Kalonzo respects public office not as a means to private gain

Public service is an obligation and not an opportunity or a ladder for personal enrichment. It is not a shortcut to private convenience. It is a trust conferred by the people, financed by public resources and bound by constitutional ethics.

When leaders forget this distinction, the consequences are not merely moral; they are developmental. Nations stagnate not because they lack resources but because those entrusted to manage them convert public power into private privilege. Kalonzo Musyoka’s decision, during his tenure as Vice President, not to force construction of infrastructure projects purely because they served his home area is a case study in ethical leadership.

Roads are political capital in Kenya. They signal presence, reward loyalty, and build personal legacies. The temptation to bend planning priorities to favour one’s backyard is immense and historically common. Yet Kalonzo chose not to weaponise his office to redirect national infrastructure planning for personal or regional vanity. He did not insist that a road be built simply because it led to his home. He respected the principle that public resources must serve national priorities, not personal geography.

In a political culture where “what did you bring home?” is often the crude measure of leadership, that restraint is both rare and commendable. It reflects an understanding that public office is not an inheritance to be exploited but a responsibility to be discharged. Unfortunately, not all leaders share this ethic.

There is a growing and troubling tendency to treat public service as an investment, one that must yield personal returns. Office becomes leverage. State agencies become tools. Public funds become flexible instruments to be bent toward private comfort. When challenged, such conduct is defended as entitlement: others did it; why shouldn’t I?

This mindset represents the capture of the state. Allegations of using public resources for private benefit, such as building an airstrip linked to private property, must be viewed through this lens. Whether through aviation authorities, security justifications, or opaque budgeting, the principle is simple: no public officer should deploy national institutions for personal convenience.

The issue is not existence of an airstrip. It is the logic behind it. Public infrastructure must be justified by public need. Airports, roads, power lines, and security installations are not lifestyle accessories. They are collective investments meant to serve citizens equitably. When a leader uses public machinery to build what primarily benefits them, it sends a corrosive message: that power exists to be consumed, not exercised. Even worse is the mocking of restraint as weakness. Leaders who ridicule others for refusing to abuse office, suggesting that ethics are naïveté or that integrity is missed opportunity, reveal a worldview where public service becomes indistinguishable from personal hustle. In this worldview, refusing to steal is not virtue; it is foolishness.

This is a dangerous moral inversion. Kenya’s Constitution envisioned a republic founded on integrity, accountability, and service. Chapter Six was not decorative; it was aspirational and corrective. It recognised that the greatest threat to development was not incompetence, but unchecked greed masquerading as leadership.

A good leader understands that power is borrowed. A bad one acts as though it is owned. The contrast between leaders who respect institutional planning and those who bend institutions to personal will could not be sharper. One approach builds trust in government; the other corrodes it. One preserves the legitimacy of the state; the other turns it into a private estate.

We must also reject the false argument that personal gain somehow “trickles down.” It does not. When public funds are diverted to personal benefit, the cost is borne by citizens through delayed services, inflated debt, and weakened institutions. Every shilling misdirected toward personal comfort is a shilling stolen from classrooms, hospitals, water projects, and livelihoods.

Public office is not a reward for political survival or compensation for past struggles. It is not a license to loot. Someone should remind our leaders that not everyone enters public service to steal.