Are you the leader Kenya is looking for?

Fellow Kenyans as we continue to reflect on the words and spirit of our national anthem, I am compelled to share with us what I believe comprises the kind of leaders our great nation needs to move forward.

This I quote and paraphrase (In Italics) from Leadership Author Dr. John C. Maxwell, in His book Developing the Leader within you (1993).

Kenya is in dire need of leaders;

Who use their influence at the right times and for the right reasons;

Who take a little greater share of the blame and a little smaller share of the credit;

Who lead themselves successfully before attempting to lead others;

Who continue to search for the best path and not the familiar one;

Who add value to the people and the organization (country) they lead;

Who work for the benefit of others and not for personal gain;

Who handle themselves with their heads and handle others with their hearts;

Who know the way, go the way and show the way;

Who inspire and motivate rather that intimidate and manipulate their followers;

Who live with people to know their problems and live with God in order to solve them;

Who realize that their dispositions (attitudes) are more important than their positions;

Who mold opinions instead of following opinion polls;

Who understand that an institution is the reflection of their character;

Who never place themselves above others except in carrying responsibilities;

Who will be as honest in small things as in great things;

Who discipline themselves so they will not be disciplined by others;

Who encounter setbacks and turn them into comebacks;

Who follow a moral compass that points in the right direction regardless of the trends;

Whose word is their bond;

This are true characteristics that any one desiring to lead this great nation should ascribe to. The advice of Charles Evans the late, a former Chief Justice of the United States of America, to the judges on 3 March 1939 comes in handy, " We are here not as masters but as servants, not to glory in power but to attest our loyalty to the commands and restrictions laid down in our sovereign, the comrades of this institution in whose name and by whose will we exercise our brief authority".

Let us all be firm in deciding who leads us but much more let us be this kind of a leader in our part of Kenya.

In Service to God and Country.

ARMS.