomorrow.

      How then can we identify a leader from a politician? How can we tell that one is a leader and not a politician?

      It is too bad that there are no clear-cut short cuts of telling a politician from a political leader. The only way is to look at the visions they carry. Ask yourself, Are those visions achievable? Can they be fulfilled? Or are they only ambitious plans that are bound to fail? If in any case, these plans click to the fact that they are only ambitious then he/she is a politician. Run away from that leader.

     Another indicator of a leader is that person who tells the people that poverty is eradicated by working hard and not cooling your feet of waiting for manna from heaven.      A leader promises to work along with the people and not working alone to fulfill the needs of the masses. Kenyans have been expecting too much from leaders maybe that has been a precursor to our deep rooted problems.

     You listen to news about disasters, which are at home in Africa, and the story will be the same, we plead for help from the government. A true leader has to kill such a myth.

A true leader has to ebb out the myth of overnight wealth and confront the redundancy in the people he leads. He has to let the people be on their feet and not on the streets.

      The concept of Kenyans standing on streets waiting for political innuendos should be thrown in the dust of lies that has to be binned and burned. Kenyans should only wait for those occasions where talks are held at specific location with a timeline, an interactive forum that allows the people to ask questions and criticize at will.

       Our politicians do not have ears to listen, especially from the people at the grassroots. They only have the mouths to talk. Spread the filth and the myth. Evade the facts and overfeed the fiction. Bombard the people with castles in the air, when even the foundation itself is faltering. My image of a true leader is, one who understands listens before he talks. A leader who digests what the majority are saying before shedding light to the truth he so dearly holds.

        Thirdly, one fundamental quality of a leader is, being projection able. He has a sense of purpose and is disciplined to make sure that, in his tutelage, people achieve the projected plans. He is strict and honours responsibility. A political leader lets people work and enjoy the fruits of their labour.

        Although such political leaders have been there and are there, one problem is, no one wants them. No one needs them. People would rather put in a mirage prophet than invest in someone who is straightforward. A quality so many people detest. My colleague likes telling students that they are failures and like many prophets of doom, he is hated.

       Many will like to support a smooth talking good-for-nothing profiteer, who preaches of an overnight boom and not an emphatic guy who spreads the facts as they are presented.

       The year 2012 or is it 2013? Will be a year Kenya has to make a radical decision. It is either the country retains the status quo or wave goodbye to the old retrogressive political gibberish that has been. Kenyans ought to have learnt that, there is nothing good that comes out of our political class. Those road side shows, if anything is to be said are just but anger builder. They are retrogressive and awkward; they are the kind of politics which are Stone Age.

      As we warm up to the elections, let us go forth with a sober mind. Let us try to analyze the situation and make a decision that is not inclined but has the interest of the entire country at heart.

    In all attempts to remodel Kenya, carpet a sincere growth rate and uproot it out of the decadent ages of depreciation, Kenyans must realize that they themselves have the onus to. If not so, the new constitution shall just remain to be a well-tailored garment that hangs out there for all to admire but has no one to put into use.

        It therefore lies in the hands of the wanjiku to demand to be heard not only in voting but also in saying what she wants.  A country with hardworking citizens but poor leadership is just but a failed state. Similarly, a country with hardworking visionary leaders with lazy citizens is well on its knees of paucity. However, I will quickly add that the latter has easier chances of resuscitation than the former. Why; because, in the former, there is a likelihood of brain drain, hence making it a deathbed, a situation not new to Africa.

     As we vote in leaders let us know that these leaders have a tailored manifesto that reflects on the national performance indicator and has more to give than to receive. We should hence look into making our very own informed decisions; decisions from our own judgments and not those influenced by others.

    Kenyans, it is our time to listen to advice and make independent decisions, those decisions that came out of sober reasoning and not influence. If we can only do that, we can kill two birds with one stone; bad governance and tribalism. Duff!