While there is a substantial electoral upturn in people wanting to join politics, the demand side for unpretentious servant leadership has however remained unmet in the domestic political market.
Looking around, the atmosphere is that of many applicants who suddenly want to be leaders, with only a few of them appearing to be prepared and genuine prospective servants of the people in their quest to be elected to public office.
As much as our democratic cannons are permitting, taming this meaningless upsurge of candidates has become a new test that is causing headaches even in areas like the North Eastern.
Here, some councils of elders have reigned supreme as the unifying organ of political negotiation and filtering of aspirants based on their distinct prospects, strong points and past achievement.
Many of the elders have supplicated and expressed disappointment about this political jam street in which some of the candidates have defiantly resorted to plain showboating and riskily destabilising the local political authority and control of elders as a political strategy.
Some of the candidates implicitly draw their interest in politics from the corruption scandals that have dominated our news cycles and they see political leadership as an easy route to making money and fame.
They equate power with impunity allowing one to do illegal things like looting.
However, our criminal justice system is to blame for creating this perception of impunity that we have big fishes in this country who are hard to catch and even harder to keep in prison.
With this muddle, Kenyans should be equipped with correct civic education to enable them to separate the political wheat from the chaff by judiciously assessing aspirants based on their visions and plans.
They should also pay homage to inspiring and legendary leadership accounts of the luminaries of the past as a touchstone to set a grander future.
From the North, we have a healthy leadership heritage from some leaders who had set a very fine and spotless political example and legacy that is worth emulating.
We can go further and try to size up our leaders with continental and global greats like Nelson Mandela and the humble former Uruguayan president José Mujica, who believes leadership is passion and not a profession and advises the public to go for leaders with small pockets but big hearts.
Sociopolitical commentator in Garissa
Edited by Kiilu Damaris
