State officers are servants of the people and not vice
versa. The Constitution is clear about the role of elected representatives at
the various levels up from the presidency down to the ward. Elected leaders
must at any given time be solely preoccupied in the socio-political and
economic development of their people. The moment they lose this realization,
they automatically forego the moral right to hold office.
It is a constitutional sabotage the National Assembly has
refused to legislate on the process of recalling an elected leader who fails
live up to his duty to the people.
A situation must never arise in which an elected leader is
made to believe he is indispensable as demonstrated by the culture of party
hopping without fear of being subjected to a by-election.
This could explain the disdain with which Kenyans hold the well-choreographed
State House visits and much publicized party hopping. The people know that this
political theatrics add no value to their lives.
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Surely with all due honesty what will an elected leader hope
to achieve for the people that he has failed to in an entire term by merely
crossing over to another political party? It is paradoxical for a leader to
expect the continued trust of the people when they cannot be trusted by their
political party? In the coming General Election, the people have yet another
opportunity to reassert themselves as the employer and not the servants of the
leaders.
But the situation need not reach the level in which there is
such a wide gap between the leader and the people in terms of expectation on
matters of development. The blame does not solely lie with the cunning leaders
but actually is also a result of the people failing to live up to their duty of
oversight through public participation in the governance at the national and
county level.
The conduct of leaders in the County Assemblies, National
Assembly and Senate and their sheer detachment from the people and contempt of
the law has been disturbing to say the least.
The ball lies squarely in the court of opinion shapers to
rise to the occasion and lead the people to make informed choices.
