Competitive politics is taking centre stage in Kenya.  The bags of promises are now open; enthusiastic crowds are out and propaganda engineers are in an overdrive. Watching the rallies being held by presidential aspirants, one is left wondering where political leadership disappears once people get elected.

During campaigns, politicians exhibit excellent leadership skills all over Africa complete with pomp and colour. When crises such as famine, drought and disease hit the continent, their leadership skills take cover.The leaders transfer the African problem to foreign capitals for solutions. One can rightly conclude that the focus on controlling the national cake spawns a lot of creativity among African leaders, whilst the quest to sweat, work and feel the pain of productivity elicits only international begging trips.

Kenyans might never get it right if they do not focus on addressing the current political dispensation that seems to promote the rule of man as opposed to rule of law. The accusations on economic growth or lack of it as campaigners dig in for votes clearly indicate that little has been done to disconnect the productive aspect of the nation from individuals' whims. The fear expressed by investors and Nairobi Stock Exchange  is a warning that as a country, we must  put our economy on auto-pilot and limit  interference from politics.

One way of putting our economy on auto-pilot is by allowing as many Kenyans to bake their own private cakes. Parties seeking power ought to state clearly how they will open up  business space for individual Kenyans as opposed to promising to award jobs that more often than not bloat the civil service and overstretch government expenditure.  Political leaders ought to state in clear terms the type of reforms they will put in place to ensure that private citizens meet their economic needs without having to wait for  handouts for the next five years.

Power is sweet. Poverty is painful. Kenyans ought guard against being used by those who seek power to jeopardize the tranquillity of their neighbours simply because they differ on political opinion. The political spectrum now offers a clear indication that non of these politicians are enemies but players.That is why top political names have either shared a party, government or shares in one business.

While democracy (as we know it in Kenya) offers ventilation on what politicians do over the five year period they are in parliament, it fails to offer real change in terms of shaping prosperity. Kenyans only witness a see-saw of private sector change which is not good for business in the long term. The only private sector that is rarely touched with the political climate is that of small holder farmers, they remain toiling, with hand held hoes, poor seeds, no market, poor roads and take their children to ill equipped schools that only see wealthy people when the schools turn into voting centres. Long queues in MPs' offices and  their private homes for favours from citizens is a clear indicator of political failure. May the politicians who win, set the stage for competitive business environment.  Let Kenyans produce and enjoy wealth.

The absence of clear structures or a people friendly constitution that promotes individual productivity is almost turning Kenya’s democratic process into a vote about dinner among two wolves and one sheep. The Wolves being the political elite, and Kenyan citizens as sheep simply waiting for an outcome on when the actual eating will start! Forty-four years after independence, Kenyans ought not to perpetuate a scenario of the tyranny of minority in the guise of the majority vote.

This article was first published by Business Daily, a publication of Nation Media Group