Inescapable challenges for Kenya’s new leader

The Importance of History has been highlighted for many years in classrooms, and in the many languages that we poses as a people of Kenya. Clearly more than the presidency, this is the greatest challenge that Kenyan President elect Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta faces. I understand that It will be unfair for me to underpin his glory and reduce his personality to that of  50 years ago. But the heroes were not heroes before they became heroes.

History tells us that after complete independence from the British Jomo Kenyatta, Uhuru Kenyatta’s father, was a very generous distributor of the land that was left back by the British to the political class. He surely did extend his generosity to himself and now the families greatest asset is land and Uhuru Kenyatta is now the richest man in Kenya, according to the forbes magazine.  One of the greatest issues in the land now is to implement the land reforms as the new constitution requires and this will mean that, all land that was acquired in this means should be given back to state and redistributed.

Some might say that this is not a problem of his but that of his father, I do not dispute both sides of the coin. In addition to the coin metaphor I need a president who is not immune to the rule of law. He is to implement these reforms and he is to abide by them. This was to be the challenge of the new presidency because the past has failed to see this through. Fate chose him and fate has to take course in accordance with the law. However, this is not all just hold onto your seats, and put your heads on a swivel because they’ll spin.

The presidency of Uhuru is under investigation as his opponent Raila Odinga of Cord coalition bluntly puts it. He claims that deep in the forces of the failure of the electronic voting system lay powers that favoured Uhuru to win. This is yet to be ruled by the High Court of Kenya. As a close competitor I would be worried as well but we seem no to be digesting the news properly. The new electoral commission is completely independent from the government and this failure can be called by its name, failure. Instead of being named a ‘ghost project’. It also seems to me when we are dealing with such deep powers we need spiritual intervention rather than the court of law. This expresses my view point on this case though I have to admit that I do not know what evidence Hon. Raila has on his hands but it has to go beyond the metaphors and has to be really convincing. It will be too soon to count the chickens before they hatch for the new leader.

This is yet to be decided in the court of law of Kenya.

But we cannot mention courts without trying to grapple with the fact that Uhuru and his running mate William Ruto have been indicted by the International criminal court (ICC) for crimes against humanity during the 2007 elections. This is just one too many issues for a new president and he is to appear before the court in July. Turns out that he will be leading a 40million people country, with 40% unemployment levels and a very commendable economic growth in courts. This was surely not his time and we may wonder how he managed to be one of the candidates and pushed his way through to win. Kenya has an integrity commission and all institutions that a democracy needs. That remains to be another topic to be scrutinized later. What I know is that this is another failure this new president ought to correct.

As mind spinning as it is he has no choice but to abide and yet still charm us by leaving us with a brand new legacy of our time. He has to keep the torch burning and continue with the pat attraction of foreign direct investment and maintain beautiful Kenya’s pride. Do not be deceived however, every statesman in every nation state has his challenges.