INHERITANCE ESSAY-KCSE QUESTIONS ANALYSIS

INHERITANCE ESSAYS – KCSE ESSAY QUESTIONS ANALYSIS

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Many African problems are caused by ineffective leadership. With reference to David Mulwa's Inheritance, write an essay to illustrate the truth of this statement.

How to answer essay questions based on Inheritance

1.      Read the question keenly

2.    Identify the KEYWORDS in the question

3.    Identify the INEFFECTIVE practices by leaders that lead to PROBLEMS

4.    Develop points of interpretation

The keywords in this question are INEFFECTIVE LEADERSHIP and PROBLEMS. Show how the citizens of Kutula republic experience a myriad of problems as a result of incompetent leadership by Lacuna Kasoo and his equally inept henchmen.

In each of the points you come up with, link the ineffective leadership to problems the citizens encounter.

 

Task

Show the link between ineffective leadership and suffering of the people. The problem should be an outcome/consequence of ineffective leadership.

 

Reasons why students lost marks in this questions

Most essays lacked textual illustrations on:

1.      The ineffective leadership

2.    The problems

3.    Background information about ineffective leadership

 

Inheritance essays: writing the introduction

1.      Tell us how you understood the question (es the student understand the demands of the question? You must show how citizens suffer because of inept leadership.

2.    Include the keywords in your introduction

3.    Do NOT simply rewrite the question as your introduction

4.    Write a brief, precise introduction

In your introduction, we must see both the poor leadership and the problems (suffering). The suffering must be directly linked to the leadership.

 
Inheritance sample introduction

A good leader inspires his or her subjects to success not failure. On the other hand, ineffective leaders bring disillusionment and do not inspire confidence among their people. In the world today, scandals have tainted reputations of many people, and leaders worthy of trust are more in demand than ever. David Mulwa's Inheritance depicts an example of ineffective leadership meted out on the people who suffer as a result.  

 

Inheritance essay: developing the body

1.      Give at least four well-developed points

2.    Each point must occupy a separate paragraph

3.    Give adequate textual illustrations on the action (ineffective leadership), background and outcome (problems)

Points of interpretation

1.      Impoverishment

2.    Poor planning

3.    Brutality

4.    Corruption

5.     Vengeance

6.    Exploitation

7.     Favouritism

 

Inheritance: Paragraph development

Action: Ineffective leadership - Lacuna favours his incompetent friends and tribesmen at the expense of other citizens of Kutula. (Give sufficient textual details to support this)

Outcome: Problems - Show how citizens of Kutula e.g. Tamina, Lulu, Bengo and Judah bear the brunt of Kutula's nepotism and favouritism. (Give sufficient textual illustrations)

Background information

“These many years and he hasn’t seen anyone but his clansmen. And his bevy of concubines” -Tamina (p29)

“So I took courage and made friends with the manager who’s a tribesman of Leader Kasoo. It pays to know the leaders' tribesman.” -Zen (p34)

“I have the report here. It says there's no management worth talking of … political appointees and lax tribesmen” – Goldstein (p71)

“Anyone against the evacuation is to be dismissed forthwith. And start an immediate recruitment of people from our loyal clan, regardless of this education. Fill those positions with people … men I can trust.” -Lacuna (p96)

 

Sample set book essay question and answer based on Inheritance.

Ineffective leadership causes citizens a lot of difficulties. Citizens suffer impoverishment, detainment, harassment, cruelty among other ills. Lacuna Kasoo is inept as a leader and citizens of Kutula suffer as a result.  

Ineffective leadership leads to abject poverty. Tamina tells Bengo that Judah Zen Melo is wandering looking for jobs, competing with young people. Judah used to work for the government. When he falls out with the leader Lacuna, he is kicked out of his government house. Judah and Tamina lose their cars, government house and piece of land in Bukelenge.  They are left wallowing in abject poverty. Tamina is forced to pick coffee for Chipande on her former farm. Bengo says poverty makes it hard for them to see straight. Also, Lulu is sent home to collect school fees but Tamina cannot raise the money yet she works on the coffee farm all day with no extra money. On the other hand, Judah roams in search of a job and settles for one as a security guard in Patola. He lives in a cardboard house. Because of poverty, he is forced to compromise his principles. He befriends Mithambo, Lacuna's tribesman and a manager at Kasoo mines, because he needs his favour in getting a machine operator job. The desperation makes him to start drinking and to produce fake letters in pursuit of the job. In his drunken stupor, Judah says that a black man only rests when he  dies and is buried. He is overworked and underpaid. Sangoi tells Lacuna that there are many poor people crying at their doorsteps. Tamina's hut and clothes also depict poverty. Judah's family and many other citizens suffer impoverishment due to Lacuna's ineffective leadership.

Poor planning by Kutula's leaderships also causes problems for the citizens. The government dam project results in more harm than good. The valley dries up and Tamina has no choice but to walk up to fifteen kilometres from sunrise to sunset in search of the precious necessity. Also, schools charge exorbitant fees and most parents cannot afford. Lulu and three hundred others are sent home to collect fees for construction of a second perimeter wall, computer laboratory, games, and examination fees. In addition, the leaders borrow loans in their people's names but bank them in their individual accounts. They also throw useless lavish banquets and poor innocent citizens do not benefit at all. Everything is imported including the whiskies, canned beer, coffee etc. Lacuna also buys himself a swanky airplane and banks thirty percent of the balance in his account abroad. He cannot account for the expenditure of the loan and blames his cronies. As he squanders borrowed money, his subjects suffer poverty, unemployment and famine. This inefficiency can be attributed to appointment based on political loyalty and tribalism. Surely, citizens suffer when leaders run the affair of a country poorly.

More often than not, inefficient leaders are brutal. Bengo tells Tamina that elected leaders are servants not masters – but are they? When Judah refuses to murder his brother Bengo as instructed by Lacuna, he is fired and beaten to a pulp. He is saved by Dr. Jonathan. The cruel leader also arrests and detains Bengo for dissenting his savage leadership. Reverend Sangoi says many people disappeared on the day of his coronation. Lacuna wants Lulu to perform for him at his palace but her mother protests vehemently. She warns Tamina does not take no for an answer and may harm her family. Also, Lacuna plans to cruelly punish Lulu for dancing with Robert. She is to be charged with treason. This after detaining her illicitly against her will. She says Lacuna killed her father. Judah was murdered but Lacuna passed it off as an accident caused by the rotting machines. Robert dismisses this and affirms that it was murder for Judah. Lacuna is a cold-blooded tyrant who plans to violently quell an imminent uprising in Kutula. He asks colonel Yakumba to shoot protesters. He also executes a martial law with a strict dawn to dusk curfew. He instructs his officers to shoot looters and thieves on sight. Robert refers to this barbaric leader as a murderous thief , since he even requests for guns and ammunitions to use against his own people. Many innocent citizen like Lulu, Tamina and Judah suffer under this ruthless regime because of Lacuna's brutality.

In addition to that, Kutula faces the trial of corrupt leadership. First, Bengo notes that the people's sweat poured through Lacuna's porous pockets and bank accounts. Due to misuse of public funds, Lacuna plans to overwork government workers. He is also compelled by the foreign financiers to evacuate citizens from the valley and privatise the land.  Although he grossly misused the first loan disbursed to him, Lacuna still clamours to borrow more. Robert also notes that Lacuna banks these monies in his own foreign accounts across the world including Canada and Luxemberg. Due to the cash crunch caused by corruption, Lacuna plans to freeze people’s salaries, overtax businesses, abolish positions etc. Bengo says he has lost his family through Lacuna's greed and mismanagement . Surely, Bengo and others suffer because of Lacuna's incompetent leadership. Ineffective leadership thrives on corruption.

The leaders in Kutula are hell-bent on wreaking vengeance on any dissidents. Citizens like Bengo and Judah Zen Melo suffer for opposing the policies of Lacuna's authoritarian rule. Bengo was thrown behind bars for opposing Lacuna's brand of leadership. Lacuna had initially hatched a plan which would involve killing his brother Bengo, a thorn in Lacuna's political side. When he declined, Judah was sacked, grievously attacked and stripped off of all government property and condemned to a life of insolvency. He suffers wandering from town to town in search of employment with a view of feeding his family. Lacuna also takes revenge on Lulu for dancing with Robert due to jealousy. He detains her for ostensibly for refusing to participate in some traditional ceremony. Lacuna tells Sangoi that drastic measures would be taken against all dissidents if they resist the evacuation of citizens from the valley. Lacuna also vengefully kills Judah Zen Melo. Lastly, Bengo refuses to take up leadership to avoid taking people to the dark days of anger and revenge, exemplified by Lacuna's cruel regime. Surely, vengeful leaders cause many problems in Africa.  

Citizens of Kutula suffer exploitation by their leaders. First, the schools charge obscene amounts of fees at the expense of struggling parents like Tamina. Students like Lulu suffer as they struggle to achieve their dreams. Lulu wants to be a doctor but the mother cannot afford school fees despite working tirelessly at Chipande's farm. Lulu is so desperate to finish her studies that she pleads with her mother to borrow money. She has worked hard in school and is always among the top three in class. Chipande uses his position to forcibly buy land from Tamina for peanuts, deny others license to grow coffee and employ Tamina to pick coffee beans at his farm for low wages. Lacuna only cares about his clansmen and bevy of concubines and cannot help Tamina, or other citizens for that matter, to raise the school fees. After toiling at Kasoo mines, Judah can only raise a paltry eight hundred shillings which can barely meet their needs. Moreover, the leadership also plans to forcibly evacuate poor citizens from the nationalised valley. Lacuna also plans to freeze salaries and overtax citizens. Citizens in Kutula are overworked and thus suffer because of this exploitation.

Lulu suffers in Lacuna's hands since he is shamelessly immoral. He forces Lulu and other school girls to dance for him. He expects Lulu to sup with him in his private chambers supposedly to quench a national itch. Robert refers to Lacuna as an immoral ragamuffin in adult panty-hoses. Lacuna is angry at Robert for dancing with Lulu.  Goldstein warns Robert against infatuation for Lulu since she is a goddess to be used in some immoral ritual.  Lacuna stoops too low as a leader, as he flirts with and even kisses a nineteen year old schoolgirl. Lulu resists his advances telling him that she respects him as an elder and a leader. She is his daughter and still in school. Because of his immoral lust, Lacuna abuses his own wife in front of Lulu, insolently describing her as a demon and a cobra-headed hand grenade. Lacuna even has the temerity to send emissaries to ask Tamina for Lulu's hand in marriage. He wants to marry her by force, with Chipande as a best man. Because of his amorous lust, he even ignores his spiritual leader's advice.  Lulu and her mother really suffer this ordeal. This is testament to Lacuna's ineffective leadership.

Lastly, Lacuna favours his friends and relatives at the expense of other citizens. Lacuna does not care about people like Tamina's problems. He only entertains his clansmen and assemblage of concubines. Mithambo, his cousin, manages Kasoo mines. Judah has to befriend him in order to get the machine operator's job. This is after days of fawning and buying him drinks. He says it pays to know the leader's tribesman. Lacuna's leadership is inept because he hires inept officers with questionable management skills or no skills whatsoever. These are his political appointees and lax tribesmen. During the insurrection, Lacuna orders recruitment of army officers from his loyal tribe regardless of their education. He replaces industrious citizens with incompetent men he can trust. Surely, African problems arise due to such ineptitude.

In conclusion, ineffective leadership breeds corruption, abuse and misuse of authority, arrests, detention among other ills. As a result, citizens suffer.

 

Read Inheritance essay questions & answers here. 

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