In a week’s time after the conclusion of the general elections, Baridi Joto, popularly known as BD will be declared as
governor elect of XYZ County by the electoral body since he was unopposed. He is the only gubernatorial candidate
unopposed in the country.
BD will be taking over the leadership of the XYZ County at a time when nothing seems to work at the county. The
county has been greatly mismanaged by the outgoing governor, Kipenda Pesa with his team. The population, especially
in the two major towns of XYZ County, Kipeo and Makao has been declining at an alarming rate as many people have
been migrating to other towns outside XYZ County in search of better prospects. Kipenda Pesa’s government has been
highly bureaucratic and incompetent. His wife appears to wield more power than the governor and she influences how
the county government is run. County employees follow her orders unquestionably to avoid trouble. Several large scale
manufacturing plants in the county closed down while others have relocated to the neighbouring counties where the
business environment is conducive. This has resulted in an increase in unemployment levels that further led to high crime
rate in the county.
Many residents described Kipenda Pesa as a “lame duck” who could not make a decision without consulting his wife. As
a result of the chronic bad decisions regarding the governance of XYZ County, the county is currently dysfunctional.
Garbage is all over the streets, residents have no access to essential drugs in the county hospitals, educational facilities
and county roads are dilapidated and some businesses have closed down due to high cost of doing business. Residents of
XYZ county have become poorer under Kipenda Pesa’s reign. It is against this backdrop that Baridi Joto (BD), a
renowned economist and consultant with an international organisation was approached by some opinion leaders to
contest the position of governor and rescue the county. All the aspirants who had been nominated by their respective
political parties stepped down in BD’s favour.
BD has promised to offer visionary leadership in the county. Towards this course, he has developed a manifesto that if
implemented, water shortages, bad and impassable roads, lack of drugs in hospitals, children dropping out of schools will
be a thing of the past. He has promised to pay all the pending bills owed to XYZ County’s suppliers which run into
billions of shillings. Pending bills have really affected small scale suppliers especially those who had borrowed money
from financial institutions on the strength of local purchase orders and local service orders issued by the county. Many of
them have closed down their businesses while others have seen their businesses auctioned.
BD has promised to develop a county integrated development plan (CIDP) six months after he assumes office which will
address most of the social problems faced by the residents of the county. Currently, there are no recreational facilities in
the county. County staff are demotivated due to meagre and delayed salaries. They have been bearing the brunt of
various jokes from their peers in other counties especially when they meet in county forums. BD will have to work
extremely hard to ensure that the county staff work as one united team in his endeavour to return the lost glory of the
county. He has a daunting task of completing projects which were half-way abandoned by his predecessor due to
inadequate budgetary allocation and misuse of funds. BD inspires hope and everyone in XYZ County, including children
are looking up to him to deliver them from many years of bad leadership.
Required:
(a) Kipenda Pesa ran a highly bureaucratic county government.
With reference to the above statement, evaluate six drawbacks of bureaucracy that could have contributed to the
ills at XYZ County.
(b) Kipenda Pesa’s wife wields a lot of power and county employees follow her orders unquestionably.
(i) Identify Kipenda Pesa’s wife’s source of power.
(ii) Discuss six disadvantages of the use of power identified in (b) (i) above with respect the county
government’s office.
(c) Many small scale suppliers closed down their businesses or have seen their businesses auctioned due to failure
of XYZ County to clear their pending bills.
Explain two external environment factors or aspects that might have contributed to the closure of businesses in
XYZ County.
(d) (i) State BD’s leadership style.
(ii) Examine five qualities of the leadership style stated in (d) (i) above.
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