I watched Uhuru during the opening of the Bidco factory and I think I have an idea why he is not an effective leader. Uhuru gets bogged down with details. He listens to everyone and for too long.

Many people who have met Uhuru talk about how good hearted he is, how warm and down to earth he is. He is a people pleaser at heart. This quality is good for winning votes but it is disastrous for leadership. One of the most critical leadership traits is being able to choose who you listen to and what you listen to.

By being selective and there being only 24 hours in a day means you will have to be saying no and cutting people off more than listening to everything that everyone has to say. You lose focus when you do that. It also shows that you don't have a plan. When you expose yourself like this it means you will only be hearing from the loudest and most aggressive people, the likes of Sonko while you will never have time to listen to more quiet people who may have better analytical arguments.

A president should be seeing and talking more to people that he wants to see and talk to than to people who want to see and talk to him. The president is supposed to be the big picture man. It is OK and even appropriate to be bored by details.

In that Bidco factory tour I would imagine Kibaki would have refused to go round seeing everything in the factory. "Iko haja gani? Hakuna haja!!' he would have said. He would have arrived and gone straight to open the place slept through everyone else's speech and given a short boring speech on something like energy policy, infrastructure development and job growth.

I watched Uhuru during the opening of the Bidco factory and I think I have an idea why he is not an effective leader. Uhuru gets bogged down with details. He listens to everyone and for too long.

Many people who have met Uhuru talk about how good hearted he is, how warm and down to earth he is. He is a people pleaser at heart. This quality is good for winning votes but it is disastrous for leadership. One of the most critical leadership traits is being able to choose who you listen to and what you listen to.

By being selective and there being only 24 hours in a day means you will have to be saying no and cutting people off more than listening to everything that everyone has to say. You lose focus when you do that. It also shows that you don't have a plan. When you expose yourself like this it means you will only be hearing from the loudest and most aggressive people, the likes of Sonko while you will never have time to listen to more quiet people who may have better analytical arguments.

A president should be seeing and talking more to people that he wants to see and talk to than to people who want to see and talk to him. The president is supposed to be the big picture man. It is OK and even appropriate to be bored by details.

In that Bidco factory tour I would imagine Kibaki would have refused to go round seeing everything in the factory. "Iko haja gani? Hakuna haja!!' he would have said. He would have arrived and gone straight to open the place slept through everyone else's speech and given a short boring speech on something like energy policy, infrastructure development and job growth.

Kazi iendelee...can baba remain outside garment for this long? Time will tell.