Kenyan PM says Africa needs transformative leaders

Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga says Africa needs transformative leaders to enable the continent to achieve much needed socio-economic development. He says the continent needs to invest in creating good leadership through supporting emerging good leaders and helping them develop and foster solid institutions with national ethos dedicated to delivering the services to citizens. Opening the Africa Leadership Symposium in this Kenyan Indian Ocean port city Tuesday, Odinga was categorical that poor leadership was the cause of the many woes which Africa was facing today. The sympoisum is being attended by delegates from more than 30 countries, inclduing some of the most influential young Africans from the highest-ranking international, pan-African and national organizations. "Colonialism might have bestowed little on Africa as it ended but, more importantly, our leaders have neither sustained nor increased whatever we inherited from the former rulers," said Odinga. He maintained that although previously, Africans were endlessly disappointed, they were now beginning to see hope in the future -- hope that does not need to be disappointed. He was emphatic that the continent was no longer looking for handouts and aid, and the attendant perpetuation of the culture of dependency, but was on the way towards global recognition and full participation in the 21st Century. The Prime Minister wondered how paradoxically Africa as a continent is the world's richest with 50 per cent of the world's gold and most of its diamonds and yet is home to most of the world's poor, leading to a massive brain drain in search of green pastures. However, he was optimistic that something positive was happening whereby the continent's professionals were increasingly looking inwards for solutions, rather than fleeing to the West.