Nakuru politician Koigi wa Wamwere in a past media interview. [Photo: standardmedia]
Nakuru veteran politician Koigi wa Wamwere is urging President Uhuru Kenyatta to leave a good legacy in his second term in office.
Koigi, who decamped from Jubilee after losing the Nakuru senator nominations in the party, said though he did not vote for Uhuru, he wants him to succeed.
He has refered the president to the Bible where it is replete with good and bad leaders.
Koigi reminds Uhuru of the story of King Rehoboam who took over kingship from his father, King Solomon.
After Rehoboam assumed the reigns of power, people who were critical of his father’s rule, led by an opposition leader Jeroboam went to see the young King with a prayer of lessening the burden of his father’s rule.
After asking them to see him in three days, he asked for the advice of elders who told him to grant his people’s prayer. Thereafter, Rehoboam sought the advice of young men who counseled him to double his father’s tyranny. When delegation of the people returned in three days and Rehoboam said he would treat them worse than his father, 10 tribes seceded and only 2 tribes – Judah and Benjamin – remained under him. Koigi wants to Uhuru to learn from the Bibilical story and leave a good legacy.
In a long facebook post, Koigi gave six lessons Uhuru should emulate:
"First, while it is good for a leader to give his or her people audience, it is better to grant their prayer wherever he can. Refusing to lessen people’s burden out of arrogance, malice, whimsical or dictatorial tendencies can have dire consequences. Two, a president always ought to keep in mind that when people ask for democracy and good treatment instead of dictatorship, it is wisdom to give them what they ask for rather than terror and oppression. People will rebel when they ask for liberty and they are given tyranny. Three, a president should treat his people well, not because people have asked to be treated so but because it is the business of leadership to treat them so. When a president insists on treating people with terror and oppression, that’s a recipe for secession.Four, as no president is all wise and never needs advice, when a president seeks advice, he must get it from people with best intentions, enough experience and education from which to draw wisdom and advice. Five, when a president needs advice and has to choose getting it from either youth and elders, it is better to give preference to the advise of elders but supplement it with that of youth. Six, whoever he is, we ask the president to do well not just for people’s own benefit but for his own legacy as well. In the final term of a president not to think of legacy will not only sabotage presidency but also his service to people. The best governance comes from leaders who are worried about legacy, an ambition that propels them to work harder for the people, " Koigi wrote.
He however fears that there are bad advisors within the Jubilee system that might mislead Uhuru.
"There are people, well placed in the system, government and hierarchy of the ruling party who urge president to rule Kenya through dictatorship, oppression and disregard of people’s interests, just like the young advisers of King Heroboam," he added.