January 2012: Opinion

OPINION
Leaders characterized

By Nicholas Nyile

A

s we usher in a great new year of 2012, we have a stake  to critically evaluate all the de­vel­opments of our new nation.
In Au­gust 2010, a new constitution was promulgated.after being passed by the  ma­jority (yes team) against the naysers  al­though it emerged a third  group famouously known as the watermelons who would support the proposed draft during the day and oppose the same at night.

As the chair of the commission and in­de­pen­dent offices at Na­tional civil so­ci­ety congress (NCSC) since Dec 2009 which offered massive in­put to the Committee of Experts,I begin my analy­sis with first high­lighting the following commissions and independent offices which have been formed through the passage of Acts of Par­liament pur­suant to Ar­ticle 248 of the new con­sti­tution of Kenya .

These include:The Kenya National Human Rights Commission which gave birth to Gen­der Equality Commision, The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission,The In­de­pen­dent Elec­toral and Bound­aries Commission, The Parliamentary Ser­vice Commission,The Ju­di­cial Service Commission, The Commission of Rev­enue Allocation, The Public Service Commission, The,Teachers Service Commission, The Sala­ries and Re­mu­neration Commission and the Au­ditor Gen­eral  and Controller of Budget offices.

Although all the constitutional commissions are vital, I'm impressed by the bold move of our chief  Justice Dr Willy Mutunga in his cre­ation of the Commission on Administration of Justice (CAJ) which took over from the  then toothless Public Ombudsman (PCSC).There is compelling con­viction that the roque and in­com­pe­tent pub­lic officers will either change their con­duct or vacate their offices, but that will depend on the public presentation of com­plaints.

Much still ,the Executive and Parliament have betrayed us by delaying the formation of these commissions with greater public demand;- The National Land Commission, The  Ethics and Anti-corruption Commission,The Salaries and Re­mu­neration Commission, The National Po­lice Service Commission and The In­de­pen­dent Elec­toral and Boundaries Commission.

Among the results of the said delay are the lec­turers and doctors strike ,the illegal  appaent extension of the service of the po­lice commissioner , the Syokimau and other  ar­eas land saga, the uncertainty of land tri­bu­nals, the proposed  exit package of  Mps by next July, the proposed change of election date from August as stipulated in the Con­sti­tution to December 2012 and “lead­ership vacuum” at the Integrity Centre. All these mess would have been avoided if both the executive and par­liament took action to earn the the good­will of the people  being enjoyed by the Judiciary under 150 days after the appointment of the new Chief Justice Mr Willy Mutunga.

Types of Personalities.

Allow me to explain the 4 types of per­son­alities so as to provoke your debate but in civil manner, each personality will match with its features/char­ac­ter­is­tics.

1.Sanguine (Self Seekers) – This cat­egory belongs persons good in storytelling, emo­tional, easy crying, appeasing and pub­licity seekers.

2.Choleric (Reformers) – This class possesses Bold, Optimistic, self suffi­cient, Dy­namic and non-com­pro­mising char­ac­ters.

3.Melancholy (Visionary) – This group be­longs to persons gifted with high in­telli­gence, Analytical, In­dus­trious, and self sacrifices, sen­sitive and reflective thinkers. 

4.Phlegmatic (moderators)  - This cat­egory belongs to persons with peace – keepers skills, slow thinkers, calm, some­times are both emo­tional and un­prin­cipled.

  In my last edition, I promised to give you the profile of our politicians and more so the presi­den­tial candidates, but after deep con­sul­tation with myself, I have opted to align them in 3 clus­ters with their per­son­alities and public perception then give you a Christmas gift and assignment to con­firm to me “ Ukitema ama ukimeza ni shauri yako” but persuasion is better than force, how­ever, as many pundits re­quested for opinion polls, I am not a gun for hire neither shall I use the top dog and un­der­dog words to describe our candidates, I am afraid Mzalendo Kibunja may sit as a judge to dis­cuss me, but let the truth be told with­out fear or favour. I am further in­su­lated by the book of Proverbs which advises that “an open rebuke is better than hidden/se­cret love”.

Presidential Candidates and their Clus­ter.

(a) Raila Odinga, Paul Muite, CK Ngilu and Martha Karua – These applicants for State House belong to both cho­leric and mel­an­choly- groups. They all fought for second struggle and lib­erated Kenya from Chama Cha Baba na Mama misrule, so they de­serve a chance to be listened to.

(b) Kalonzo Musyoka,  Uhuru Kenyatta, Samoei Ruto and George Saitoti – c. c. These poli­ticians cut their teath and enjoyed their good time during the KANU misrule and are viewed by many as conservatives thus they be­long to both Sanguine and some­how phlegmatic. Their Mani­festo and pledges of a new change is purely un­con­vincing ali­bis.

(c) Peter Kenneth & Rev. Mutava Musyimi – The duo posses three out of four qualities of per­son­alities they are both reformers and moderators. Though  I admit they are not more popular than the top two groups, they are unique and can work with both re­formers and reactionaries. Together with Mtetezi Paul Muite, they discuss issue based policies and ideologies without their tribal patronage. They too maintain the record of being smart man­agers and defenders of pub­lic affairs and in­ter­ests.

Lastly, for Kenya to prosper as a nation, Human Rights and the Rule of Law must be respected, that’s why we need the voices of Dr. Willy Mutunga, Commissioner Omar Hassan Omar, Gladywel Otieno, Charles Nyachae and Maina Kiai to engage the au­thorities to conceptualize, internalize and fully implement the values, principles and diktats of our new constitution. Oth­er­wise, we shall not let the sabo­teurs to design our des­tiny and our drive for free, fair and credible election which will be the foundation of human rights centrered gov­er­nance and just society.

For those kind and benevolent ad­vice though they may become a shock therapy to turn against your favourite candidate I wish you a Merry Christmas and Pros­perous New year of 2012.

  

Mr. Nyile is a Programs Director,  Centre  for Governance and Ad­vo­cacy  and also a panelist at The King’ang’ani — weekly talk show  on Mbaitu fm 92.5.