Accidents vs Substance…, The first time I wrote this, I was in a  sole searching mission. But in the wake of Kenyan Election, Election Petition and call for a re run, I believe I need to remind call us to pause for a moment and do some self evaluation on why we are doing what we are doing, why we are supporting who we support, why we are crying foul or celebrating.

“There are two aspects of each and every thing on this world, living or non living, the accidents and the substance. Accidents are those parts of us that we can live without, the things that appertain to us, not by intention or necessity, a nonessential property or quality of an entity or circumstance; for instance, a hand, a leg, an eye, a kidney, the language we speak, the country we were born in, our culture, our names, among others. Substance is a fundamental or characteristic part or quality, that which defines us, that which makes us us, that which makes timber timber, or a cow a cow, without which it would be a carcass and we would be corpses. That which when we lose we are baptized other names instantly, I cease being Judy, Caroline, Duncan or Eric, we become “The late” or “Marehemu”. It is the same principle that William Shakespeare applied when he wrote a “Rose by any other name would smell as sweet” in Romeo and Juliet.

I have asked myself severally why we keep voting the way we vote, and now that we have a chance to vote our presidency once more if we will vote the same way. If the name Uhuru and the tribe Kikuyu was removed from him, and we made him nameless, or replaced the name with Ekwueme, and his running mate we called him Agwoturumbe; then attached their CVs and their leadership history, the corruption scandals bedeviling their leadership regime, their own personal scandals, would we still vote them in? Would we still be willing to shed some blood, and lose our numerous friendships because we are their staunch supporters? If we removed their accidents, would their substance suffice?

If we assume that Raila was called Emenike and his running mate Elechi, would they still arouse the emotions they are? Would we still fight wars for them? If their accidents were removed, would we still be supporting them, regardless of their history?

Those of us who were celebrating the presidential win, was it because they represent the values we want in a Kenyan leadership or was it solely because of the accidents they have? If we were to swap Uhuru with Raila, complete personality swap, assume that they posses whatever the other party does, would it be the same, If Raila had been head of state for five years, with the track record present, he campaigns as Uhuru did, etc,  would things remain the same, or we would recoil at our choices? Those of us who were disappointed, was it because of Rail’s accidents or because of the values that he would have introduced to the leadership of this country, or the hope that he presented for the nation? Did we go to the streets because he is Raila or because he is the kind of leader that this nation wants at this point but seemingly been denied by the structural failures of our systems? Does he present hope for our nation as a leader or it is just the luoness in him that is irking us?

Leadership can be defined s a process whereby an individual effectively and ethically influences a group of individuals to achieve a common worthwhile goal. This leadership, as per the Catholic church, must be guided by and be consistent with Religious doctrinal teachings. It lays importance on the following values: Solidarity, Family, Dignity of human life, Option for the poor, Dignity of work and rights of workers and Care for God’s creation. The bible has many verses on leadership, but I will just highlight a few, “It is an abomination for kings to commit wicked acts, For a throne is established on righteousness(Proverbs 16:12)”; “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up (Galatians 6:9)” “whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant(Mathew 20-26)”, “not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others(Philippians 2:4)”,”Now the overseer is to be above reproach, faithful to his wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach (1 Timothy 3:2)”, “Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you (John 13:17)”, among many other examples. What are we looking for really? An upright leader of good moral standings, a leader who is impartial, a humble leader, a leader who looks out for the interest of others, a person faithful to his or her family, self controlled respectable and hospitable, a servant leader. 

We lay so much importance to our accidents; especially in our Kenyan political arena we forget what really counts when we are looking for leadership. The language we speak is so important we are willing to fight every electioneering year since the dawn of Multiparty elections in 1992. We are so attached that we can never define our substance, neither can we define the substance of the leadership we seek.

All of us will go or have gone for interviews. What leadership values do employers seek? Assuming we were CEOs and their CVs were dropped on our in-trays, if we would not employ any of them for whatever short comings, then we are cheating ourselves twice by electing them as our leaders.

We the electorate are the CEOs and we are hiring. What are the leadership values that we are looking for as a nation? Their CVs public or otherwise are in our in-trays now. We have been given a second chance to interview them and appoint the president a new. What do we want? Is it integrity? Is it Accountability? Honesty? Commitment? Dedication to electorate? Transparency? Impartiality? Confidence? Passion? Innovation? Even as we seek to vote the lesser evil (which is ridiculous) what criteria are we using to evaluate? Accidents or Substance?

We have another chance, to interrogate ourselves more than the we need to interrogate the persons vying for presidency, know what we really want, then express that desire in the ballot.