Citizens suffer due to bad leadership| Inheritance

David Mulwa: Inheritance

“Citizens suffer due to bad leadership”. Discuss the truth of this statement basing your arguments on David Mulwa’s Inheritance.

 Introduction

The citizens suffer because of bad leadership. Lacuna Kasoo is a dictator who demands to be obeyed. Those who refuse to obey him are incarcerated and killed. Those who oppose him, like Bengo, are imprisoned.

Si: Bengo

Lacuna asks Judah Zen Melo to kill his brother Bengo because Bengo is opposing him. When Judah refuses, he is put out by Lacuna and he cannot get employment. His family suffers in his absence as Tamina his wife cannot make ends meet.

Sii: Subjects

Bad leadership causes suffering because Lacuna refuses to give licenses to farmers and they cannot grow or sell their products. He then buys the land cheaply and other people work on their farms as slaves. Lacuna employs people from his clan even when they are uneducated because he wants loyalty even if it is at the expense of efficiency. As a leader, Lacuna stashes away money in foreign accounts and the people are charged high taxes in order to repay the loans that he enjoys with his ministers and councilors.

Siii: Foreigners

Lacuna gives the imperialists a dam and the people spend a whole day getting a little amount of the precious commodity from the dam.

Siv: Lulu

Lacuna wants to marry Lulu forcefully because, as a leader, he assumes that he can do whatever he wants. He even has Lulu’s father murdered and this causes Tamina and Lulu untold suffering.

Conclusion

Bad leadership brings a lot of suffering to the citizens. They lack food and basic necessities like water, they lose their loved like Tamina and Lulu, ‘they also lose their property; this causes disillusionment among the people.