to involve them in decision making by mouthing high sounding but strange ideals .
In Kenya , because of the deliberate distortion in our politics , Kenyans are more concerned in who they are voting for and not why they are voting . Since the voting is never issue based it becomes a forum to showcase tribal might , a competition they well understand .
Democracy has been touted as the best system to bring about economic development but democracy on sale cannot and will never bring about this desired outcome since the populace is not actually exercising its will but is manipulated .
Isn ’ t it ironical that a relatively poor country like Kenya spends billions in presidential campaigns ? The vast amount of money needed to mount a successful campaign promptly excludes all but the very rich , perpetuating a class hegemony .
What is not usually appreciated is the hidden hand of the external financiers and manipulators of the elections since they are the true owners of the economy and it is in their interests to ensure that a compliant and acceptable candidate is elected .
To have the radical change we need , Kenya requires a leader with a totally new mindset who will see a Kenya for Kenyans and not a Kenya for sale to the highest bidder . A Kenya where all citizens have equal share holding rights devoid of political machinations . A Kenya that is not merely a theatrical satellite for external competing powers .
The options for that leader are to revert to the true ideals of democracy and allow the system to select the most able to lead the nation to prosperity or to abandon a broken system or to modify it to reflect true Kenyan aspirations .
For this to happen the leader would have to appeal to all Kenyans and not his ethnic group putting national cohesion at the very core of his transformative agenda but this requires servant leadership devoid of avarice and self-interest .
Some Kenyans have been aware of the developmental anomaly created by a dysfunctional democracy and this was demonstrated in the new constitution that created the counties as devolved units of government .
But the new constitution just created forty-seven mini ‘ Kenyas ’ rather than address the elephant in the room , national cohesion . National identity and cohesion
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Most Kenyans still have no clue what democracy is about and have never understood that the power that the politicians wield emanates from them or even why the administration is called civil servants since in the Kenyan reality they are the masters .
are leadership issues and not administrative ones .
That is why Brand Kenya is the preserve of the top leadership and the reason why as Kenyans we are interested in the leader ’ s legacy since his tenure should measure the portion of his contribution to the overall development of Kenya .
It is an issue of paramount interest to the top leadership what image Kenya has locally and internationally as the custodian of the Brand Kenya . The leader ’ s actions and behavior reflect the national values and ethics and should be consistent with the national aspirations .
If the leader is not intentional and focused on creating a positive image for Kenya , the country will still be branded by default . When a person thinks of Kenya he does not see a boundary but an image of what Kenya represents for them .
There was a time if you introduced yourself in an international forum , invariably one would mention Kipchoge Keino , that was the brand association of Kenya which was further reinforced by the many worldclass long-distance runners that Kenya has produced .
Kipchoge created an industry which positioned Kenya as the country of champions and that image , although not intended , had great impact both internally and externally as an inspiration to a new crop of athletes that would seek glory in the sporting arena .
To many others in the world the name Kenya just evoked an image of a Maasai in traditional regalia with a perception of untainted Kenya still living in the pre-civilization era and those people were genuinely surprised to discover a modernized Kenya .
Kenya has not had a definite brand identity because no one , including the top leadership sees the country as a homogeneous entity but as a tribal enclave that those who win elections by whatever means lord it over the rest of the ethnic units .
That is where the ‘ it is our turn to eat ’ sentiments emanate from because the leaders are not in place to develop the country but to enrich and create advantages for their particular group at the expense of the rest of the country .
In an ideal situation a leader that has a tunnel vision of Kenya as a country of narrow interests that rewards cronyism and not competence should never be able to ascend to power since such a leader is retrogressive .
The leader that Kenya needs at present is one that can create a Brand Kenya that recognizes the Kenyan diversity and is inclusive . A leader smart enough to realize that the harnessing of the genius of Kenyans for productivity is his primary role .
The creation of this new Brand Kenya has to be intentional and focused in line with what Singapore and Dubai did to transform their seemingly ordinary places into worldlevel competitive destinations that people want to visit .
Kenya had been building a natural brand under the ‘ Hakuna Matata ’ perception of an island of calm surrounded by political strife . That fortuitous positioning was unfortunately destroyed by the 2007 post-election violence while permanently denting Kenya ’ s image .
By an ironical twist of fate , the same people that were the main actors in the 2007 postelection debacle are the same actors that are involved in the current post-election strife and the issue then , as now , is not about Kenyans but who wields political control .
One would imagine that with a country sagging under the onerous debt burden the leadership focus would be to have a national dialogue to find ways out of the unfortunate situation instead of further burdening the country .
Rather than strategizing to find ways to remove foreign domination and
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