KENYA IS CRYING FOR A RATIONAL, INCLUSIVE AND LEAN GOVERNMENT

By Jerry Okungu
Nairobi, Kenya
March 12, 2009.

Kenya is in a deep hole. And this hole of political quagmire is getting deeper with each passing day. The masses are crying for leadership; a leadership that can give them hope and pluck them out of this pit. They are crying for a leadership that can explain to them their circumstances, one that can reassure them that their borders are safe and that their personal safety can be guaranteed against excesses of the mungikis and police alike.

They are tired of leaders that are too quick to form tribal alliances when it suits them but unite as one to steal from them at the earliest opportunity.

They are tired of leaders who have turned funerals into political bickering forums quite oblivious of the grieving families. They are tired of leaders who look for every excuse to abuse, ridicule and embarrass one another in public. They are tired of leaders who have failed to work together to solve the country’s problems.

For these reasons, I am tempted to listen more to the sentiments of one, Osano Kute, a little known business consultant who lives humbly in Nairobi. And sometimes I wonder if we would be in this mess had our leaders bothered to listen to him in the first place when he freely gave these ideas to them more than a year ago.

The contents of this article were first discussed with Kute just weeks before the Coalition Government was formed. At that point, it was apparent that the two main parties would share power because the Kofi Annan negotiations were in progress.

A year later in to the coalition era, I met with Osano Kute to revisit some of the issues we had discussed. Surprisingly, his views had not changed much except that most of the recommendations he had forwarded to the principals were largely ignored.

However, due to the nature of our bickering politics; due to the nature of our nation drifting back into anarchy, it is imperative that we revisit what Kute had put on the table for implementation at that time.

For purposes of those Kenyans who might not have heard of Osano Kute, he is the founder and Chief Executive of Osano Associates, a leading management consulting firm in Africa. He is one of Africa’s leading management advisors and thinkers based in Nairobi with fresh ideas on what can move Kenya forward but, unlike many politicians and priests; he is hardly known except in professional and corporate circles.

In a recent conversation with him that lasted nearly 10 hours, Kute categorically stated that the agenda for running this coalition government should have on day one, been centred on the principles of inclusivity, integrity and teamwork as a temporary measure.

He argues that whereas the spirit of the accord signed between Raila Odinga and Mwai Kibaki allowed for a 50% share of government portfolios between the two principals, the government’s operations and service delivery should have not allowed partisanship to show at all government departments because the partners were expected to serve all Kenyans from all parts of the country irrespective of their voting patterns. Appointees from both sides should have been made to work as a team with a common purpose if this country were to move forward.

Twelve months later, Kute is still of the opinion that government appointments should have been deliberately inclusive to reflect fair regional and ethnic representation in the cabinet, civil service, public corporations, armed forces, police, judiciary and the provincial administration.

In this regard, there should have been a conscious effort to pair strategic ministries, parastatals, foreign missions and directorates as much as possible to avoid either partner in the coalition or followers feeling short-changed on power sharing arrangement as are the case now.

He suggests that one way of infusing a common purpose in the coalition government should have been to make the appointments in such a way that each ministry, government department or parastatal was managed by both parties as follows:

If a ministry had a minister from PNU, its permanent secretary should have come from ODM. If a government corporation had a CEO from ODM, then PNU should have taken its board chairman. Likewise if PNU appointed the Central Bank Governor, ODM should have appointed Kenya Revenue Authority Chief; these two being examples of paired parastatals under the Ministry of Finance. The formula should have applied to all parastatals paired based on portfolio balance.

Kute feels that Kenya had a chance to select competent and innovative youthful leaders in the administration when the coalition was formed; those who still had the drive to bring about meaningful change in the lives of many hopeful Kenyans without discrimination. This kind of change; the change Kenyans could believe in has failed to be effected by civil service old guards who have served three regimes since Kenyatta’s time.

On foreign missions, Kute prepared a list of what he considered strategic and influential foreign missions. He listed them in terms of their political and economic clout in regional and world forums. They were and still are London, Washington, New York, Brussels, Tokyo, Paris, Beijing, Berlin, Stockholm, Oslo, Delhi, Seoul, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore.

In Africa, he had Kampala, Dar es Salaam, Cairo, Abuja, Pretoria, Maputo, Addis Ababa, Accra, Tripoli and Tunis. These were some of the strategic missions ODM and PNU should have shared out in equal measure such that if PNU took London, ODM would have taken Washington. If ODM took Brussels that houses the European Union, PNU would have taken New York that houses the United Nations.

Kute further says that for the government to be effective and efficient, every minister and his PS should have been given clearly defined roles and be sufficiently empowered to be able to carry out their duties and responsibilities. Both the minister and the permanent secretary should have been appointed for a fixed period of time and made secure in their positions.

However, this security of tenure would not mean that they can remain in office even if they fail to pass integrity tests in the cause of their duties or if they fail to perform, in which case, both should sign performance contracts to ensure that they perform within the dictates of public requirements and regulations.

For purposes of clarity in government operations, Kute is of the opinion that Raila Odinga – the Prime Minister, as the supervisor and coordinator of government ministries and departments should have assumed the full responsibility of making the coalition work while allowing the President who is the Head of State to focus on leadership and oversight role in the country.

The Prime Minister should have restructured the reporting lines and allowed the Head of Civil Service irrespective of party affiliation to work as the Permanent Secretary in his office and be his principal assistant on interpretation and implementation of Cabinet policies.

Mwai Kibaki - the Head of State on the other hand in his capacity as the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces should have been allowed to concentrate on protecting the sovereignty of Kenya and defend Kenya from external aggression. He should equally have concentrated on marketing Kenya abroad among world leaders with a view to building Kenya’s image and luring foreign investors into the country.

For this reason, foreign missions with all appointees irrespective of party affiliation should have been made to feel part of his docket since the ambassadors and the heads of foreign missions represent the Head of State in their stations.

Kute says that the only reason why Kenyans were hopeful of the Raila- Kibaki administration was because they expected it to be different from all administrations since independence for the main reason that it would have the best from both sides of the political divide. They expected a government that would respect the principles of good governance which according to him, refers to a government that is caring, small, efficient, effective and delivers on its promises.

He suggests that a maximum of 16 ministries would serve Kenya just fine and not the current bloated number whose functions are not clear to Kenyans.

Kute, like most Kenyans expected the Raila-Kibaki administration to be a mixture of the old and young, corruption-free, transparent, fair and accountable to the people of Kenya. He expected it to be able to measure in a credible way its achievements regularly. He expected the government to refrain from burdening itself with tasks that the private sector could perform better and focused on equitable development of the entire country.

In his final short, Kute says that for the government to be meaningful and effective; Kibaki and Raila must dissolve the current cabinet and a new team appointed while old guards in the civil service blocking reforms should be removed from positions of responsibility in the government and replaced with younger reform minded personnel.

He challenges young Kenyans to come up with brighter ideas to help shape the destiny of this country since the present leadership has failed to listen to its people.

jerryokungu@gmail.com