AUSTERITY THE WAY TO GO

Since the four-day cabinet retreat headed by President Uhuru Kenyatta at the Mount Kenya Safari Club in Nanyuki, austerity and cutting government expenditure on salaries has been the hottest air around. The president and his deputy, William Ruto have led the way; a 20% cut from their salaries. The cabinet secretaries are in with a 10% chop. The trend is extending across the civil service. The president warned those in government offices too unwilling to chop off their fat wallets that they should start looking for these lavish salaries in other organizations! 

Austerity is the word and now the Jubilee government under the watch of President Uhuru, has decided to cut down the staggering figures that are used as salaries for our public servants. According to the Sarah Serem-led Salaries and Remuneration Commission, we use Ksh 500 billion to cater for our public service wage bill annually! This is a staggering 50% plus of the total revenue collection by the government. As a result, the development projects are greatly fizzled out by the mind-boggling wage bill. We simply work to pay salaries!

But perhaps, this move is akin to just treating the malaria symptoms instead of the doctor going the whole hog and administering the painful medication that includes, bitter pills and the painful injections. Simply call it, choosing the painful way to kill off the malaria! Back to this serious business of the public wage bill. We have tough decisions to take and almost unpalatable choices that must be taken. Allowances must be drastically reduced or chopped off all together and the toughest of them all, political offices and posts must be trimmed down. A national referendum offers us a way of reducing these posts and offices. Our county assembly members, women representatives, members of parliament, senators and governors are simply too many. But, the naysayers should not accuse me of fighting devolution, no. It is just a means of making devolution more efficient. We can have lesser county units and constituencies too, reduce on the expenditure and improve the efficiency of our devolution.

Perhaps we should scrutinize this; over 300 members of parliament, 47 women representatives, 47 Governors, 47 Senators, members of our county assemblies,  the county secretaries, the outrageous spending by some governors to acquire their official cars and numerous trips abroad apparently to enhance their brains on this devolution thing. They have their backroom staff too. There is also the hard truth that we find uneasy to discuss; that there is over-employmentnewsdesk@ke.nationmedia.com nairobinews.co.ke and duplication of duties, both at the central and county governments. Back to the central government and a keen eye once more on its expenditure. Entertainment allowance, house, foreign trips and all manner of allowances are some of the perks that our cabinet secretaries and parastatal chiefs enjoy. Compare this with our neighbors Rwanda, whereby ministers are only facilitated to buy their official cars and the rest including drivers and maintenance is upon them, then you just realize how wasteful we are with our resources.

It is clear even to the hoi-pollois in the streets of Nairobi and the villages in the Kenyan countryside that, public service is all about enjoying the perks and the trappings that come with it. It is hardly due to the patriotic good-will to serve and improve the Kenyan society. Perhaps some of the leadership parables that portray leadership posts as a yam, cake or loaf of bread among others are all too common in political talk. Most of those eyeing the posts, either elective of appointment, see them as the perfect opportunity to eat, loot and get a mansion in Runda or Karen. The paradox of political leadership in Kenya!

Many have warned that this monster of a wage bill is taking us down the Greece road, if not checked before the day-break! The president has taken a bold step and the entire nation should rally behind him. Austerity is no rocket-science and we do not need a commission to sit, eat unnecessary allowances while deliberating and giving us findings on how to slay this monster of ballooning salaries in the public service!

THE ILL LUST FOR MONEY!

It is the craze for money that now runs deep in our veins! But even before I go further, we all agree that we dream big; living lavish lives where lack no longer defines our daily lives. It is acceptable to the human nature that we all strive to better our lives and make a better tomorrow. This strong will by Kenyans to get rich must be complimented because it moves our nation and the future looks bright. However, there are times when this craze for money goes a notch higher to a level where it stinks! It is getting rich by all means, no matter the destruction that you leave in your wake!

Money is all you need, no matter how you acquire it. This is a society that worships money and wealth, regardless of how you get there. At times, men and women like me in our higher institutions of learning and also our so-called hustlers, at times we feel guilty for lacking in chums. In this country, it is the size of your wallet that talks the loudest, despite the fact that we all pretend that it does not. With money, you can pull yourself out of any tight corner with the law enforcers, albeit illegally, and you can get any service that you wish to!

Along Koinange Street, Luthuli Avenues and now in some leafy suburbs of Nairobi, under the cover of darkness and at times under the tranquility of the day, under the guise of massage parlors the hustle for money goes a notch higher. Around the Simmerz Club along Kenyatta Avenue whenever lights beam the city, the trade gets clearer. Those who claim to be morally correct can get chocked to death at the site of females skimpily dressed, soliciting for sex from whoever gets tempted enough! Those in the trade justify it by giving us that cliché that jobs are hard to come by in this republic. Even honest and morally sound ways of earning money are now hard to get!

Sex is traded for money and all manner of Kenyans and even foreigners play the game; the married, college/university ladies and men, salaried and casual laborers and the big men and women of the society are deep in the web! To some it is a form of employment under the cliché that, jobs are now hard to come by and economic times are at an all-time hard.

Our pastors have coined the ‘panda mbegu’ initiative. Courtesy of this latest ‘innovation’ by members of the cloth, Kenyans can get all manner of spiritual needs attended to! Miracles to overnight richness, cures to chronic diseases, domestic fights, success in education, securing jobs and now a confirmation to whether one’s name is in the Book of Life, are all happening! Churches have been turned to money-minting endeavors whereby religious fanatism has replaced the sobriety that Jesus Christ instilled in the church! Pastors are apparently performing miracles to cure all sorts of afflictions that Kenyans are faced with! Churches and tents for worship are springing up in all corners of the city! Gospel of prosperity is the definition by most of these pastors, never mind that they are suffocating both willing and desperate Kenyans, by the panda mbegu scheme! But this church game is an endeavor of willing parties, and money is at the root of it all!

It is the greed and unquenchable thirst for money by our pastors and fellow Kenyans that has given birth to some unprecedented fanatism in the name of spreading the holy Gospel. Even in our mosques, radicalization has slowly seeped in, at the exchange of some little coins. Even some sheikhs have admitted it that it is indeed taking place and our youths are easily lured into, due to the moneyed-benefits that come with it. Now, when you see that our places of worship are under siege from the lust for money and sanity is slowly disappearing through their windows, then the nation is in deep trouble!

Our politicians are money-bags and the loudest shouts belong to the deepest pockets! They dish out money during the campaigns and in exchange we give them our votes! They get the opportunity to loot the public coffers and get ready for the next elections! Accusations of money laundering and even drug-related deals have not once but severally been linked up to part of our political class, yet we give them our votes, all in the name of democracy!

As a nation, we kill our loved ones, turn holy pulpits into money-minting enterprises, con and shed innocent blood and other ill means, all in a bid to get rich! Yes, money even from the Biblical perspective is laden with evil-ways to get it. Remember, Judas Iscariot sold our savior for 30 pieces of silver! But then, there all always honest ways of hitting it big; sports, well paying and morally and legally correct jobs, lotteries and all. But a part of our society has chosen to walk the short and wrong route to riches! This is sickening, yet we all pretend not to see it!

We must always remain ambitious to get rich and improve our lives, but should be within the confines of morality and law. Let us not get chocked in our churches, mosques, and socio-political spheres of our lives. If we lose our sobriety to this lust and greed, then our tomorrow slowly dies in the noose capitalism. Our society tomorrow disappears into doubt, even though the republic grows old. Remember, a country exists only in a society!

The Kenyan society must remain sober in her quest to get rich and live the good lives. We should always respect and look up to Kenyans who make an honest living, but we too must scathe and speak against those of us who make dishonest and immoral money and blossom in riches! You work hard, smart and efficient if you wish, then you get the sweet results.

Let us not worship ill gotten money and riches!!

KIZUNGUMKUTI CHA UGATUZI!

Mengi yamesemwa kufuatia miswada miwili katika Mbunge ya Seneti, inayowalenga magavana na kwa lugha ya mtaani, ‘kuwatia adabu’. Lakini je, kunayo mengi ambayo wabunge na masenei hawawaambii wakenya?

Baada ya Gavana wa Kaunti ya Embu, Martin Wambora kutimuliwa mamlakani,vita hivi vimechukua mwelekeo mpya. Magavana wamekataa kufika mbele ya tume hii licha ya kutakiwa kufanya hivyo na ata kunena ya kwamba hawawajibiki kwa mbunge ya Seneti, mbali kwa mbunge za kaunti. Kwa upande mwingine, maseneti na wabunge wameahidi kuwatia adabu kwa kupitisha miswada ya:

                    :kuyaondoa mataji ya His Excellency,

                    :Kutopeperusha bendera ya taifa kwenye magari yao ya shughuli za kirasmi

                     kama magavana, kati ya mengine mengi. Swali ni je, haya yote ni uwajibikaji wa kikazi na kwa majukumu yao kikatiba?

Huku maseneta wakijitayarisha kujadili miswada hii, na kulingana na jinsi mambo yalivyo, kuipitisha, kama taifa na watu wake, tunafaa kujsahilii kimoyo, kuyawaza na kuamua kuhusu yote haya yanayofanyika katika ulingo wa kisiasa. Kunao mvutano baina ya magavana, maseneta na wabunge. Mbunge zetu katika kaunti zote 47, magavana na maseneta wanaomajukumu  makubwa kikatiba na kimaadili, ya kutekeleza, mbali sio kupigana vita visivyomfaidi mkenya wa kawaida.

Yafaa tujenge na kuinua kaunti zetu kupitia ugatuzi, jinsi ambavyo Gavana wa Machakos, Dkt. Alfred Mutua anafanya. Tusigatue ufisadi na uporaji wa mali ya uma kwa kisingisio cha kuuendeleza na kutetea ugatuzi.

Ugatuzi ni Baraka kwa nchi yetu, haswa katika maeneo ambayo yametengwa na kubakia nyuma kimaendeleo, kama vile eneo ya Kaskazini mwa Kenya kati ya maeneo mengine. Lakini yafaa tujihadhari na uongozi mbaya na usiowajibika, ufisadi uliokithiri, uporaji wa mali uma na mali asili, na pia siasa sisizofaidi mkenya wa kawaida huko mashinani. Ugatuzi ni baraka ukitekelezwa kwa njia ifaayo, lakini pia ni laana iwapo utatumiwa vibaya.

Maswala ya usalama, muundo msingi, hospitali na sekta yote ya afya, Nyanja ya masomo, ukosefu wa maji, uhaba wa chakula cha kutosha na mengineyo mengi anayoitaji mkenya wa kawaida na nchi yote kwa jumla, ni maradhi ambayo tiba yake ni ugatuzi.

Tufuate sheria, maadili mema na wajibu wa kila mmoja kwa nchi na watu wake, ili ugatuzi ujenge Kenya na pia tuyaafikie malengo ya Ruwaza ya 2030. Sote tu ndugu wakenya na kaunti zote 47 zikinawiri, bila shaka Kenya yetu itasonga mbele!

WILL THE KENYAN FOOTBALL SMILES COME BACK IN 2014?

The last time Kenyan football clubs tasted continental glory was back in 1987. The Peter Dawo led- Gor Mahia, popularly K’Ogalo ( House of K’Ogalo) won the then Mandela Cup Winners Cup, after defeating continental giants, Esperance Sportive De Tunis of Tunisia at a packed Moi International Sports Centre, Kasarani ( currently Safaricom Stadium Kasarani). Since then, apart from Kenya Breweries final loss to Daring Club Motema Pembe of The Democratic Republic of Congo, in the 1994 Cup Winners Cup, the glory days have slowly but surely been turned into constant disappointments and football heartbreaks.

Kenyan clubs have since turned into the continent’s whipping boys! Year-in year-out, our clubs bow out in the early rounds. Even the locally dreaded Gor Mahia and AFC Leopards have been boxed into the losing corner as clubs from across the continent teach them tough and bitter footballing lessons!

However, as the 2014 Continental season kicks off, our representatives in the continental assignments have everything to play for. Gor Mahia will fly the nation’s colors in the CAF Champions League and face US Bitam of Gabon in the first round. The first leg will be in Nairobi on Saturday 8 February 2014, with the return leg to be played in a fortnight in Libreville. The Presidents Cup Champions, AFC Leopards will clash with Ethiopia’s Defence Fc on Sunday, 9 February at the Nyayo National Stadium.

Both Gor Mahia and AFC Leopards enjoy the most following in the country, a near- fanatical fan-base. The two community-based clubs have always counted on the 12^th man to win their matches locally and this week-end, will be no different. The fact that the two clubs have enjoyed unrivalled rise and brightening of their football fortunes in the local action in recent years, will also come into play. On one hand, the participation of Ingw’e in the continental scene is indeed a timely reward for their fans that have been thirsty to see their blue and white submarine toast glory, besides a return back to the continental action. Come Sunday, and Isukuti beats should add the much-needed home support to defeat Defence Fc and make the return leg in Addis Ababa a mere formality.

On the other hand, the K’Ogalo faithful have all reasons to believe that their tam can match up to the continent’s best, and the best way to prove this is on Saturday, when the Bobby Williamson-led team comes up against US Bitam, in the continent’s most prestigious club tourney. Gor Mahia has also been the most consistent team in the local league, twice finishing as runners-up to both Ulinzi Stars and Tusker FC, before finally landing the champions tag in 2013. The belief in the team must be high due to these stellar performances in the local action.

Then, there is the monetary motivations and consequent psychological boost that players and the technical units at both clubs have enjoyed since Mumias Sugar Company and Tuzo, owned by Spin Knit Dairies handed hefty sponsorships packages to AFC Leopards and Gor Mahia respectively. It is no secret that players at these two clubs are among the best paid local footballers. Thus, with the salaries and allowance worries a thing of the past, the two clubs should put up on their best shows over the week-end and give their faithful fans, followers and supporters something to smile about.

www.futaa.com, https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/ktn/video/category/14/-sports‎ 

Continental action makes an early comeback to Nairobi this week-end, and both Ingw’e and K’Ogalo should make us proud. Harambee Stars gave the long-suffering football fans a perfect end to 2013 by winning the 2013 GOTV CECAFA Senior Challenge Cup. The onus is now on AFC Leopards and Gor Mahia to give us the perfect start to 2014!

THE CONTINENT WITH THE WEIRD DEATH FASCINATION!

As a continent, we might have a love story with death! Our continent has problems, unless I am the one with the problems. The cry of war seems to stir up some evil fascination amongst the continent’s people and her leaders! When the embers of war go out and fizzle in the Ivory Coast, Central African Republic is set ablaze. The fire spreads to other nations. In the mineral-rich Democratic Republic of Congo, war is a norm. The sound of gun-fire and missiles is the order of the day. This love for war has fast spread to Africa’s newest independent state, South Sudan. 

South Sudan has not known peace since the turn of the New Year.  The two main antagonists, former vice-president Riek Machar and the president, Salva Kiir have locked up in fierce power struggle.  One has accused the other of usurping the law and leading as he wants while the other has fired back by claiming that his challenger wants to taste power through undemocratic means! The two no longer are leaders of the oil-rich state, but are the honchos of the Dinka and the Nuer enclaves! What started off as an attempted coup d’etat by Machar-led forces has since degenerated into ethnic cleansing, pitting mainly the bigger Nuer and Dinka tribes. Sudanese have died in numbers and no one knows when the deaths will stop because the peace talks in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, have not offered us much hope.

Our very own Kenya tasted the bitterness of war and if what we saw and lived in from late December 2007 to February 2008, is what most of our brothers and sisters in these African countries go through, day and night, for years, then indeed we must thank our gods for saving us! Remember the infamous 1994 Rwandan genocide, where at least 800, 000 perished, mostly Tutsis as the ethnic cleansing pitted the majority Hutus against the minority Tutsis? Our continent and especially her leaders never learn.civil wars, coup d'etats and armed clashes define the race for power and natural resources. Millions of deaths are the results of these. yet we never learn!

Sadly, the civil wars and unrest that persist across the richest continent in natural resources are the curse of the very resources and power. From the oil-oozing Niger Delta in Nigeria, through the gold mines of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), to the oil wells in South Sudan, the greed for the resources has simply out-gunned the power of reason. For political power and control of the exploitation of our mineral resources, blood and death is never too far away here. Since the days of the Blood Diamonds in Sierra Leone that gave rise to the merciless child-soldiers of the late Foday Sanko  rag-tag military to the Late Jonas Savimbi-led UNITA rebels in Angola, the love for political power and minerals have indeed been Africa’s curse! Innocent African civilians, military men and women and rag-tag militia have died in their millions and others displaced, and painfully so.   

Call it the evil fascination with death! No matter how many die, we still carry on as though nothing happened. Sadly, our leaders must be brought to the table by the international community to help them solve matters at home!

This is Africa where blood smells sweet and death is a norm! Never mind that there are nations of the world where even the death of a single civilian draws an outcry from the public. To them, life is precious. In Africa this is never the case and neither will it be unless the continent is born anew!

LOOKING BACK, LOOKING AHEAD AT 50 YEARS!

The nation is still basking in the eerie of turning 50 years! Yes, half a century since we took charge of our destiny and determination, away from the yoke of colonization. At a packed Safaricom Stadium Kasarani (formerly Moi International Sports Centre, Kasarani), H. E President Uhuru Kenyatta led the nation in marking this auspicious event. Our first birthday since, the late Munyao Kisoi lowered the Union Jack and raised the Kenyan flag, atop Mt Kenya on December 12^th 1963!

Pomp and color best described the day! We let go of our daily troubles as a country and put on brave smiles that braved even the chilly weather around the country! Kenya had finally turned 50 in the year of Jubilee, under the Jubilee government! The day when Kenyans forgot tribalism and ethnicity and threw them into the gutter, their rightful home! Kenya shone brightly and stood tall, as the entire world joined us in the celebrations and world leaders trouped to Nairobi.

Indeed, as a nation we have come far, education, infrastructure, technology, democracy and economic well-being, among other spheres of life, Kenya has indeed grown. A country of multi-party democracy, access to elementary education and higher learning institutions has reached great heights, we have the Thika ultra-modern highway and our road infrastructure is by far the region’s best. We have adopted the democracy of accommodating divergent political views and opinions and our politics, even though greatly pronounced along tribal and ethnic overtones, have never led us to a civil war, unlike what most of the African countries are used to. We have grown into being the region’s economic hub and yes across the globe, Kenya has earned her respect.

However, as a country, celebrating 50 years, we have had the negatives that have hindered our efforts to make Kenya the country that our founding fathers and independence champions dream of. Poverty, ignorance and communicable diseases ail the country, half a century since her birth. Add corruption, negative ethnicity and tribalism, nepotism, plundering of the nation’s resources, divisive politics and the disgusting culture of impunity and you get the perfect reasons why most Kenyans at large, do not have much to show for and celebrate, 50 years down the line. These have been the Achilles heel that has held our country hostage.

It is at best ironical that as we mark 50 years of self-rule and determination, the very problems that we experienced at independence, are what we are still fighting. The jiggers that torment our brothers and sisters in parts of Central Kenya and other parts of the country are a shame. Kenyans have died of hunger in recent years, our marginalized Kenyans in the Northern Frontier still shed blood over water and pasture for their livestock, cattle rustling is not going away anytime soon, the girl child in the marginalized parts of Kenya is still faced with the chilling fangs of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), forced marriages at tender age and some outdated traditions still deny her access to education.  Poverty is biting even harder in the slums that have mushroomed in our cities, the cost of living has skyrocketed and basic commodities are slowly but surely becoming a strain for Kenyans who are falling deeper and deeper into poverty, with every dawn of the sun.

At 50, Kenyans have become disillusioned about this beautiful country. Pregnant with expectations as the sun rises, yet as night falls disillusion sets in. The daily hardships and challenges have almost chocked the spirit that lives in the hearts of Kenyans. From bad and divisive politics to unnecessary leadership wrangles in our county assemblies and power fights, Kenyans have just had to take in too much. Most of the leaderships have clearly failed and the politics of recycling are the order of the day. Those who failed to deliver while in office, camouflage and come with party clamor, and due to politics of euphoria, they get back to office.

As we jubilate and eerie at reaching the 50 years milestone, let us be true and patriotic to our nation. We have reasons to celebrate but again, we have daunting challenges and hurdles that besiege us. True love for our country demands that we must sit and objectively look at these two sides of our nation; the side of successes and the other one of failures. We must uphold the rights that we did to achieve these successes and even do more. On the other hand, it will be suicidal to ignore the failures and why they happened. This is the way to realize Vision 2030 and also make sure that in the next 50 years, we all have reasons to smile and be proud of our beloved nation!

We must appreciate our Harambee Stars for gifting us the perfect present as we marked our birthday. Their victory over Sudan, not only confirmed them as the region’s best, but also gave us all reasons that the African Nation’s Cup in 2015 to be held in Morocco, is a dream that is closer than ever. Apart from fan’s apathy especially in Nairobi, the team under Belgium tactician, Adel Amrouche, displayed some attacking football that we had never witnessed in recent years!

Happy Birthday Kenya!

ADIOS TATA!

BYE MANDELA! Screamed the Saturday Standard of December 7, 2013. Kenya through her media and leaders had paid tribute to the legendary statesman from South Africa. The Daily Mail captured it all in its headline, DEATH OF A COLOSSUS. The Sun, eulogized President of the World. The MDIBA, a television channel went on air since his death, solely eulogizing and paying tribute to Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, the father of the nation!

Politics and the sporting world once again came together, just as Tata had joined them in his life. The entire world and all her leaders paid tribute to the respectable man who lived up to every bit as a statesman. The sporting fraternity too paid to the man who was instrumental in ensuring that South Africa hosted the 2010 World Cup. Born in August 18 1918, he passed away on December 5 2013, at the glittering age of 95 years! He experienced the chills and horrors of the apartheid regime, fought them and united South Africans, away from the racial differences. The revered man, fondly referred to as Tata Madiba, the man is no more.

He was a unifier from the moment he walked out of prison; these are the words of fiery South African cleric, Archbishop Desmond Tutu. And yes indeed, Mandela exemplified this in his struggle to fight for the independence of South Africa, fight against apartheid and the fact that he united the country. He broke the racial lines that were the trademark of the apartheid regime! After 27 years in a prison on Robben Island, as a result of the ideals of freedom, equality and justice that he believed in  alongside other leaders like Walter Sisulu and Steve Biko among others, Mandela served only one term as president; from 1994-1999, then handed over power to Thabo Mbeki. Now this was humility and love for the nation. He chose not to cling on power as most African leaders do. Mandela did the complete opposite of the African trend whereby presidents hold on to power for as long as they breathe, not bearing in mind their ailing health and age!

Mandela was the enduring figure in the war against apartheid in his home country. A battle that he won and on his ascension to power, chose magnanimity over revenge, he forgave his oppressors.  Through him, the Rainbow nation was united and the apartheid was defeated. He dismantled the legacy of apartheid by tackling racism, poverty and inequality and fostered reconciliation of the black and white races. This set South Africa on the right footing to development and better lives for her citizens.The African son who believed in the cause of a better Africa for all.

From the Rivonia treason trial in 1964, where Mandela delivered a moving speech from the dock about ‘this struggle by the African people for a free and equal society, where all people had equal opportunities and lived in harmony. Later, these words captured from another speech … an ideal that if need be, my Lord, I am prepared to die for……,  showed the resolve by this man in his quest for a better South Africa. He was defiant and prescient, even as the shadow of death loomed so near every second of his bitter and treacherous fight for his ideals and cause.

Mandela chose to live his better part of life in trying to make his country better for all, and break the inequities that were so pronounced along the racial lines. Out of his 95 years alive, Mandela lived only 22 as a free man! And yes indeed, Mandela won this battle, however in a journey that was gruelling and even earned him the tag of the most famous political prisoner of his time.

In the sporting sphere, a year into his presidency, the South African rugby national team, The Springboks, won the 1995 Rugby World Cup, at their first attempt as a unitary state. A red-hot Jonah Lomu-inspired All Blacks lost to a Mandela- inspired Springboks.  President Mandela was on hand to the Ellis Webb trophy to the then South African captain Francois Pienaar. Three years later, the national soccer team, Bafana Bafana (The Boys) won the African Nations Cup, in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. …Sport laughs in the face of all discrimination’, Mandela once said. Truly incredible performances from a nation that was barely ten years old as a democracy! South Africa was fast blossoming in politics, social and sporting spheres!

However, as we join the entire world in mourning the death and celebrating the life of this legendary statesman, we need to revisit the leadership lessons that he taught us.

After a 27-years incarceration on Robben Island, Tata came into power in 1994. But he did one incredible and unique act of leadership. He chose to forgive the very tormentors who had made his life hard alongside other freedom fighters like Walter Sisulu and Steve Biko, among others. He chose magnanimity and humility in his five years of presidency and broke the bitter racial lines that South Africans had known. This is what African leaders should look into and break away from the nepotism, ethnicity and politics of division that they hold onto while in power. This would be a giant step in curing the African leadership of these ills of division that they sow with unyielding determination.

He chose to hand over power after just one term in office! This is perhaps the greatest legacy of the Mandela leadership that most African presidents have dismally fallen. Relinquishing the trappings of power, after just a term in office, despite the bitterly painful struggle and fight against apartheid and colonisation, is simply incredible!  It is only in Africa where we have presidents for life! They hold onto power for decades and abhor any sign of change. Political intimidation and constitutional violations are two key weapons that they use to cling on power. This is done at the expense of a nation’s peace and the social-political and economic well-being of the citizens. This high office is mainly used for personal and selfish gains. As a result, African is lagging this behind in development due to these poor leadership patterns; a continent that is the richest in natural resources. Mandela set the ball rolling in the right direction but successive leaderships across the continent have lost the plot.

As a continent, very rarely have African presidencies adhered to these great virtues of responsible leadership and service to humanity that Tata Madiba taught us, all through his struggle and then in his one-term presidency. The greatest respect to Tata would be for the African leaders to follow in his footsteps of leadership. That way, Africa would get back on that track that Mandela, Mwalimu Nyerere, Mzee Jomo Kenyatta and Kwame Nkrumah, among others envisaged as they waged the battle to attain self-determination and a better continent for all her sons.

You will always achieve more in this world through acts of mercy than you will through acts of retribution’’ Nelson Mandela once said on revenge.

Rest in Peace Tata Madiba.