By Michael Bullut
As with all journeys in life, there is always a beginning. My journey towards becoming the President of the Rotaract Club of Westlands began when I was transitioning between my first and second internships after university in August of 2008.
One morning, I open my inbox and I see an e-mail from Rotaract Kenya. I am asking myself, "Who in the devil is this?" but my inquisitive nature always implores me to explore the unknown. The sender was a gentleman by the name of Francis Mwangi Chege (at the time, he was also a guest of my club). In a nutshell, he basically broke down to me what Rotaract was all about, moreover, the various Rotaract clubs that meet within Nairobi and its environs. Since I was living in Westlands, I decided to join the Rotaract Club of Westlands (though looking back the Rotaract Clubs of Milimani and Nairobi East were also strong candidates but that's a story for another day). On the day I visited what would come to be my home in Rotaract, I did not know what to expect as I had never heard of such a community body before, I said to myself, "What do I have to lose? If I do not mesh with these guys, at least I know someone who will." Upon arriving at the meeting venue (then Norwich Union), I was greeted by some of the friendliest people I have ever known who have remained my friends to this day. At the meeting, I introduced myself (name, classification, question of the day et al) and observed how a Rotaract meeting was conducted. I was pleasantly surprised. Here are a bunch of young people conducting themselves in an upright manner and discussing ways in which to make the society a better place. Being fresh out of university, I decided this could be a group of people I could join and hopefully grow with as throughout my life it was very rare to see my generation come together without nudging from elders. I must say my induction (under the tenure of then President Faith Kinuthia), was like being inducted into a cult (no offence and please do not fine me next time I am in a Rotaract meeting). I was called to stand up while one Kastel Nalwenge (then Immediate Past President) recited the induction speech. It was clear and straight to the point. Afterwards, I was given my lapel pin (again, please do not fine me as it has since been "misplaced") which I wore with a sense of pride. My life as a regular member of the club was pretty unexciting as it consisted much of observing what my leaders were doing and learning from so that in the event I become a club director, I would know what was expected of me and perhaps put into practice bigger and better things.
Things started getting really interesting the following Rotaract year (2009 - 2010) when I was elected the International Service Director. The first thing that crossed my mind was, "Dad would get a kick out of this!" (He was in Foreign Service for about thirty years). After installation (of then President Shose Oyalo's board), I got to work on my committee / docket. I must say my predecessor left me absolutely nothing behind. Not even a legacy! At that time, the impact of social media was being felt so an idea struck me that the club should have a web presence. Having both a Facebook and Twitter account, I decided to replicate my own social media experience with the club. During club events, I began collecting digital pictures and posting them on our Facebook profile. It felt great that guys were finally taking notice of the club by commenting on the same and overall, more and more people were starting to take notice of Westlands in general. For our Twitter account, I did something different. I subscribed to a service called Paper.li which aggregates all the people you follow on Twitter and presents them in a newspaper format online. Up to this day, my club's Twitter account still subscribes to the service and the beauty of it all is that once the same is configured, it is on auto-pilot afterwards meaning that no further changes are required unless one wants to change the frequency & time of your tweets and / or the appearance of your online profile. As time progressed, I came to notice that with each passing event, memories of the club were being preserved by posting the digital pictures of club events online. Look at it this way, why would you want to look back at the past and have nothing to show those coming after you what life was like before they came? "We cannot forget the past no matter how hard we try. Without the memories, we are even more alone." At the end of the 2009 - 2010 Rotaract Year, I handed over my committee / docket to a relatively new member at the time, Sheila Kilaha.
In a hilarious twist of fate, I again took up the reigns of the International Service docket in the 2011 - 2012 Rotaract Year under the Presidency of Ondari Mogeni (who is my immediate predecessor as President of the Rotaract Club of Westlands). Being in my old committee / docket again, I decided to find out what has changed since I had left. I came to know through other clubs within Nairobi that they were partnering with our counterparts across the border in Uganda and how happy I was when two of my fellow board members, Oscar (then Community Service Director) and Victoria (then Secretary), told me of a club (the Rotaract Club of Kampala West) who wanted to partner with a counterpart in our country. I cannot remember how I got their contacts but correspondence between who would eventually be our sister club and Westlands began in the second half of 2011 and culminated in what would be my first ever visit to Uganda in November of the same year for the celebration of their charter anniversary. I can write about the experience of my first trip to Uganda but that would take up an entirely new piece of writing altogether but what I would say is the hospitability I experienced was second to none. I swear! The twinning agreement between the Rotaract Clubs of Kampala West and Westlands was signed towards the conclusion of the 24 District Conference Assembly held last year in Nairobi, Kenya at a brunch in my residence.
At this point, one reading this article may exclaim, "Michael, when will you get on with your experiences undergone as a Rotaract President?!" Well, around two to three months after the signing of the twinning agreement with the Rotaract Club of Kampala West, I took up the office of the President of the Rotaract Club of Westlands. After the dust of my board's installation settled (and reality hit me hard), I felt a lot of self-doubt as a leader especially knowing I am succeeding a man of substance, Ondari Mogeni. It was then I learned my first new lesson in leadership: "Neither do you lead your people in a world you do not know nor hope of building for them." My primary promise to the club was that I would change the signatories of the club bank account as the previous signatories were former members who had mostly moved onto Rotary (and other personal commitments). The reason why I wanted to change the signatories was that I desired the club to have a place where we could deposit our funds (S.A.A., subscriptions et al), moreover, withdraw the same if ever the need arose. The second promise I made (with my Vice-President Diana Mushiyi) was to increase the number of members in the club. Currently, membership stands at seventeen members (with the promise of adding more before my term ends). My second new leadership lesson would be: "A leader should give his people an ideal to strive towards. At first they will race behind him; they will stumble; they will fall. In time, they will join you in the sun; in time, you will help them accomplish wonders." I will be the first to admit that I have not always been a good leader to my club. In as much as I have kept my pre-election promises to them, there are times when I did not provide direction when needed. Case in point when our previous meeting venue (Lifestyle Lounge) closed down and we needed another one badly. Members were like, "Mr. President where will we be meeting?" In my mind I was asking myself, "Sweet Easter! Why did Lifestyle have to do this to me?" It was at a time when we had begun the process of changing the club bank account signatories thus we could not facilitate club payments to meet our financial obligations. At that point in time, I considered taking my club back to Norwich Union but remembered the reason we left there was due to the ever increasing charge of their meeting rooms. I was at my wits' end as even the temporary location of Abondo's Restaurant on University Way roundabout was also not suitable as a few members mentioned it was not a favorable meeting venue. Salvation came in an e-mail when my Rotaract Club of Muthaiga counterpart, Silas Ndote, mentioned that he had found a meeting venue at Victor House on Kimathi Street called Research Cube. At last! A meeting venue had been found (although the club had to dig into its pockets to put a roof over its head, the alternative would have been worse). Looking back, the main thing that stands out was my inability to ask for help. In as much as I did not want my club to worry where they would be meeting, it took a toll on me as bearing such a burden entirely by oneself is not a wise move. As a leader, one should be humble enough to ask for help. My third lesson (and most important) is something I picked from the first Lion King movie. If I could paraphrase it: "One's time as a leader rises and falls like the sun. One day, the sun will set on my time here and will rise as my successor as the new President." Most duly elected leaders do not realize that their time is limited. I have done much as President but I have been allocated only one year to do what I can. A great leader once said, "We are defined by the eras that we governed." What my era was? I cannot say but what I do know is that only my successors will be able to enlighten me on that…
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