We need leaders with compassion to breathe life into 2010 Kenya constitution

As Kenyans were celebrating four years since the enactment of a new constitution recently, three unfortunate things caught my attention, which made my heart to bleed. One of these was a proposal that governor’s wives be given offices, and that members of county assemblies (MCAs) wives be given allowances for being lonely when the MCAs are away serving the electorate! The third issue was news about the boat tragedy that happened in Budalangi in Western Kenya; a boat capsized in River Nzoia and six people died. By the third day after the event, the media brought to our screens images of villagers traversing the waters of River Nzoia in a boat, in a bid to find the bodies of missing members of their families. There was no sign of either the national or the county government coming to the rescue of the villagers who were left on their own to search for their missing loved ones. These three events may seem unrelated but they all help to bring out the bad attitude of our leaders towards the less fortunate members of society, yet the new constitution mentions human dignity and social justice as some of our national values. It seems that we are still stuck in our old ways of reasoning and doing things. If this is how leaders respond to tragic situations, we still have a long way to go before we can realize tangible changes from implementation of the new constitution. The new constitution was not just expected to devolve goodies to governors and the MCAs, but it was expected to bring services closer to the citizenry, to improve on efficiency and totally revolutionise governance at the local level. One other national value the constitution talks of is protection of the marginalized. But alas, this seems not to be happening. The MCAs and governors are still stuck in the old way of thinking, the ‘bwana mkubwa’ mentality. Yes, I do not refuse that MCAs and governors’ welfare needs to be catered for, but they seem to have forgotten why Kenyans decided to support the new constitution. One of the reasons was that they did not want leaders who load it over them, like the former provincial administration which was only answerable to the powers-that-be in Nairobi. Kenyans wanted elected leaders who were true servants of the people, leaders who were answerable to the people, not the demi-gods that we are now seeing. Compare the way the national and local leadership in Budalangi responded to the boat tragedy and how the administration responded to a situation in far away Canada. Just this past week, the media carried a story of a road accident that happened in Canada where a number of people were injured. The government immediately sent 6 choppers and a number of ambulances to the scene to rescue the injured. Mark you this was just a ‘normal’ accident on a well tarmacked road. To many Kenyans who watched this news item, this seemed extraordinary, a scene out of the movies. This could not be true! Yet, this is what any government worth its pay is supported to do for its citizens who find themselves in unfortunate situations, like the families in Budalangi. One can easily argue that this can only happen in the Western world or in the more developed nations because they have lots of resources. True, but again, it takes more than resources to respond to the needs of people. More than having resources, we need leaders who are compassionate and who can empathise with their people, especially when they find themselves in calamitous situations, like the Budalangi families who suffered loss in the boat tragedy. During the reign of former president Mwai Kibaki, one time a military helicopter was sent to Tanzania to rescue members of the Presbyterian Church of East Africa who were involved in a road accident on their way to Tanzania. If it happened then, it can happen again today. What we see happening today is very disheartening. We thought that a new constitution would compel our leaders to respond to peoples’ needs with a sense of urgency and compassion. Instead of governors, senators and MCAs asking for more money for themselves and their spouses, they should be coming up with ways of serving the citizens better. They should show what they have done with what was allocated to them first, before asking for more. What happened in Budalangi should never be allowed to happen in any civilized nation. How can leaders sleep easy when there are some among them who cannot sleep because the bodies of their loved ones are missing? Clearly, we need leaders with compassion to breathe life into the new constitution.