Leaders are not merely reflection of whole society

President William Ruto and his deputy Kithure Kindiki during Mashujaa Day celebrations in Kwale County. [File, Standard]

Two stories this week should have dominated headlines, but were drowned by the clownish Cabinet Secretaries threatening Kenyans for criticising government incompetence.

First, it emerged that the level of quality of development expenditures in the counties is wanting, with some counties spending absolutely nothing on development.

Second, President William Ruto assumed the chairmanship of the East Africa Community. If Kenya were a well-run country, devolution and regional integration would be core pillars of our developmental agenda.

It reflects poorly on our leaders that they view the 47 counties as conduits for theft rather than engines of economic development.

In the same vein, we are under-utilising our geographic fortune of potentially serving as a logistical corridor for six landlocked countries and northern Tanzania. Consequently, we are on course to lose the race to be the gateway to East Africa and to Tanzania, despite our decades-long head start in human capital and market share. 

Why are we not able to exploit either devolution or regional integration to our economic advantage? The answer lies in the quality of elites we have. 

It is true that leaders often reflect the societies where they come from. However, this is not the full story. In return for enjoying the privileges of their status, most societies expect leaders to display an encompassing interest and solve collective problems.

Therefore, it is not particularly clever to assert that the story starts and ends with the fact that leaders reflect society. That is only true to a point. Good elite formation can produce leaders that stand apart from the rest of society. 

Unfortunately, our elite formation is atrocious and mostly produces leaders who are content to dance on podiums, show off their ill-gotten wealth, and insult Kenyans. 

Importantly, our leaders lack the most important resource of all: time to think. They have limited cognitive abilities not because they are dumb, but because they are always busy running around like headless chicken and refuse to hire and listen to competent brain trusts. 

With this in mind, I would like to challenge the President and his senior leadership to retreat from public view for two weeks to go and think. No chopper rides. No dancing on podium at rallies.

Just sit and think about why they should be the ones leading Kenya, and how they intend to solve our most pressing problems. 

-The writer is a professor at Georgetown University