The current principal of Alliance High School , Mr. Khaemba, is tipped to be the pioneer head of this school that will select two top students from each African country to receive a free college education in South Africa. The criteria of selection has not been revealed to Kenyans or Africans, neither has the 'unique' curriculum, but my guess is that it will be a domain for KCSE top performers. I have reservations about this idea.

It is true that Mr. Khaemba has steered Alliance to great heights academically. The improved academic performance of Friends' School, Kamusinga can also be attributed to him. He has clearly proved to Kenyans that administration plays a big role when it comes to performance, for before he revisited Kamusinga, the school had long lost its glory. To date, the principal at Kamusinga consults Khaemba on matters of administration. Khaemba has visited Harvard, Yale, MIT and Columbia to address concerns that students from Alliance are being denied admission into Ivy League schools in the US.

Reliable sources, Alliance school board members, have informed me that the Principal has always wanted to retire in SA, a thing that may have favored the school's location, or maybe Oprah's special girls' school in the country may have tilted scales to SA as the first choice. The idea appears to have been floated by Kenyans, then other countries were convinced to support it.

While there is no problem with Kenya being the idea originator, but I am left to wonder what type of leadership these young men and women will be learning, and who will they be learning to lead?

A group of secluded, book-smart graduates who have been taught how to lead the average 'us', whom they have not interacted with, then set loose to put it to practice does not bode well with me.

One of the founders is a great admirer of America's Barrack Obama, but Obama spent close to 5 years working in the ghettos of Chicago, in some of the roughest projects in America, before he went on to study law at Harvard. Places so insecure that a good gun is a worthwhile investment. Serving the least of society certainly gives one a leadership growth that I doubt these children will be exposed to. I do not see these graduates ever visiting Soweto, so how then will they serve Africa if they have never encountered how a majority of Africans live?

Moreover, these top schools have sent kids to Ivy League colleges in the US before, colleges that supposedly churn leaders. I have not heard of any that is turning heads for having put to use the skills and super education received from these famous schools. Calestous Juma , a professor at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government while not an Alliance alumni is a recognized authority in the application of science and technology. There are other Africans all over the world, who continue to succeed in their professional fields; however, there is none who has succeeded in African leadership.

Many African leaders have experienced diversity, having attended schools where great leaders of the world had. They have had opportunities to serve their respective communities but for some reason they continue to remain obscure. Young men who were handpicked for leadership like Musalia Mudavadi, George Khaniri, Cyrus Jirongo and Mirugi Kariuki, among others, have turned out to be disappointments implying that age is not a factor, but that is something lacking in Kenya's core curriculum.

Service to the country is something that should be encouraged in all schools, not a selected few, whose criteria of selection is a moot issue. A child attending the elite schools of Nyahururu is destined to perform well, for these schools are business enterprises with success coming with a price tag.

Public schools, with limited resources, have very low chances of sending brilliant children to the proposed institution of leadership.

Can someone please explain how this leadership scheme will identify those from squalid back-grounds that are real leaders?

Is an African academy of leadership necessary?

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written by aeichener , June 21, 2007

Answer to the last question:
No.

What is (badly) needed is an African Academy of Service.

A.

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Better still
written by Buda , June 21, 2007

African academy of corruption , this way we will gain lots of foreign cash from outsiders who want to learn this trade that we have perfected, where are my nigerian brothers.

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Ah, sodium
written by Steve , June 21, 2007

Now, anyone who had the priviledge of passing through the door of Alliance knows that Mr. Khaemba is an adminstrator who prefers to wield the stick in preference to the carrot as is evidenced by his nickname 'Sodium' that clearly describes what his reactions are like ... I remember enjoying the fruit of his wrath literally administered with the stick many times over.

I have to wonder how effective that technique will be with this institution.

But that is neither here nor there, school administration is not solely about discipline and Mr. Khaemba has demonstrated his ability to carry out these functions such as fund raising, relationship management, marketing his school's product and running a school as it should be run in spite of tight budgets.

But this is not the issue at hand, right?

The basic premise of this article - that quality political leadership or training in quality leadership is a function for academics is faulty.

I leave it as an exercise to other readers to expand on why this is the case.

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separating the wheat from the
written by Sijui , June 22, 2007

Another brilliant example of the 'grassroots' excellence that is simmering on the continent and growing in to an inferno. People who are not sitting by and whining or allowing themselves to wallow in mediocrity and complacency.

If Swaniker can produce even 100 pupils who can replicate what he has achieved i.e. the drive and competence to bring such an idea to fruition, the school will have already surpassed all its goals. Forget about grand leadership ideas, its getting the African to actually do something of consequence based on their own self initiative that is the Nirvana we all seek!

Grassroots excellence, African Leadership Academy pours petrol on the flame!

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Comptence versus Integrity
written by pndiangui , June 23, 2007

I think the African Academy differentiation point is its vision of reincurnating not only competence but even the most importantIntegrity to young people who can serve.
We have all seen 'top economists' or 'engineers' in Kenya for example turn their eyes from situations where they were required to utilise some standard best-practices to ensure excellent service delivery. This was didn't happen because they never understood the situation from a proffessional point of view; Say printing paper money to fund an election, commissioning a poorly built road , accepting substandard drugs or equipments into hospitals or even overlooking any service provision but writting a cheque to pay a supplier as a chief accountant .......such.
Not that these people dont know what a good entry to a balance sheeet is , not that they havent even done intense research to establish the best materials in road building. They have , they do have have technical competence. But worse of it all , their values run contrary to the practices they have so read about. Consciously they havent deeply appreciated timeless principles of integrity. And this has been taking a toll to even young ones who saw the 'get-rich quick' schemes of their civil servant dads, mothers, uncles etc. Hence the institutionilization of corruption. If integrity is what the African Academy is keen to re-insitutionalize in National leaders at the very core of service delivery practices, then I give it a thumbs-up.

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