As lead­ers remem­bered Raila Odin­ga, I found myself think­ing about my chil­dren. What coun­try are we ask­ing them to inher­it? Why must each gen­er­a­tion peti­tion anoth­er pow­er­ful man for the same basic pro­tec­tions? Per­haps we have mea­sured Raila by the office he nev­er held, over­look­ing the sys­tem he kept try­ing to change.

I believe he under­stood that our prob­lems could out­last any Pres­i­dent. In Par­lia­ment in July 2009, he linked restor­ing Mau to repair­ing the integri­ty of the insti­tu­tions that gov­ern it. Chang­ing lead­ers mat­ters. Chang­ing what pow­er rewards mat­ters, too. Sys­tems explain repeat­ed wrong­do­ing; they do not excuse those who choose it.

Kenya has sun­shine, wind, geot­her­mal heat, fer­tile soils, and inven­tive peo­ple. Our cam­paign sea­son seems to have secured a per­ma­nent, pen­sion­able job. Investors need depend­able rules through elec­tions. So do farm­ers await­ing water and young peo­ple build­ing busi­ness­es. Democ­ra­cy should renew pub­lic author­i­ty while use­ful work continues.

A Sep­tem­ber 2009 Mau con­cept paper pre­pared in Raila’s office pro­posed annu­al pay­ments tied to sur­viv­ing trees and phys­i­cal audits. It antic­i­pat­ed that restor­ing nat­ur­al for­est could take 30 years or longer, span­ning at least six five-year terms. This was a pro­pos­al, not proof of deliv­ery. Its chal­lenge remains: reward what stays alive after the launch.

In Feb­ru­ary 2011, Raila told Par­lia­ment to resist intim­i­da­tion, includ­ing from the Prime Min­is­ter. He held that office. Here was a stan­dard we should apply to every leader: pro­tect insti­tu­tions empow­ered to chal­lenge you. Good inten­tions can­not pro­tect cit­i­zens against a suc­ces­sor who abus­es power.

In May 2010, Raila also rec­og­nized that restor­ing the Mau required sen­si­tiv­i­ty to those leav­ing the for­est and their coop­er­a­tion. Those who bear a reform’s imme­di­ate costs should be part of its design. Yet UN rap­por­teur James Anaya report­ed inad­e­quate con­sul­ta­tion with the Ogiek and no for­mal con­fir­ma­tion of Raila’s assur­ance against evic­tion. His record should be held to the same stan­dards it helps establish.

This is where mer­cy becomes seri­ous. Mer­cy in lead­er­ship means pre­vent­ing suf­fer­ing that pub­lic deci­sions can avoid. It pro­tects the cit­i­zen who vot­ed against you as faith­ful­ly as the one who cheered your name. Cit­i­zens pos­sess rights; they should nev­er need a politician’s kind­ness to receive them. Mer­cy must enter the bud­get and sur­vive the speech.

A par­ent should nev­er need a polit­i­cal intro­duc­tion to obtain med­i­cine for a child. When a miss­ing ser­vice forces a fam­i­ly to choose between treat­ment and school fees, admin­is­tra­tive fail­ure has invad­ed the home. Mer­cy for that fam­i­ly demands an inves­ti­ga­tion and law­ful con­se­quences for any­one found respon­si­ble for theft.

A cru­el arrange­ment can hide behind respectable pro­ce­dures. Approv­ing expen­di­ture proves nei­ther deliv­ery nor val­ue. Region­al inclu­sion should expand oppor­tu­ni­ty while pre­serv­ing com­pe­tence. Account­abil­i­ty requires trac­ing mon­ey to results, pro­tect­ing inde­pen­dent scruti­ny, and cor­rect­ing harm. An hon­est offi­cial needs rules that make doing the right thing pos­si­ble and make refus­ing wrong­do­ing safe.

In Sep­tem­ber, Pres­i­dent William Ruto signed leg­is­la­tion intend­ed to penal­ize fail­ures to act on adopt­ed audit rec­om­men­da­tions. That deserves imple­men­ta­tion and scruti­ny, not auto­mat­ic applause. I urge Kenyans to sup­port him when he builds pro­tec­tions and to chal­lenge his gov­ern­ment when it fails, espe­cial­ly when polit­i­cal crit­ics need safe­ty and inves­ti­ga­tors need freedom.

Ruto remains in his first term. A sec­ond term could pro­vide con­ti­nu­ity, but it must be earned; it can­not man­u­fac­ture com­pas­sion or integri­ty. We should demand depend­able insti­tu­tions today and judge every can­di­date by their con­duct. Chang­ing a Pres­i­dent with­out chang­ing incen­tives risks car­ry­ing yesterday’s dis­ap­point­ments into tomorrow’s celebrations.

Let the gov­ern­ment pub­lish acces­si­ble accounts of project costs, pay­ments, and results. Let Par­lia­ment fol­low up on unre­solved audit find­ings. Let com­mu­ni­ties ques­tion deci­sions with­out fear of pun­ish­ment. Pro­vide con­ti­nu­ity for nec­es­sary con­ser­va­tion and infra­struc­ture work, with law­ful review and pro­tec­tion for those bear­ing its costs. These are tasks around which gov­ern­ment, oppo­si­tion, cit­i­zens, and investors can cooperate.

Like every par­ent, I want my chil­dren to inher­it a coun­try where they can change their lead­ers with­out los­ing their pro­tec­tion. That is a trib­ute no mon­u­ment can replace. Think Green, Act Green.