from odhiambo okecth

A Presentation by Odhiambo T Oketch to the International Young Leaders Summit 2010 at KICC Nairobi on 18th November 2010 at about 5.00pm

Ladies and Gentlemen from all across the world, it is my pleasure to share with you my thinkings on the role of young leaders in promoting Ethics, Integrity and Good Governance in the world today.

I will start from a very simple premise; the universal age limit to voting rights. It is all agreed in many countries that the limit to voting rights is pegged at age 18. This means that all who are 18 and above have that ineliable right to voting for people of their choice. This means also that they can choose to vote for old men and women or vote for young men and women.

By pegging the voting rights to start at 18 means that all young persons have been given all the rights that they have been yearning for. We have a plethora of many youth movements making all sorts of noise begging that they should be given this and that; that they are marginalized and they are not sitting at the right decision making bodies.

This can never be true. What else do the young people need apart from voting for people of their choices. Once you vote for people of your choice, it means that you have the kind of fair representation you have been yearning for. But what do the young people do with their votes? They vote in the same old and tired leadership that we have been saddled with all across the world. The only exception was in the United States of America where both young and old voters came together to vote in a young leader in the name of Barrack Obama.

If I zero in on Kenya, the voting population in the current voters register of persons between the ages of 18 and 35 constitute a massive 65% of all the registered voters. This reflects to 11.6 million young voters in the register. With this power, should you mourn and whine and beg? No. You must only troop to the voting booths and cast your ballot to that person of your choice and live with the consequences of your action.

But what do young people do with their votes in Kenya? They vote for known thieves who have raped Kenya repeatedly; They vote for known thieves who have stolen and ran down our State Corporations; They vote for pimps and charlatans whose stock in trade are of dubious standing; They vote for men and women who can never express themselves in public forums; They vote for men and women who are too tired to lead; They vote for men and women whose background we all do not admire, and they vote for the highest bidder.

It does not matter what the character of the said leader is. What matters to the young voters is the money he gives them for now. This is the sad reality that we have obtaining in Kenya now. And yet, we have a plethora of forums that pretend to be talking on behalf of the youth!

In Kenya, youth leadership is in a crisis. Just like adult leadership has led us nowhere in the last 47 years. We have men and women who are perpetually youth. They have been youth leaders for ever. They have been youth leaders for the last 47 years, and they still pretend to talk for the youth.

Now, with the benefit of age limit at 18, with the benefit of history and with the benefit of exposure, we can all rally together to interrogate the quality of people we propel to national leadership, be it in the political sphere, economic sphere, social and religious. They are all leaders in their own rights. We are given an opportunity every 5 years to put into political office men and women who can drive our national agenda, but we fail miserably in all those 5 years.

I will take you down memory lane. Those who fought for our Independence besides Mzee Jomo Kenyatta and Jaramogi Oginga Odinga were men and women of youthful ages. Many were in their 20s and 30s. They had the youthful drive that was meant to rid Kenya of Poverty, Ignorance and Disease. But with the benefit of hindsight, we have not rid Kenya of these vices, and these men are still firmly in office, 50 years since they first happened on the scene. And we are the ones who vote them back into political office every 5 years. And we daily talk of ethical leadership, leaders of integrity and the catch phrase good governance is in town!

These leaders never impose themselves on us. We elect them.

Just to start winding up. What do we have to show for the past leadership in Africa in the last 50 years? I get mad when our leaders who are supposed to have inspired us to greater heights are the ones who keep asking us about what happened to Africa. They keep comparing us to the Asian Tigers, saying that at Independence we were at par with most of those Asian Countries. And they ask as if we are fools. And we vote them back to ofcie for asking us what we should be asking them!

Who should ask who what? Is it us who should be asking them where they have led us to, of is it them who should be asking us what happened? They are leaders that led Africa to be the proverbial Dark Continent.

We have the chance and the time is now for young leaders to start emerging. It is time we started interrogating the ethical values of all those whom we elect into positions of leadership. It is time we elected leaders of known moral values; people of integrity; people who can move Africa to catch up with the world. Not leaders who will keep mourning about what happened.

Let us unite and put into office leaders who will promote peace as captured in this Global Peace Convention 2010. Let us put into office leaders who will have respect for human life, not leaders who assassinate competition. Many bright sons of Africa have been such eliminated by people we vote for every 5 years.

Let us interrogate the backgrounds of leaders we put into office. We have the numbers and we have the voters cards. Let us stop whining and complaining. Let us stop removing the youth from the mainstream, the law is so clear; all who are above 18 have voting rights.

Let us role our sleeves and stop advancing theories. Theories are taught in institutions of higher learning just to equip you with what you need in your future. Let us live that future now. No More Theories. Let us Move From Talking to Tasking as we Stay with the Issues in the full knowledge that we are One Family Under God.

God bless us, God bless Africa and God bless the world.