We must all take responsibility for the situation we find ourselves in today. It is not enough to rail against the system while we have refused to hold the members of the establishment to account for their deeds and misdeeds. The situation in Kenya today is one in which all the institutions of governance, whether political, social, moral or academic, are crumbling and bereft of leadership.
Leadership should inspire us to attempt the impossible - to shoot the moon, so to speak. We are living in a bankrupt age: bereft of any ideas save for the hustle. Take the example of our public universities: When the KU students went on the rampage in the past few weeks, we bemoaned the fact that they caused damage to public and private property in the pursuit of their demands. Vice Chancellor Mugenda is powerless to stop the violence from spilling onto Thika Road because she epitomizes the state of leadership in public institutions: it doesn't exist.
While her appointment may have been based on her professional qualifications, it is now becoming apparent that that was not the only criteria that she was evaluated by. as in appointments to all other institutions, he political temperature was also gauged and when she was found to be acceptable on that basis, her appointment came to pass. There is risk, however. Whenever irrelevant considerations are made, the long term goals of an institutions run the risk of being compromised if the newly installed leadership bereft of any vision. This is the situation that KU finds itself today. from all accounts, Prof. Mugenda runs the university along the same draconian lines that Moi-era leaders ran their dockets. She does not listen to new ideas, she does not tolerate constructive criticism and she will not countenance that others may be smarter and more experienced than her. Many of the experienced people in the University have given up attempting to advise her and have decided to sit back and watch the destruction of the institutions.
this is not in any way to absolve the student leadership. it too has failed to evolve with the times. Not many student leaders have any experience in addressing the needs and requirements of the students who elected them to office. They are, more sadly, not even interested in learning the basic tenets of leadership. If Joshua Kutuny is anything to go by, student leaders only see their future in terms of entering the national assembly as MPs. None sees their role as being to ensure that the universities where they learn improve to height before unknown.
And this is the malaise afflicting our country. In institution after institution, the lack of a genuine leadership has impacts far greater than that of poor management. The lack of a vision is the reason why programmes and policies as the Vision 2030 will not succeed. We don't have visionaries anymore and we are to blame. in our desire to protect our ethnic bailiwicks, we have promoted charlatans and snake-oil salesmen to positions of power and authority but not leaders. We shall continue to suffer so long as we make the wrong calculations. this is a fact. Let us accept it and deal with it.
Leadership should inspire us to attempt the impossible - to shoot the moon, so to speak. We are living in a bankrupt age: bereft of any ideas save for the hustle. Take the example of our public universities: When the KU students went on the rampage in the past few weeks, we bemoaned the fact that they caused damage to public and private property in the pursuit of their demands. Vice Chancellor Mugenda is powerless to stop the violence from spilling onto Thika Road because she epitomizes the state of leadership in public institutions: it doesn't exist.
While her appointment may have been based on her professional qualifications, it is now becoming apparent that that was not the only criteria that she was evaluated by. as in appointments to all other institutions, he political temperature was also gauged and when she was found to be acceptable on that basis, her appointment came to pass. There is risk, however. Whenever irrelevant considerations are made, the long term goals of an institutions run the risk of being compromised if the newly installed leadership bereft of any vision. This is the situation that KU finds itself today. from all accounts, Prof. Mugenda runs the university along the same draconian lines that Moi-era leaders ran their dockets. She does not listen to new ideas, she does not tolerate constructive criticism and she will not countenance that others may be smarter and more experienced than her. Many of the experienced people in the University have given up attempting to advise her and have decided to sit back and watch the destruction of the institutions.
this is not in any way to absolve the student leadership. it too has failed to evolve with the times. Not many student leaders have any experience in addressing the needs and requirements of the students who elected them to office. They are, more sadly, not even interested in learning the basic tenets of leadership. If Joshua Kutuny is anything to go by, student leaders only see their future in terms of entering the national assembly as MPs. None sees their role as being to ensure that the universities where they learn improve to height before unknown.
And this is the malaise afflicting our country. In institution after institution, the lack of a genuine leadership has impacts far greater than that of poor management. The lack of a vision is the reason why programmes and policies as the Vision 2030 will not succeed. We don't have visionaries anymore and we are to blame. in our desire to protect our ethnic bailiwicks, we have promoted charlatans and snake-oil salesmen to positions of power and authority but not leaders. We shall continue to suffer so long as we make the wrong calculations. this is a fact. Let us accept it and deal with it.
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