In my past few posts, readers have taken
to blaming leaders for all manner of failures in our society. Let me
take this early opportunity to present a different view.
But
first let me say that I take full responsibility for any of our
failures and hope each one of us does the same. This is how we can
begin the process of change. I subscribe to the growing school of
thought that it is us, the followers, who make the leaders. And for the
purpose of this article, a leader is someone who has the authority to
tell a group of people what to do.
We get confused when we think too much about who is a leader. In Some Mistakes of Moses, Robert Ingersoll wrote:
“Let us forget that we are Baptists, Methodists, Catholics, Presbyterians, or Free-thinkers, and remember only that we are men and women. After all, man and woman are the highest possible titles. All other names belittle us, and show that we have, to a certain extent, given up our individuality, and have consented to wear the collar of authority—that we are followers. Throwing away these names, let us examine these questions not as partisans, but as human beings with hopes and fears in common.”
As we examine our hopes and fears, let us just think we are just men and women. We have been there before.
In August 2010, Kenyans were all song and dance, having successfully promulgated a new Constitution.
A great achievement indeed. We were individually Wanjiku. No other
collar of authority spoke louder than Wanjiku. For the first time we
had devolved power to the grassroots.
Unlike in the
past when some parts of the country were marginalized, this new
dispensation is non-discriminative whether you voted for or against the
national government. Members of Parliament have real power over
resources, not just in the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) but on
the budgetary process, to make real changes on the ground.
The
national cake is equitably distributed. Church and professional
leaders have the freedom of holding their own and those of other men and
women to account for any transgressions. Chapter Four (Bill of Rights)
of our Constitution made we men and women of this land our brothers’
keepers. In simpler terms, if my neighbour is using his wife as a
punching bag, I have what lawyers call the locus standi to take him to court.
In
my foolish stupor, I thought that our elected leaders would compete on
the basis of utilization of resources and showcase the changes made in
their respective constituencies. Instead they are on the campaign trail
barely a year later, whipping the emotions of the poor as unspent funds
go back to Treasury.
POWER OVER LEADERS
Surely,
Kibra needs less than Sh50 million to build decent sanitary facilities
to reduce disease and the continued erosion of the confidence of its
inhabitants. Our people in the increasing number of shanties defecate
in the open when we know that there is value in aggregating their
excrement to create light that will reduce crime and encourage decent
living.
In Baringo, the drought threatens the
livelihood of thousands as newspapers report that governors have not
been able to spend their allocations. We have not heard the voices of
the clergy on the drought. Professionals hide here in Nairobi watching
misery on television.
I blame ourselves – the
followers – for we have power over the leaders. Here are some lessons we
can learn from and begin to exercise our authority over leaders of all
walks, not just politicians.
Sinéad O'Connor is an Irish singer-songwriter who rose to fame in the late 1980s with her debut album The Lion and the Cobra.
O'Connor achieved worldwide success in 1990 with a new arrangement of
Prince's song "Nothing Compares 2 U". In 1992, she courted trouble in
this clip.
She tore up Pope John Paul II’s picture while singing an a cappella
rendition of Bob Marley’s “War” — with lyrics slightly altered to
protest the sexual abuse of children.
The scene was
edited out of re-runs of the Oct. 3, 1992, episode (often replaced with a
Pope-less version taped at dress rehearsal), and has since become one
of Saturday Night Live’s most controversial and spontaneous moments.
UNSPOKEN MORAL CODE
Her
followers in America and Western Europe deserted O’Connor and
financially crippled her. While most media reported that O’Connor’s
actions “largely derailed what had been a promising career with this
most infamous of her many controversial acts and urging viewers to
“fight the real enemy”, the Pope in this case, it was her followers who
punished her most. They were unanimous that her actions were out of
order.
Nobody went around organizing the audience to
boycott O’Connor. They were guided by a common understanding of their
unspoken moral code. This is the very basis of our cognitive dissonance
with the way we treat our leaders every time they are at fault.
Ferdinand Marcos
was President of the Philippines from 1965 to 1986. He was a lawyer and
member of the Philippine House of Representatives between 1949 and
1959. He later became a member of the Philippine Senate between 1959
and 1965 and Senate President from 1963 to 1965. His distinguished
service and the implemented, wide-ranging programs of infrastructure
development and economic reform endeared him to his people. However, his
administration was later marred by massive authoritarian corruption,
despotism, nepotism, political repression, and human rights violations.
In 1983, his government was accused of being involved in the assassination of his primary political opponent, Benigno Aquino, Jr.
Public outrage over the assassination served as the catalyst for the
People Power Revolution (the followers) in February 1986 that led to his
removal from power and eventual exile in Hawaii.
Although
we spelt out a moral code in our Constitution, it is largely a public
relations exercise. It has not translated to any meaningful change in
our behaviour. Most likely we did not even read and comprehend its
purpose yet it is the most civil way of responding to immoral acts by
our leaders as in the case of O'Connor and Marcos. The strength of our
differences in ethnicity lies in a common moral code that we must
subscribe to, if indeed we need sustainable development in our country.
CDF NOT EVENLY DISTRIBUTED
We
must individually and collectively hold all our leaders to account.
From a school Head to the Honorable Member of Parliament, they are all
our leaders. Indeed if a school Head with 1,000 students compromised
his/her leadership, he/she will cause more damage to society than an
irresponsible MP (MP) whose leadership is often nebulous.
In
assessing leaders, open data becomes the most objective tool. In
Uganda, the Ministry of Education shows that science exam marks have
markedly improved in rural schools. They attribute this to e-content
that has changed the pedagogy of teaching science. Additionally
students began to be more knowledgeable than teachers, forcing the
teachers too to improve on how to teach the subjects.
In
some districts here in Kenya, rural people prefer their own to teach
their pupils making evaluation of teachers by parents a bit
complicated. Teachers in this case do not teach. They are the local
businessmen and women and have complex relationships with parents at the
expense of the pupils. Majority of Grade Eight pupils are not able to
comprehend Grade Three literacy and numeracy.
It is
you and I who will pay the eventual cost of many uneducated people in
the country. Alternatively, we can arrest this impunity by asking the
Ministry of Education to transfer all teachers to places that are not
their usual home, to places that others will objectively evaluate them.
In
2007, the Ministry of Information and Communications and the World Bank
mapped CDF spending and overlaid poverty distribution in the country.
It emerged that only Gatanga and Kangema constituencies had evenly
distributed their CDF, with more spending in poverty pockets within
their constituencies. Some MPs put more resources in their home
divisions even though some of them were richer than the most poverty
stricken divisions within the constituency.
Others did
not even spend a coin of their CDF allocation, even though there were
poor kids who needed bursaries to pursue their education. MPs and
members of the public forced us to pull down the visualization arguing
that it was too near election time.
PUT LEADERS ON THEIR TOES
In
the past week, the Level Four hospital at Rongo refused to treat an
accident victim. They read newspapers as the patient writhed in pain.
The Good Samaritan who had taken the patient to the hospital recorded
the incident and sent it to media houses. If we want change, it is us
who must strive to put our leaders on their toes like this Good
Samaritan instead of perennially complaining.
Since
we all understand the concept of checks and balances, the citizens in
each constituency must be enabled to check on financial decisions made
by their MPs. Open data will do. Forget any performance contracting
program that does not include the citizens. It is perhaps a big mistake
that MPs control development funds. This is like buying goats and
keeping them in the lion’s den.
In Brazil, when
citizens are served by the government officials, they have a cloud
service where they press a button on the level of service offered. It
enables the citizens to constantly monitor service delivery in the
public sector. By so doing, citizens eventually shape those who are
charged to serve the public. Without such systems in place, leaders of
whatever shade will always think that they are privileged over
citizens.
Leaders will always follow their followers.
Dr
Ndemo is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Nairobi, Business
School, Lower Kabete Campus. He is a former Permanent Secretary,
Ministry of Information and Communication. Twitter:@bantigito
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