My Journey Through Student Leadership

It was exactly at 7:00a.m when my alarm woke me up.I went straight to the washroom atleast to relieve myself up before starting off my day.I later started perfoming all my house chores before preparing to go to my afternoon lecture.I was a final year student of economics and statistics at Laikipia University,Kenya .By 10:00 a.m,I had prepared everything and was just trying to choose my best clothes of the day that I would wear during the lecture.I stood at the front mirror just besides my bedroom as I tried to countercheck every pair of clothes.As I wore my grey suit with my red tie, my image in the mirror took me back at my leadership moments in my early days in campus.My entire Journey Through Student leadership started started lingering on my mind and I just stood there as I looked back on the memories.

I was brought into Student leadership by my good friend Mike Kinyua,a business young intellect ,a youth leader and an economist from Laikipia University who is yet to graduate this year.

At the time,I was just a class representative who even had no ambitions of becoming a youth leader.

I therefore joined student leadership in the year 2019 as a naive secretary general who was yet to learn his roles later.

I would later meet the likes of Hon Obadiah Kiprotich , Robert Wafula , Benta Bii, Verline Abed , Purity Ngigi ,Ruth Khisa and Nampaso Selee whom together we formed the Student executive council.

Life was life during our tenure and I guess we together enjoyed every bit life had to offer.

I could just wake up in the morning and meet the student official page full of queries,insults , praises ,threats or accusations from the reknown chief student bloggers all directed to me.

Other times,I would just wake up and recieve over 50 missed calls or even 50 messages and sometimes I would just get overwhelmed trying to answer each of them.

Those are some of the challenges student leaders face in their quest to serve their beloved Comrades who voted for them in pursuit for peace, justice and joy in their campus life.

Sometimes,the pressure would be too much especially on issues partaining fee deadlines and I remember my team and I could desperately knock on the doors of Dr.Kiugu and start begging him to help us out.

The welfare of comrades was always a number one priority and my team and I were always on prayers every Sunday hoping that death and sicknesses will never struck any of our comrades.The last incidence that once made me want to resign happened in my first month in office when a comrade was involved in a very fatal accident and comrades aggressively stormed on our offices demanding answers.As their secretary general and their voice,I was left hopeless , desperate and confused with no words to utter to my beloved Comrades.

All eyes were on me and I had no option other than hide in my room for 1 day as I made calls to relevant authorities and leave the other task of handling press conferences to my brother obadiah,who served as the director of Student welfare.

I remember that day,I stayed on my knees desperately praying with tears all over my smooth face .Sure enough,God gave me an answer and I remember typing a statement of hope to my comrades and I promised them to fight for them till the end.That incidence gave me the courage to face courageously all the offices in my disposal and it's from then that a new Karubembe Junior was raised.

Yes,,the threats, insults,queries and anger from comrades made me understand the cost of leadership that I had to pay.

However, despite all the few challenges,my team and I will never forget the best memories that we shared together.

We toured almost every corner of this country together and made lifetime memories.

We attended leadership trainings together where we learnt the essence of humanity and service to one's nation or constituents.

We shared meals together and even sometimes organized random visits to each other just to have a cup of coffee or a piece of meat😊.

We represented our comrades in the biggest forums ever and got to share our ideas to professors,doctors or other dignitaries in this great nation .

We got to take part in the political game and I will never forget our first political public speaking in Katheri,Nanyuki,Laikipia county.

Even as we all enter into the political world and the mighty political journey of 2022,let's keep remembering the costs that come about with leadership.

In my simple journey as a student leader,3 things came up that I hope will be your guide too in your next chapter of Youth leadership;

1.Not everyone close to you who is always proud of you.Be careful with your circle.

2.Leadership with no humanity is not leadership but petty politics.

3.Leadership must be Godly no matter what.Every decision made by a true leader must always be Godly and should never compromise with the norms of true Christianity/faith.

Friends and fellow comrades at heart,

As I stared on the mirror, my dreams of entering national politics in the year 2022 started reminscing.I felt I should officially kick off my new national political journey but I was still afraid of what would befall me. I was not sure of whether people would accept to even vote for me.

I was not sure whether people would understand how much pain,struggles and success have undergone in my pursuit for a better future for my comrades.I was not even sure of whether my own parents would be ready to support me.I was not sure whether my friends would support me or even help me out.I was not sure whether I would even get funds to do my campaighns.I was not sure whether I would get a chance in my home church to just tell the congregation about my ambitions.As I stood infront of that mirror,my head was all full of questions which no one could even answer.I smiled at myself as I promised the image in the mirror to keep fighting till the end.

"We will see about that , Karubembe"I told myself as I hurriedly put on my shoes ready for my evening class lecture.