• Even with abundance of resources and opportunities, no country thrives at the behest of internal imperfections emanating from incompetent and unethical leadership.
• It is the biggest disaster that can befall a nation for it denies generations the dreams of better lives.
Every five years Kenyans are afforded the opportunity to remake and reshape the nation for the better.
Like the molting of birds and snakes, the changes of guard are meant to shed bad practices and implement new ideas and plans to better the lives of the people.
This provides a critical juncture in our democratic and governance architecture. The critical decisions made at this moment can either spar the country to prosperity or condemn it to poverty and deprivations courtesy of the kind of persons entrusted with the leadership and institutions of governance established.
Even with abundance of resources and opportunities, no country thrives at the behest of internal imperfections emanating from incompetent and unethical leadership. It is the biggest disaster that can befall a nation for it denies generations the dreams of better lives.
History has proved that countries that leaped out of poverty and put in place strong institutions have attained so through decisions made by leaders at such critical moments. Ethical leaders have been the blessing at these moments. Such leaders helped shape the trajectory of the country in terms of governance and economic development.
Daron and James in the book, Why Nations Fail: The origin of power, poverty and prosperity observe that decisions at critical junctures in history are the strongest determiners of a country’s economic and governance status today. They however, advice that countries are afforded such moments to forge changes from time to times through changes in leadership and governments.
It is not an accident that countries such as Singapore, which is often quoted by analyst and politician to depicted the lost opportunities by Kenya, and Botswana are doing better than Kenya in terms of good governance, democratic credentials and better public service.
These two Countries have comparable history with Kenya. They were British colonies and attained independence almost at the same time as Kenya; Singapore in 1965 and Botswana in 1963. However, they took a different trajectory from that of Kenya after independence. Their strong values and tradition of the public service are seeds that were sowed by their founding leaders.
President Ssereste Khama of Botswana and Prime Minister Lee Kwuan Yew were the architects of strong discipline and values in public institutions. They were both passionate about the prosperity of their people. They endeavored to put in place a more accountable, disciplined and transparent public sector driven by integrity and public interest. Their credentials in instituting better cultures, taming theft of public resources and misuse of power helped their countries realized sustained growth and prosperity.
It should not be lost on any person that leaders at critical moments have the opportunities to change and reshape the path of a nation. Today, both these two nations show stronger attributes in terms of democratic credentials and integrity their public sectors.
For instance, in the Democratic index (2020) , Botswana and Singapore scored 7.62 and 6.03 out off 10 respectively while Kenya scored 5.05. The Mo Ibrahim’s Governance index ranked Botswana fifth best in Africa with 66.9 per cent compared to Kenya which is 14th with 58.5 per cent.
On the Corruption Perception index, Botswana and Singapore average score for the last eleven years is 61.3 per cent and 81 percent respectively while Kenyan’s average was 27.4 percent. In 2022 CPI report, Singapore was the second-best country in Asia Pacific Region with 83 score while Botswana was the second best in sub-Saharan Africa with score of 60. These are strong indicators of the status of governance systems and practices in these countries bequeathed by the leaders at critical moments.
While the two countries, were lucky to have two strong and ethical leaders committed to shaping the country to positive path to prosperity at critical moments, Kenya was not that lucky as the seeds of general governance malaise were sowed at independent and further propagated by the subsequent government. There were little or no serious attempts to undo the mess. It will be an understatement to state that the biggest challenges facing Kenya are as a result of bad governance courtesy of want of visionary and ethical leadership.
Apparently, it is strongly believed that the greatest leaders are born during moments of crisis. Kenya is at that moment. With soaring cost of living, high inflation, huge public debts burden, food insecurity and ubiquitous corruption and bad governance, the moment calls for strong, visionary and ethical leadership. The biggest challenge to new administrations, in the counties and national levels, is reforming the governance system by appointing ethical persons and infusing better values in public institutions.
The governance frameworks in the public sector institutions are enablers of the realization of prosperity. Just as preparation of the land is prerequisite to better growth of seeds strong, inclusive and responsive governance systems are determiners to growth and development. It is therefore, imperative for any serious government to institute better governance system as bedrock of driving its agenda.
The new crop of leaders has the opportunity to reform these institutions to realise the objective of better service delivery and growth. Any attempt to ignore be sleepwalking into the future.
It will be engaging in fool’s errands to expect great results from well-ironed extractive governance institutions albeit with great intentions and blueprints.
Abdi is a lawyer and governance policy analyst
@inasaney