Today is World Soils Day, a day that was set aside to ‘focus atten­tion on the impor­tance of healthy soil and to advo­cate for the sus­tain­able man­age­ment of soil resources.’ Although this day is bare­ly cel­e­brat­ed by the mass­es, I would like to use it to draw atten­tion to the sym­bol­ic impor­tance of soil in the gov­er­nance of our coun­try. Just as soil anchors all the plants that we depend on for sus­te­nance, so does the elec­torate anchor all lead­ers that we depend on to gov­ern us and lead our coun­try to a bet­ter place. Just as soil ero­sion can desta­bi­lize plants and peo­ple, so can the ero­sion of val­ues from the elec­torate desta­bi­lize our entire nation. 

Our nation­al val­ues are enshrined in Arti­cle 10 of our Con­sti­tu­tion. They include patri­o­tism, nation­al uni­ty, human dig­ni­ty, equi­ty, social jus­tice, good gov­er­nance, integri­ty, trans­paren­cy and account­abil­i­ty. Arti­cle 10 is arguably the most impor­tant part of our con­sti­tu­tion because it con­tains the val­ues that anchor our very nation. 

In his recent State of the Nation Speech, Pres­i­dent Keny­at­ta made it clear that part of his speech was a report on the ‘mea­sures tak­en, and progress made in the real­iza­tion of our Nation­al Val­ues as defined by Arti­cle 10 of the Con­sti­tu­tion.’ His speech con­tained pow­er­ful gems that we should unearth, embrace and mul­ti­ply. In 2013, Kenya was Africa’s 12th wealth­i­est nation with a GDP of Ksh.4.74 Tril­lion. It has since grown to become the 6th wealth­i­est nation on the con­ti­nent with a GDP of 11 Trillion. 

We are wealth­i­er than nations like Tunisia, Ghana, and Botswana. There is of course a lot of room for improve­ment because mil­lions of Kenyans are not reap­ing the ben­e­fits of our increas­ing wealth. But that doesn’t mean that we can’t acknowl­edge and cel­e­brate our over­all eco­nom­ic progress. Indeed, our nation­al val­ues rec­og­nize the need for devel­op­ment to be inclu­sive and sus­tain­able. There­fore, it was most grat­i­fy­ing to note 

anoth­er recent mon­u­men­tal announce­ment by our Pres­i­dent that he will soon be con­ven­ing the first ses­sion of the Cli­mate Change Coun­cil. This Coun­cil will be the engine of cli­mate action in the coun­try. A recent report stat­ed that 85% of the glob­al pop­u­la­tion has been affect­ed by cli­mate change. This means 39 Mil­lion Kenyans are dis­tressed in one way or another. 

It is no won­der that the Cli­mate Agen­da was exten­sive­ly artic­u­lat­ed in the final com­mu­nique of the sev­enth devo­lu­tion con­fer­ence. The com­mu­nique com­mit­ted both lev­els of gov­ern­ment towards increased cli­mate fund­ing. Thanks to this, crit­i­cal cli­mate-resilient action like wide­spread irri­ga­tion will be clos­er to real­i­ty. Just as impor­tant, all the Coun­ties resolved to enact cli­mate change-relat­ed Acts and Poli­cies that will rein­force cli­mate action. It was also refresh­ing to see the Con­fer­ence urg­ing polit­i­cal par­ties to ‘include issues of adap­ta­tion and mit­i­ga­tion to cli­mate change in their par­ty and elec­tion man­i­festos.’ This will entrench cli­mate action into elec­tion cam­paigns. This brings us back to the issue of the elec­torate as the soil from which elect­ed lead­ers germinate. 

Next year in August, 2,706 Kenyans will ger­mi­nate from the soil of the Kenyan elec­torate. This fig­ure com­pris­es the Pres­i­dent, the Deputy Pres­i­dent, 47 Gov­er­nors, 350 Mem­bers of the Nation­al Assem­bly, 67 Mem­bers of the Sen­ate, and 2, 240 Mem­bers of the Coun­ty Assem­blies. This num­ber — 2,706 — is com­plete­ly depen­dent on the mil­lions of Kenyans who will cast their votes. Before we cast our votes, we must revis­it the Arti­cle 10 values. 

Ulti­mate­ly, I humbly sug­gest that we mean­ing­ly apply the fol­low­ing 8Ps – Part­ner­ships, Pro­grams, Pow­er, Poli­cies, Pre­pared­ness, Per­se­ver­ance, Patience, and Prayer. The moment we choose to unite as a Nation and agree on tan­gi­ble pro­grams, we shall place great lead­ers in pow­er. The great lead­ers shall remain inten­tion­al in enact­ing trans­for­ma­tion­al poli­cies that will pre­pare the cit­i­zen­ry to per­se­vere through chal­leng­ing moments and be patient with each oth­er as God leads Kenya to greater heights. To opti­mize our poten­tial, this is the direc­tion we must take. Think green, act green.