Bishar HUSSEIN: This is what I’m bringing back home

By Steve Umidha

If you only had a phrase to describe the life and passion of Bishar Hussein, that expression would be, ‘a man on a mission!’

For him, a mission is not traditionally defined and it is not just a far-off country, but your backyard. That is why after 20 years abroad, Mr. Hussein says he’s back home to where it all started.

With a precise mission – to give back to the society that helped cultivate his illustrious career.

A few minutes into his long-winded answer on how he is finding life at home after two decades away, the father of four simply says, “My wife and I are getting settled, it always takes time, but this has been the hardest move we’ve ever done in many years with our children now fully grown, it feels great to be back home.”

Nearly three months since his return, the former Kenyan Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates which also covers the State of Qatar and Oman, says the feeling of strangeness has mostly gone.

But a a part of his brain is stuck in a 20-year time warp, and he has a vague, broad sense of having missed out on things.

That might explain why he probably feels older here than he has done living anywhere else. “For God’s sake, even the new constitution is younger than me,” he chuckles.

“How can I sum up what I have been analyzing in my head since I returned back home these past few weeks. How is life since we moved back after living abroad for more than 20 years,” posed Hussein in an interview at his blue-blooded Kilimani residence, in Nairobi.

He is Kenya’s first Postmaster General or the Chief executive of the Kenya Postal Corporation (Posta) and the immediate former director of the Universal Postal Union (UPU) – a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) that coordinates postal policies among 192 member nations, in addition to the worldwide postal system where he served for 8 years until last year.

Through his memorable professional journey particularly at the global multinational, UPU, Hussein feels that his poor upbringing – growing up in the arid dryland of Mandera County, which helped shape his success story, will help thrust him in ‘fixing’ some of the challenges he’s keen on undertaking.

His main mission is to help restore the often fractured partisan wars in most communities during elections like now, with a wider view to help develop and mentor especially young leaders keen on taking up leadership roles.

Equally, he will be offering development projects from his resources through partnerships.

“Growing up in a marginalized community where opportunities were scarce, has been a key motivator from day one and I want to use that as an inspiration to give back by offering my vast knowledge in leadership acquired over that time,” opens up the alumni of Mandera and Meru High schools where the eloquent talker undertook both his O and A-levels schooling respectively.

Brought up by a disciplinarian father – a former police officer, Hussein believes the road ahead in his quest to champion for good and honest leadership, may not be a walk in the park, based on the experiences and roadblocks he previously encountered during his stay at Posta Kenya before taking up foreign assignments as a diplomat.

“We have to start by fixing the status quo in weeding out bureaucracy both at Counties and national level. I am not back home to seek a political office or a national government job, but to share my experience and knowledge acquired over the years, the idea is to help fix the problems facing this country today, key among them been the widespread corruption,” affirms Hussein who now spends his time meeting different leaders to discuss development programs.

Adding that, “but should President Uhuru Kenyatta summon me to undertake any responsibility either at a ministerial or Parastatal level, I’d undertake it on condition that I’m given a hands-on role to make needed changes in some of the struggling public institutions.”

He began his postal career as a management trainee with the Kenya Posts & Telecommunications Corporation in 1984 from where he rose through the ranks to become the first Postmaster General of the Postal Corporation of Kenya in 1999 – leading the entity from a loss-making to a profitable and self-sustaining enterprise.

“As a Postmaster General, I was responsible for the entire operations and management of the Kenyan post and its relations with other postal networks globally. I was also the head of the Kenyan delegation to all external intergovernmental meetings and conferences.

But challenges were always there which I had to confront head-on before being exited without a notice,” remembers Hussein, a former University of Nairobi student who pursued Bachelor of Arts Degree before majoring in Political Science between 1980 and 1984.

Throughout his 37 years of public service, Hussein, a nature-lover, says he has attended various courses in management, human resources, finance, administration and diplomacy including team building, developing strategies, networking, negotiations and consensus building – key leadership ingredients he believes have guided him throughout his life.

Hussein served as Kenya’s first Universal Postal Union Director General between January 2013 and December 2021, delivering an impressive 99.8 percent of all the postal mandates set by member states on implementation of programs.

He is also credited for playing a crucial role in 2019 when US President Donald Trump administration at the time had threatened to leave the body, the Universal Postal Union, after its members did not change the system of fees that postal services charge for collection and delivery of international mail and small parcels.

He also successfully chaired the UPU Strategy Conference held in Nairobi – a conference that provided a forum for discussion of important global issues affecting the postal sector and paved the way for the development during the 2013 – 2016 Doha World Postal Strategy..