The coastal town of Mombasa played host to the Louis Otieno Road Show live where there was a discussion on Ethics in Politics. The panel included a political aspirant, a political scientist and a human rights activist joined in the debate.

The debate opened by seeking a common understanding on ethics and its importance in politics. Ethics was seen as a reference to a set of norms and values that should guide public behavior and against which political leaders should be judged.

It was felt that entrenching ethics in judging and measuring the conduct of leaders could raise the bar of leadership and enhance the sense of responsibility on the part of public officials. Ethical leadership could emerge only once there was a clear expectation that leaders must act in a given way and where any deviations from set norms elicited a sense of public anger and disapproval. The lack of such outrage had contributed to a lack of ethical leadership in Kenya.

In the Coastal region where a large part of the population is Muslim, it was observed that perceived persecution of some community members in the guise of fighting terrorism raised ethical questions on whether political leaders were committed to safeguarding basic rights.

But the most obvious manifestation of lack of ethical leadership arose out of the failure by political leaders to keep their promises and campaign pledges. It was felt that many politicians did not feel obliged to serve their electorate faithfully and often used voters as a mere stepping stone to leadership.

The tendency of politicians to change political parties and switch party loyalties upon losing in fair party nominations was also cited as manifesting unethical leadership.

It was agreed that reaffirming honesty and integrity in leadership would ventilate people’s interests and create a platform to entrench ethical leadership. Political leaders must also consult more with the public, establish their needs and interests and work towards fulfilling these.