We need leaders who can make hard decisions

At independence, the founding fathers diagnosed the challenges facing the young nation of Kenya as disease, ignorance and poverty.

With time, the list has grown to include graft, tribalism and impunity. In attempting to tackle the problems, our top leadership opted for decisions that are politically correct.

They pursued the easier route to please the public. In the end, the problems have continued to persist.

History has shown that countries whose leaders took tough options eventually reaped big. Challenges such as corruption, impunity and negative ethnicity call for tough decisions by those in authority.

Resorting to public relations, short-term solutions or hoodwinking the public cannot work. The best approach is to seek long-term solutions.

State officers adversely mentioned in questionable deals are either left to continue serving the public or step aside and enjoy the looted wealth.

A number of Government officers facing corruption charges are walking free and have even gone ahead to vie for other elective offices. What happened to the leadership and integrity clause in the Constitution?

Ethnicity has seemingly been officially sanctioned as the way of transacting public affairs. One is given a job based on his or second name. The practice is very serious, to an extent that some Kenyans are labelled foreigners when they seek employment outside their counties of birth.

Indeed, we have sunk so low as a nation. It is easier for a Kenyan to get a job in a foreign country than in his own motherland. On education, the policy makers are more obsessed with quantity at the expense of quality.

Having more pupils and students in schools and universities is the measure of 'good education', yet literacy standards have fallen.

The same applies to employment of graduates. Let the leadership make tough decisions and stop cosmetic measures.