Choose leaders based on content of their character

Former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua paid a courtesy call on Martha Karua, the Party Leader of the People's Liberation Party (PLP) Party at her home in Kimunye Village, Gichugu Constituency in Kirinyaga County on January 25, 2025. [File, Standard]

I sometimes wonder whether as a country, we suffer from collective and acute amnesia. It takes but a couple of sweet-talking politicians for us to forget the vitriol they poured on their perceived enemies yesterday now that the tables have turned, and the enemy is now a bosom buddy.

We are truly a gullible lot: politicians (I have a thing about them) will mount a stage and promise all manner of things to the electorate who lap it up because the smooth talking is usually oiled by a few bank notes.

They are blinded by the fact that this same chap breathing fire and brimstone against their perceived political enemy will soon be in bed with the same person they are calling a tyrant today, and none will be wiser. It is a game of chess, where the pawns (read the electorate) are traded indiscriminately because they are indispensable, and they will smooth the path to the high office.

The chameleon nature of the average politician means that one day, he will be on this side of the fence and when there is a slight whiff of wind upon him, he will be happily blown to the other side. In case there’s doubt as to which direction the wind is blowing, they just perch on the fence waiting, the opportunists they are, for the signal as to which side the whiff of carrion is emanating from.

Change can also be forced upon a politician. Nothing exemplifies what can befall a politician and the speed that they mutate than the former DP Riggy G.

The ‘truthful man’ was the most ardent regime supporter. When he took the microphone, we had no idea what he would spew into it. He’s on record calling on the former head of state not to kill him and his family, a call that he was to repeat for the current government after he fell out of favour. I don’t see why he’s so obsessed with death but that’s a personal matter I leave him to deal with.

During his time in government, he was more catholic than the Pope, in that he was at the forefront of fighting all and sundry on the other side of the political divide. He was the Pitbull that feared nothing, who saw no evil when he was at the centre of power. 

His Damascus moment must have come when he was forcefully dragged, screaming and kicking, through an impeachment process which culminated with him being rushed to hospital.

Maybe that’s where he was blinded by a white light and, in a moment of clarity, he literally saw the light and Saul became Paul, a saintly man who can now do no wrong but can remember all the wrongs his previous proteges did.

Suddenly, he has mutated from an ardent government supporter to one of its most scathing critics. Of course, we are enjoying the show, especially when he purports to reveal where the bodies are buried. The question I ask however is this: Why didn’t he fight the system from within if indeed he knew about all these misdeeds?

Leaving Riggy G aside, the reality is that at any one time in the history of this country, we have a kaleidoscope of highwaymen, drug dealers, conmen and hoodlums of various disguises running for office and clinching it effortlessly because they have plenty of loot to dish out.

But will we ever get a chance to recover the dignity of elective offices in this country?

Will the voter ever learn to choose character over form, integrity over villainy? To paraphrase Martin Luther King, will we ever choose our leaders based not on how fat their wallet is but by the content of their character? That will be the day that we will say we have come of age as a country.

-The writer is a communications consultant