We must hold our leaders into accountable

Harry S Truman, the 33rd president of the US had on his desktop a sign that read ‘the Buck Stops Here’. It meant the president has the right to make decisions for the country and accept the ultimate responsibility for the decisions. His simple philosophy was, if you can’t stand the heat, then you better get out of the kitchen.
This is the kind of initiative we lack or rarely see in our leadership systems. We are lame in development because there is no goodwill from the men and women to whom we have entrusted the responsibility to make decisions that affect our lives.
It’s funny how the leaders never worry that the new Constitution allows us to move to court, to file suits against their wanting performance. Should we win, it would send them packing. Their greed surpasses understanding.
However, the leaders must now understand the days when they could come to us with a Sh50 note to ‘buy’ our vote are long gone.
Kenyans now understand better how to differentiae between performing and non-performing leaders.
 
Improve situation

 For instance, Nairobi’s Eastleigh area has one of the worst infrastructures yet it’s a leading business hub. It is the route you would not want to invest your brand new matatu in. The roads to Eastleigh often scare investors away. Amazingly, our ‘turn-to-eat’ crop of leaders never see the need to improve the situation.
If the buck must stop somewhere, then Government must devise ways to harvest floodwater in Budalang’i and use it for irrigation in Ukambani to save lives in both areas. You may think it’s impossible. But if Government constructs a pipeline to transport oil from Mombasa to Kisumu, then, given the required goodwill, it surely can construct tunnels or irrigation pipes from Lake Turkana to the nearest vicinity of Turkana residents.
This is why we must hold our leaders into accountability. A good leadership must first feed its population.
It’s not morally good to expect food donations from Egypt, or Libya, countries, which are prone to drought. Kenya is blessed with fertile land for agriculture. It only requires individuals to decide policies and implement them to stabilise food prices for the common man.
It sickens me to see food prices skyrocket here while in Japan, with poorer arable lands, the prices there are more stable.
Asked the same question Ronald Reagan asked Americans during his 1980 presidential campaign; "Are you better off than you were four years ago?" I would give a big no answer.
Arguably, four years ago, before the Grand Coalition was born, life was much better and prices of basic commodities fairer. I wonder, are we suffering today because the Government has paid more technocrats and thinktanks to work out on how to make our lives more reasonable?
Joblessness 
To turn around, our leaders must get priorities right. For instance, there is nothing as poisonous as having educated but jobless youth in a society. Our education systems must change. We have scarcity of engineers and instead of training our own, we keep importing experts to expand or maintain our infrastructure.
However, if our leaders can’t stand the heat, let them get out of the kitchen.
{Chweya Iteba, Nairobi}