TOP KENYAN ECONOMIST WEIGHS ON THE NEED OF A DICTATOR PRESIDENT

The late President John Pombe Magufuli offered a different kind of leadership than the one of his predecessors. He coined a phrase from Swahili ‘kutumbua’. When he would fire a state official he would call it ‘kutumbua’. This was used to mean he has bursted the problematic cause.

With his kind of leadership Tanzania was able to move from low economy to middle lower economy. This was a feat he was able to achieve in only seven years at the helm. The success of his model had many people calling for benevolent dictators in Africa.

Top Kenyan Economist David Ndii tends to disagree with this school of thought. He says that dictators are at the core of African governance failure. Ndii traces the need for a benevolent dictator from colonial times. According to Ndii, the continent has been conditioned to think that they must be beaten into submission so that development can be achieved. It is utterly depressing, writes David Ndii