The Role of Leadership and Governance on Human Development in Africa: the Case of Kenya

Abstract

The role and importance of governance wherever human populations exist cannot be overstated. It is not easy to dispute that Africa’s problem of poor human development is, to a great extent, one largely caused by poor governance. How a country is governed plays a critical role on whether the people within its jurisdiction will be empowered or disempowered by the leadership, and whether such a country will conduct its affairs through the modus operandi of all stakeholders in mobilization on the one hand, or an elitist clique that dances to the tune of the ruling elite on the other. Africa’s international relations context is bereft with a governance and leadership dent that has largely consigned the continent to a second fiddle role as far as human development and effective agency in international relations is concerned. This study posits leadership that complies with good governance constitutes a critical factor for enabling human development in Africa. The study analyzed such governance instruments as the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM), Agenda 2063: The Africa We Want, The New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD), the African Youth Charter, the UNDP Human Development Reports, Kenya’s Vision 2030, Kenya’s Foreign Policy Document and the Constitution of Kenya 2010, among others. This study argues that compliance with these (and such) instruments holds promise not only in governance itself, but also in regard to practitioners of leadership and governance. The study advances that leaders’ goodwill in creating a context for such instruments to work is greatly important. This study therefore seeks to evaluate the relationship between compliance on the part of the African countries with such governance instruments and Africa’s international relations from a human development point of view, with a specific focus on Kenya as a case study. The study used a mixed methods approach and relies on primary data from leadership and governance practitioners, as well as diplomats, in arriving at its conclusions and recommendations. Liberalism provides the theoretical framework for the study, in line with its objectives. This is aimed at arriving at findings that will contribute to knowledge, and to recommend ideas for adoption by policy makers and stakeholders in governance matters from a point of view of complying with good governance practices, and its relevance in enhancing Africa’s human development and international relations.