With the current arguments about the various commissions being constituted to find out the causes of evils in our society am sure many of my fellow Kenya citizens are disgusted with lapses in leadership integrity. Are you finding it hard to trust many of today's high profile leaders? To help us decide how leaders should behave and how to judge them, we need a clear understanding of what we should expect of them.

Senior business, religious and political leaders must be people of integrity because we grant them so much power over our social and economic well being. We feel let down by integrity lapses in leaders because we expect so much of them: we want them to improve the fundamental quality of our lives.

The people we allow to lead us must be competent enough if we are to trust them and not just honest. To be a credible candidate for any job, a person needs the skills and personal qualities to be effective in the role. Integrity is also broader than honesty. In addition to being honest, leaders with integrity must behave ethically. A criminal could be honest while breaking the law. Leaders with integrity must have an unwavering commitment to culturally accepted values and be willing to defend them. This requires them to do the right thing even if it is not in their personal interest. Leaders with integrity are responsible and consistent.

As the bible says all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, I can say with certainty that virtually no one is completely honest. Who has not, for example, failed to stop at traffic lights, cheated on exams, lied in the loan application form or exaggerated achievements to look good in a job interview? Many of us have what we might call "convenient values." We live up to them only when they don't prevent us from doing what we want.

There are varied reasons why we are dishonest but they include the feelings of being entitled to something and being able to get away with it. People in high places feel that their power makes them untouchable. Also, because there is so much more to gain by bending the rules in high places, the temptation must be enormous. Because high profile leaders are so driven to stay in power, only the rarest of leaders can put principles ahead of personal interest when they are threatened with losing their exalted status.

When we notice these failures in our leaders we more often get are angry and disappointed, but, because we also envy people in high places, we are secretly pleased to see that they are only human after all. These reaction is also related to the strength of our expectations. When we expect little of people, their failures don't surprise or matter much to us. When we feel hugely let down at the news of a flawed leader, therefore, we should ask ourselves why we expected so much of this person in the first place. In any case, our reaction to moral lapses in leaders is without doubt partly determined by our own attitudes, values and current mental state.

We can improve the integrity in high places through the education system and by implementing more transparent monitoring processes, but our culture must also reward it as much as it does the pursuit of selfish interests. We need to depend less on leaders to meet so many of our needs and, because they are only human, expect less of them.

Below is a video you will enjoy and get challenged.