Acquisition, appointment and or promotion to a government position in Kenya is characterized by nepotism, favoritism and ethnicity disenfranchising many who would wish to work in government. This is further aggravated when a non-state actor or sector seeks partnership to work a government department of officers for the common good of the community. It hasn’t been easy for Midrift either with challenges of getting public officers onboarded in the leadership programme. This speaks a lot about government officials’ mindset and perceptions about leadership and willingness to participate in community work. While PBLD is largely expected to be a catalyst for change, it is not possible for the co facilitators to fuel change and leadership transformation across place (Njoro Sub County) and sector without bringing on board government officials. Ahead of the General Election, the need for more committed, more involved and more effective leaders is undoubtedly a fundamental requirement across board, not only to mitigate electoral violence but also to promote sustainable peace building processes.
Immediately a call for applications for an assistant chief for a sub-location in Njoro was released, the Njoro cohort lead PBLD facilitator decided to take up the challenge. As he applied for this post, he knew pretty well that it wasn’t easy getting the job with government recruitment processes. Balancing his leadership influence as a Place Based Leadership Development facilitator over government shortcomings, he applied the PBLD philosophy and the tenets of practice to demonstrate his suitability as an area chief winning against 11 others shortlisted and interviewed for the same post.
As he shared, he was able to apply the eight tenets of practice during the interview. PBLD enabled him to explore levels of self-awareness, by undertaking self-assessments to develop his leadership skills that he used to justify why he was suitable to be appointed as the sub location assistant. He expressed how he hopes to create a narrative of collective leadership within this area working with the people and not for the people, identifying leaders at the grassroots and tapping their strength among others.
In the current competitive environment, leadership and commitment are highly recognized as the key assets of high-performance. The facilitator’s appointment as the area assistant chief is a reinforcement to the efforts by the five groups of Peace Crusaders initiative, Amani group, Peace ambassadors, Game Changers and Peace makers to intensify their work with goodwill from one of them in ensuring ideals of place based leadership for violence prevention in Njoro is sustained.
