Kenyans must move from lamenting to leading by taking charge of the national dialogue process, Mundalo Advice, the Managing Director of Two Cents Leadership Institute, has said.

Speaking during an interview with Radio Generation Kenya on Tuesday morning, Mundalo challenged citizens, especially the youth to stop waiting for solutions and instead step forward to define how the country should move forward.

“The only way we can be able to have those conversations is to first of all agree with the idea. Once we have agreed that we’ll have a dialogue, then we can be able to say, we want it this way. At the end of the day, everything rises and falls on leadership. Somebody has to lead the way,” he said.

Mundalo went ahead and defended Former Prime Minister and ODM leader Raila Odinga’s proposal for national dialogue, saying it remains the only concrete suggestion on the table, and should be treated as a starting point, not a final solution.

“I cannot fault Raila Odinga, because he’s one of our leaders in the country, and there’s a crisis. Unlike everyone else who has chosen to cry with the problem and offer no solution, he has given his idea. We don’t have a counterproposal from anyone else,” he said.

Mundalo added that no one should dictate who takes part in the conversation, and citizens must step up to shape the agenda themselves—including deciding who should be at the table.

“We must stop whining and start being part and parcel of the solution. We must be able to say, now as young people, this is the direction we want this conversation,” he said.

His comments follow a proposal by ODM leader Raila Odinga for a broad-based, intergenerational national dialogue to address Kenya’s worsening economic and political crisis.

Raila suggested the formation of a “national conclave” to lead civic reform efforts, culminating in a national referendum.

As Kenyans marked the 35th anniversary of the historic Saba Saba protests, Raila argued that the current wave of demonstrations echoes the same injustices that sparked the 1990 movement.

“Do we embrace chaos, or a coming together of minds and a country? I choose a coming together of minds and a country in the interests of the country,” said Odinga.

Going further, Mundalo warned that if Kenyans delay in proposing how they want the talks structured, others will decide for them, and they will again be left out.

“If we delay on giving the framework of how we want the dialog done, somebody will, and when that person does that, we’ll again complain that it has not happened in our best interest,” he said.

Mundalo added that Kenya’s democratic strength lies in its history of public conversation, and that while not all processes have succeeded, they have brought progress and institutional development.

“Our country is as far as it is today, better than most of the countries within our region, because we have had so many moments of having conversations. That’s why our constitution is not comparable to any within the region,” he said.

Citing the Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission (TJRC) report, Mundalo noted that even when outcomes fall short, the process of engagement matters.

“Sometimes even just the knowledge of the problem is also good enough. If they did not sit in the first place, we’d be having no report to agitate over,” he said.

Mundalo added that building a nation requires time, effort and understanding—far from being a quick fix.

“Nation-building is not an event. It’s not like the preparation of conflicts that you just put in the milk and wala, the nation is here. That’s not the case,” he said.

Mundalo concluded by noting that while ideas may seem simple from the outside, implementation often runs into institutional realities like government bureaucracy that must be appreciated.

“Maybe when you get it from the other person’s perspective, you realize that wait a minute, this implementation is not as easy as you would imagine,” he said.