The Words of a Leader...

In our young democracy I’ve had the privilege of being around during the reign of all three of our Presidents so far (well, that’s one way I know I’m growing old). The words of a leader, I’ve come to learn, accomplish a lot, sometimes moving mountains literally. Which is why leaders ought to harness and use this God-given influence for the good of the nations they lead.

As young as I was in the days of our first President, Mzee Kenyatta, I remember with clarity his call to Kenyans; two calls as a matter of fact. One was the call for young people to go back to the farms and do agriculture as a means of employment and development. He hated idlers and the sight of many young people roaming the city streets in search for white collar jobs while fertile, agricultural land lay untilled upcountry was unbearable; so he rallied Kenyans back to the land, with the resultant boost in agricultural produce, especially the cash crops. ‘Turudi Mashambani’ was the phrase in Swahili.

His second call was ‘Harambee’, meaning as a nation we needed to work together in unity to achieve our goals. And thus the practice of holding fundraisings or ‘harambees’ as they were called in aid of noble courses like buildings schools, hospitals, raising school fees for those in need etc, became our way of life. The idea was that together we could manage what we couldn’t as individuals. Used properly, it worked wonders. But even a good thing can be misused which is what eventually happened and ‘harambees’ (fundraisings) have been all but banned in the current system.

Our second President Moi rallied Kenyans to plant trees. Just as well because trees were disappearing at a scary pace, and areas which had earlier been covered in green were now bare and brown, and one could see for miles for lack of plant cover. The President sent forth a word ‘Ukikata moja, panda mbili’, i.e., if you cut down one tree, plant two. Soon every government initiative was geared towards tree planting, and tree nurseries were established everywhere. Institutions of all definitions joined the fray. School children received seedlings and each of them planted a tree, for whose growth they were responsible. Farmers and anyone else who so wished received seedlings too, and every government official planted a tree in almost every public function they attended.

The results were spectacular. Eventually homes and buildings which had earlier stood out in the glaring sunshine like sore thumbs began to disappear behind green foliage as the trees matured and converged to restore the green cover. Once again the spirit of ‘harambee’ from the first President had met with the call to plant trees from the second President and the result was total environmental and climatic transformation. The rain began to fall more regularly again, and in some parts of the country highlands the climate changed so much that farmers who had previously planted coffee were told they could now plant tea as the region was now cool enough for tea to thrive. One could now be forgiven for thinking this was a forest area, when in fact it was a well populated area where trees hid many homes from view, providing shade, breeze and much needed moisture.

We no doubt have a long way to go before we restore 10% of our land to forest, but that call from the former President went a long way into that direction and prevented an even worse disaster than we have been experiencing often in way of drought.

The current President Kibaki has a call of his own; free primary education, and free tuition for secondary and tertiary institutions. Let’s just say he has succeeded in providing free primary education, and as a result all parents are required to send their children of this age to school. When he first expressed this desire and intention, many thought in couldn’t be done in a developing nation. But President Kibaki was determined and made it his business to see that the project took off. And even though it is not without its challenges (which good thing hasn’t?), primary education is now free and available to all Kenyan children, and consequently it’s now compulsory. As a result we no longer see many children on the streets during term time, and the government has a right to demand that all children be taken to school.

Provision of basic education is a big deterrent to crime and a catalyst for development as pupils soak up knowledge and thirst for more, pursuing the dreams they develop in the process. No doubt some day soon education will be totally free all the way to Secondary at least; and that because President Kibaki dared to not only believe it could be done, but rallied Kenyans around this noble course.

With the words of a leader being so powerful and influential, then we hope to see more and more leaders rally behind worthy courses that bring our country closer and closer to self dependency, courses that bring us closer to development and courses that unify us as one nation and one people. And, on the same note, shun calls that divide us and that are retrogressive.