A few weeks ago, an article titled “Are student leaders a
reflection of our politicians?” captured the views of University students with
respect to leadership in general. Majority of whom expressed their reservation
when it came to both student leaders and national leaders. Rightfully so, the
feeling across the Country has for a long time been that of despair. That the
transformational leadership, the selfless servant leadership of the good old
days, seem to be behind us.
That, leadership today is all about capturing power for the
sole purpose of serving an individuals selfish interests. And that student
leaders only focus on how they will impress politicians for handouts and other
‘goodies’ that might be in the offing. This is not far from the truth.
But this topic has taken me down memory lane. Inside Taifa
Hall, one afternoon, where I was seated together with my first year classmates
awaiting a lecture. All of a sudden, a group of senior students dressed in sharp
suits would enter the hall - straight to the podium. It was campaign time! They
would speak one after the other, and the one who was vying for the SONU
chairman’s position would speak first. They were a team. And it so happened
that this team ended up clinching majority of the elective seats that year. This
team was headed by one DMK Kiogora, who then served as the SONU Chair – and is
today serving as a Hon. Member in the County Assembly of Meru – representing
Abogeta ward.
I never got a chance to interact with DMK during his term at
the University, but I was able to interact with him later at a different forum.
The AFRICA YOUTH LEADRSHIP FORUM (AYLF). On two occasions in my engagements
with the AYLF, I’ve heard DMK narrate a story. Of how when he was at the helm
of SONU, at a time when the Country was having the 2013 elections, he got two
urgent calls that he considered important. One asking him to join in an ongoing
political campaign in the Country that same day– definitely with all the
‘goodies’ that came with it. And the second call, from the Africa Youth
Leadership Forum asking him to appear for an engagement. Now, unlike what we
would consider to be the ‘norm’ with student leaders – rushing to engage with
politicians – for the sake of handouts, goodies, networks, access to tenders
among other self centered interests, DMK Kiogora chose to go the other way –
and went straight ahead to attend the engagement with AYLF.
I know by now you might be asking yourself, what is this
AYLF, that would make a SONU chair, shelve his Political ambitions just to go
for an engagement with them!
The Africa Youth
Leadership Forum (AYLF).
Anchored on servant leadership, AYLF engages both serving
and former student leaders through trainings, mentorships, and building of
sustainable friendships and communities. The vision is not only to transform
the style of student leadership as it is perceived today, but to also prepare
them for the leadership world that awaits them out there.
With programmes such as University Student Leaders Annual
gathering – that brings student leaders from across 7 East and Central African
Countries today, they get to share experiences, challenges as the AYLF imparts the
necessary tools that allows them subscribe to the servant leadership model.
And to further encourage servant leadership in our
Universities, the AYLF has the annual University Student Leaders Awards (USLA)
– that recognizes and awards student leaders who are demonstrating service to
their students. In this awards, students get to nominate a student leader from
their University who is more of a servant, than a boss. AYLF would then
shortlist a number and take them through trainings, while periodically conducting
interviews so as to narrow down to the final winners for the USLA awards.
As a former student leader myself, this year I was
privileged to sit in the final panel of judges who selected the best 4 servant
student leaders for the USLA awards 2019. And it was encouraging to see how
student leaders are today pushing on projects that serve both the students and
communities, while AYLF pumping in the needed resources to continue creating
the servant leaders in them.
The larger AYLF family today celebrates quite a number of
National leaders, who were previously student leaders and passed through the
hands of AYLF. From DMK Kiogora who is a Hon. Member of the County Assembly of
Meru, to Martine Moshisho Martin who is the Deputy Governor of Kajiado County,
and also Hon. John Kaguchia – Speaker of the County Assembly of Nyeri. Leaders
who subscribe to service. And not just service, but as demonstrated by Jesus
Christ in the Bible when he stated “For who is greater, the one who is at the
table or the one who serves? Is it not the one who is at the table? But I am
among you as one who serves”
Therefore, as much as there is despair out there about
student leaders, and national leaders, there still remains hope.
Written By: Jude Thaddeus,
A former
student leader and member of the AYLF family.
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