Wednesday 19 April 2017

Look beyond the ‘Tena’ argument in race for Kisumu Governor

My vote is not in Kisumu, because I live and work in another city. But I have enormous interest in Kisumu County. I was born and raised here. I went to school here. My folks live here and above all - Kisumu is home, where I want to retire and see my grandchildren run the woods and lawns.  So I have taken the liberty to inform your vote; may be influence it - those of you who are getting ready to vote in the forthcoming ODM Party nominations.
   
Foremost, I am worried that as things are today, it seems as though folks have forgotten the real issues and neglected the tough questions that need to be tackled and are embroiled in cheap clan politics – of who comes from Kano, Seme, Nyakach bla bla. I think this kind of politics is distractive and may keep Kisumu stagnated for another 5 years as other regions in the country harness and realize their potential. 

Kisumu started ahead of many counties in the country – with a huge urban capital, a substantively educated and competitive human capital, a unique fresh water lake resource and a rich agricultural hinterland. What have we done with that? What have we done about that? Perhaps these should be the core questions that occupy our conversations as we look for the best fit personality to elect as Governor.

But going by prevailing conversations re the gubernatorial race - the bar is far too low my folks!

We cannot be debating street lighting as sterling achievements of the Governor of a century old city the caliber of Kisumu. Those are fetes Job Group J officers at the physical planning department should be populating their resumes with. Not the Governor. We cannot be arguing over scores of tractors as top rank achievements of the Governor when Kisumu County has over 10 dead industries with enormous manufacturing and job creation capacity. We cannot be bickering about how many ‘marrum’ roads ‘His Excellency’ has done when peer cities are hosting global mega events while the lake shore remains derelict and an eye sore instead of a vibrant investment opportunity for tourism and real estate development.

I am worried that we have boxed ourselves unnecessarily into an idiographic ‘Ranguma Tena’ corner reducing our possibilities and denying ourselves the opportunity to objectively review our circumstances and consider what alternative leaders are offering.


So far, the campaigns and conversations around the gubernatorial race in Kisumu are consumed by shouting matches about the power of the incumbent - ‘ngat ma pek e ground’. Of course an incumbent always begins from a vantage point. Of course people who have had access to political leadership before come better prepared and with more political capital. But do they always turn out the best? Not always.

My point is that many of us are succumbing to a lazy conditioning that because the incumbent did some things that changed people’s circumstances, they get a free ‘Tena’ ticket to govern again that should not be challenged. Look, we already promulgated a constitution that required devolution of power and transfer of resources to the people. It was inevitable that things were going to change. Whoever occupied the office of Governor – even a pink Avocado was definitely going to change something.

So the argument must move away from reciting anecdotes of change that have come by after 5 years of the incumbent’s leadership to a more serious scrutiny and comparison between what we achieved and what we ought to have achieved considering the power devolved, resources we received and our baseline performance before devolution.

Only one person has had the chance to be Governor of Kisumu County. That is Governor Jack Ranguma. It is nonsensical thus to reduce the basis for judging the best candidate to Governor Ranguma’s accomplishments alone - whatever they are. We cannot shut down other candidates comparing their accomplishments elsewhere with Ranguma’s tenure as Governor. In fact can we ask Governor Ranguma what he had done with his life before April 2013 and compare it with the other candidates?

If we must use what the 1st Governor has achieved as a gauge for his re-election, we must be smart about it. The comparison must thus be with the accomplishments of the other 46 governors in Kenya and those of people who have successfully managed cities and regions across the globe. NOT by what the Governor’s opponents did while in Civil Society, Private sector or wherever.

What has Governor Ranguma done in terms of improving competitiveness of Kisumu city and its attractiveness for serious business, tourism, more population (of students, experts, tourist and entrepreneurs) compared to others in Mombasa, Nairobi, Eldoret, Durban, Singapore, Bilbao etc? How has he performed in the health sector vis a vis other counties in terms of resource allocations for health and conversion of those resources in tangible health sector deliverables like medicine in hospitals, more facilities, reduced waiting time, more efficient health sector personnel and so on?

I feel that we haven’t been fair to the other contestants in our judgment of their capabilities. We have simply shut them down as non-entities and underlings with nothing to offer. And on this I have a bone to chew with journalists or whatever they call themselves in Kisumu. A lot of such people in the ‘media’ in Kisumu have chosen to take sides in a debate that clearly needs a lot of objectivity. And they have advanced underwhelming justifications for their conduct.

You see in our style of government – democracy, we allow an opportunity, after every 5 years, for interested men and women to present themselves and their ideas and credentials for scrutiny to be considered to assume public office. As such, we must allow people to present their ideas – how they intend to change the circumstances of Kisumu people in terms of policy or development programmes.

Can we judge the contestants based on ideas, so that we are fair to those who have not had a chance to be governor? Can we discuss what Governor Ranguma’s ideas for the future are? Where is his manifesto? How does it compare with Prof Nyongo’s or Dr Mc’Obewa’s? How much have we done to expose the ideas of these contestants and facilitated honest and fair conversations about them? I think those who claim to be journalists must be journalists and quit pandering to their constituencies. They have a responsibility, beyond their private interest to inform the public. If they wish to be pundits let them be overt.

My folks, Obama was an underdog. So was King David. Here is my 2 pence advice: allow Dr Mc’Obewa and Asaka Nyangara and anyone else, underdog or otherwise, who musters the courage to present themselves for nomination and election for Governor of Kisumu County in 2017 a fair chance to sell their ideas and capabilities. Broaden the issues you consider to go beyond just the accomplishments of the incumbent to what Kisumu deserves and what all the contestants offer. 

Monday 13 February 2017

Regarding the Doctors' Strike: We are focused on the symptom rather than the Disease

Here is what I think about the #KMPDUjailing and the health sector crisis: 
We are focusing on the symptom rather than the disease. The inability of government to pay civil servants decent wages - be they teachers, lecturers, police, or doctors is due to a more complex syndrome than we seem to appreciate. The syndrome is a manifestation of the following: 
  1. Public money is being misallocated so much so that things that deserve substantive budget shares do not receive while other less crucial ones do. Our budgeting process seems to be allowing far more expenditures than the capacity of our incomes (tax, debt and other non-tax resource streams). Politicians come to government having promised seven heavens – not multimillion stadia, not audacious infrastructure and not free laptops. These things have to be paid for. The net effect is a bloated budget that overburdens national income. The easy thing to do when resources become scarce is to make politically expedient fiscal decisions. Like allow resource investments in projects that politicians want (NYS, Galana, Save Kenya Meat Commission et al) rather than in public goods and services that crucial sectors need. Thats how you end up with budget proposals like the FY2017/18 with an insane deficit of Ksh900 billion! 
  2. Public money is being misappropriated, misapplied, and plainly stolen. So you have resource challenges that mean you cannot fully finance your ambitious budgets, but you still allow public officers to punch holes in public coffers for cabals of thieves in cahoots with government to steal. So now you surely cannot pay decent wages. Because every time you try to increase facilities and commodities for the health sector, some procurement officers at KEMSA and Ministry of Health or some Governor makes sure it is stolen. So every passing year, you deny the need to hire more health sector personnel and to offer better pay because you are spending on facilities and commodities that are perennially looted. And you know it. 
  3. But more importantly. The economy is small and it is stagnant. It is not expanding in tandem with our growing population and our changing consumption behaviors and patterns. So we are fighting and grumbling over low pay or unfair emoluments for public servants when the right thing to do is to expand the economy so that we earn more so that we can have enough to pay public servants decent wages. 
  4. The Civil Service is bloated in unnecessary elements and slim in crucial areas. The people at the IMF and World Bank and others in the Ministry of Finance and planning give the tired excuse that Kenya’s wage bill is far too high and that that is where the problem lies. Well, ask yourself. Is the wage bill stretched by essential services like health and education and internal security (police)? No. In fact each of the government departments in charge of these sectors and union people will tell you how they are grossly understaffed, their personnel sadly underpaid and overworked. So where is the unnecessary civil service force that blows our budgets out of proportion? Begin here: check the number of ministries, departments and authorities and commissions that exist in this country. You will find the answer. There are ministries with tens of authorities that you will never understand what value they add. For example in Agriculture you will find all manner of authorities – for research, for extension, for marketing, for disease control for whatever. Yet if you ask farmers and folks in the value chains of many agricultural products in Kenya they will tell you how they struggle with such small problems as ticks, and pesticides. Or better still. Why do you run two parallel governments? You have Governors running Counties, and then you have County Commissioners (with their little cheeky 'county governments') apparently reporting to the President (National Government) in all the counties as well. they all gobble up pubblic money. Never mind the value they add to efficiency and responsiveness of our system of government. 

My point is: If you want to pay civil servants breaking their backs teaching our children, securing our neighborhoods and providing healthcare for our families – you must be ready to do the right thing. Decide whether you are serious about providing those services. Then get down to business. You could start here: 
  1. Put a cap on what an incoming government can introduce so that they do not overstretch the budget with new projects that end up denying equally, in fact more important services much needed funding 
  2. Stop corruption. Prosecute people who steal public resources, recover what they steal and institute serious measures to discourage further theft and misapplication of public money 
  3. Rationalize the public service – so that sectors receive a fair share of public servants and commensurate resource allocations for their compensation 
  4. Wean the country off the idea that government is where work is. An effective government’s job should be to facilitate private sector to create employment that pays people decent wages. Not itself the main employer. Invest in and improve government services and goods that expand the private sector. And kill that silly idea of building an economy on government tenders and handouts to the youth.

My 2p opinion