The election year is here  again and we need to think deeply why it is we elect our leaders and what exactly we expect from government?

As a result of the extent of corruption and the lack of accountability in government we have come to accept the shortcomings of leaders. There has been a rise countrywide in the numbers of local NGOs, not to mention external NGOs and a number of grassroots organizations started by those who've decided to take matters into their own hands in achieving development goals having long given up on the government. 

Even as we applaud these efforts,we must reflect a little more on what is really going on. We have through our own means begun to provide services that ideally the government should be providing. We have decided to shun the political process in the country as useless and have decided to let leaders do as they please while we elect them over and over and over again without holding them accountable to us. We are giving them the carte blanche to do as they please with taxpayers' money and with our lives. We need now instead to educate people on their civic duties and the importance of political participation. 

The truth is: elected officers are public servants. Their job is public service. I am not sure what most wananchi believe, but it is our job and duty to make sure that while in office, these elected officials are presenting our case as their constituents in parliament and trying to get the government to invest in public services in whatever area of the country each of us live in. 

So in as much as it's true that many of our so called leaders are corrupt, selfish individuals we should not roll over and accept it. We should use the power that we have in form of the democratic process to let them know what we think. Let us resist leaders that come around doling cash during election time and let us consider the issues that they are promising to tackle. Let us let them know that we do not care about the conduct of their opponents but in what they are promising us. And then based on these and their past records make a decision on who to vote for. It is our civic duty to ensure that we have the kind of leadership that we know we want to see.