Sifuna's promise: Leadership that listens and answers to the people

Edwin Sifuna’s speech offers Kenya something more substantial than another declaration of political ambition. It presents a standard against which leadership should be judged: ideas, programmes, accountability and service. His promise to listen, consult, explain decisions and correct mistakes addresses the central failure of our politics.

Too many leaders seek the people’s votes, then treat the people’s questions as an inconvenience. Sifuna is proposing a different relationship between citizens and those entrusted with public power.

One thing I know about Sifuna is that he means what he says and says what he means. That is my assessment of a politician whose public interventions have repeatedly placed the common mwananchi at the centre of political debate.

In a country where positions can change with the offer of office, consistency matters. Citizens need leaders whose convictions survive inconvenience, pressure and the temptation to exchange public responsibility for personal advancement. That credibility cannot be purchased through publicity or inherited from a party position. It grows when citizens see the same principles defended in difficult moments, even when powerful allies would prefer silence.

The most consequential sentence in his speech concerns the end of the leader who claims expertise in everything. Kenya cannot be governed competently through one person’s certainty.

A president cannot possess all the knowledge required to manage healthcare, education, agriculture, public finance and national security. Leadership requires the capacity to assemble expertise, listen carefully and make reasoned decisions. When advisers become praise singers and ministers become spectators, government loses its ability to identify and correct failure.

 Listening is therefore a practical requirement of good government. A farmer understands problems that may escape a minister. A nurse knows when a healthcare reform is failing patients. A small trader experiences the consequences of taxation before they appear in an official report. Young people know the humiliation of searching for work without success. Consultation brings these experiences into decision-making. It helps government understand what its policies actually do to the people expected to live with them.

Sifuna’s pledge to explain policies is equally significant. Kenyans deserve to know what a government proposes, what it will cost, who will benefit and how success will be measured.

Public resources belong to citizens. Leaders must therefore explain borrowing, spending and contractual commitments in language people can understand. Accountability begins before money is spent and continues after promises are made. A government that demands trust while withholding explanations undermines the very confidence it asks citizens to give.

His willingness to acknowledge mistakes deserves particular attention. Our political culture too often confuses stubbornness with strength. A failed policy becomes a matter of presidential pride, and citizens are forced to bear its consequences because someone cannot admit error.

There is courage in changing direction when evidence demands it. A leader who corrects a mistake protects the public. One who conceals it protects an image. Kenya needs institutions where honest advice is welcomed and failure triggers correction.

Sifuna’s support for young protesters gives this message substance. During the 2024 protests, he publicly conveyed support for the youth and condemned violent suppression, deaths and abductions. That record matters because political courage is tested when citizens are vulnerable and speaking carries a cost. His voice helped affirm that young Kenyans deserved to be heard. They were asking questions about taxation, opportunity and government conduct that every responsible leader should have taken seriously.

The Gen Z movement also belongs to the young people who organised it, sustained it and bore its consequences. Their courage cannot become the property of any politician. A leader earns their confidence by defending their rights and giving them meaningful influence over policy.

Sifuna’s commitment to listening must therefore include space for young people to disagree with him. Their participation should shape decisions, party structures and leadership choices, rather than merely supply energy to campaign rallies.

Justice for those killed, injured or abducted must remain a national demand. Families deserve truth, credible investigations and prosecution wherever evidence establishes responsibility.

President Ruto’s administration must answer for its handling of protests and its response to allegations of unlawful violence. Those who committed crimes, ordered them or unlawfully enabled them must face accountability through independent institutions.

An election victory should strengthen that process, ensuring that political influence cannot shield anyone from scrutiny or substitute revenge for justice.

Sifuna is consequently a man to watch. His clarity, courage and connection with ordinary citizens could make him an important force in the movement for political change. But the promise of his speech must become an organisational discipline: transparent finances, democratic nominations, credible programmes and respect for dissent. The opposition must show how it would govern differently. It must also build the unity required to turn public dissatisfaction into a peaceful electoral mandate for reform.

Kenya’s future will depend on citizens judging leaders by conduct as well as eloquence. Sifuna has articulated principles worthy of serious support, and he should welcome being measured against them. For me, his consistency gives reason for confidence.

The task ahead is to make those convictions work through institutions that outlast individuals. Kenyans deserve leadership that listens without resentment, serves without arrogance and answers questions without insults. That is the promise in this speech. Delivering on it would change our politics.