So what if Mr President was pelted with rotten eggs?

So what if Uhuru Kenyatta was pelted with rotten eggs? Who gives a rat’s shit if the president was heckled; meeting disrupted by ‘rowdy’ youth? Who cares whether it was ‘local politics’ or national?

Look George Bush ducked for cover from a missile shoe in Iraq. Obama was heckled just last month at a press briefing on GITMO: 

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/05/24/medea-benjamin-the-woman-who-heckled-obama.html

I will say three things here quickly and succinctly for ye who have got an ear to listen. I will leave my neck (as per usual) for you to chop, ye who are already Jubilee or CORD on whatever matter. But I will leave an open mind as well for ye noble Kenyans who argue facts. Three points:

• The two way traffic thing that is RESPECT
• Hooliganism amongst the youth: - the microcosm of moral rot; unemployment; inequality (ethnic and socio-economic) in our country that we have paid lip service to fixing for way too long
• Genuine solutions – not gimmickry and political expediency

On RESPECT

There is a chronic self-entitlement that president Uhuru and the people who believe he belongs to them portray in this country that is appalling and nauseating. Respect like the old adage goes – is two way traffic. It is earned, not thrashed down people’s throats. And there are two things that Kenyans must learn to separate: - i) RESPECT for the institution of the Presidency of Kenya; and ii) RESPECT for the person of Uhuru Kenyatta. Those who combine the two and sit on moral high horses administering tirades at us all who would like to distinguish the two are moral conmen that must be treated with the contempt they deserve. If you want me to respect you and regard you as ‘My President’ which is a high honor I would love to accord the gentlemen at state house – Give me reason to do so. You don’t get that by yelling at the top of your voice at roadsides and public rallies about how important you are and deserve exclusive RESPECT.

You rarely see people call President Kagame names, or vilify him on social media or disrupting his meetings. It is because he has earned their respect. He picked up a country at the brink of the precipice; on its knees destroyed by ethnocentrism and sectarian politics no different from the Kenyan case. He has helped unite the nation, and bring it to the global arena of international political economy. Rwanda’s economy grew on average 7% over the past decade; country showed best progress in Africa in combating poverty; reducing maternal mortality; country now has one of the best healthcare systems in the continent – spending largest on health (8%) in East Africa; basic public goods and delivery of services is impressive.

You my president has spent your year or so making yourself look good; clearing your name. Reminds me of the Swahili saying: Kizuri cha jiuza, kibaya chajitembeza (If you have to say you are awesome, then you aint)

Quit posturing as a tribal chieftain; respect the rights of every Kenyan and accord then the respect and dignity that they deserve (especially those who did not vote for you). Act like a stateseman! This is far from wearing military combat regalia; sharing meals at backstreet food kiosks; pall bearing at funerals; dancing with kids or giggling at public events like a sorority girl. READ i) meritocracy in public service; ii) genuine interest and action on furthering devolution; ii) decisive action on insecurity, iv) addressing high cost of living; iv) and according young people meaningful space at the decision making table (just to mention but a few).

On Hooliganism amongst Luo youth

What we like to call ‘rowdy youth’ or ‘hooliganism’ in Kenya is a microcosm of the inequality, unemployment and moral rot in our country – leaders using young people to further their political interests, promising heavens and delivering hell. 

   

FOREMOST: Young people in Kenyan must now clever up, however desperate and hopeless the situation, and desist from utlilising their energy in furthering political agenda that they least understand.

That said, hooliganism amongst the youth is a problem in Kenya – not an exclusive domain for Luo Nyanza like some people would like to paint it. They are hired by Waititu, Sonko, Kidero, Ongoro etc here in Nairobi when needed to disrupt traffic and make political statements.

Yelling and vilifying the youth with 140 character tweets or facebook updates will never fix the problem. It is not rocket science – fix the economy; increase real economic and employment opportunities (NOT Waiguru’s fake jobs) and you will wish to see young people hanging around politicians, chirruping and pelting stones. Until we substantively address unemployment, deep rooted economic inequalities that lock out the youth from active participation in the economy – young people will keep throwing stones. And God forbid, one day they will blow up this nation.

On Genuine solutions – not gimmickry and political expediency

This is the point where I ask you to listen; and you should. And this is the reason why President Uhuru will keep hustling for respect in futility. The president and his Jubilee government must quit pretending to offer solutions when all they do is attend to their idiosyncrasies far removed from the plight of the people they purport to care so much about. That’s the nonsense that is the Uawzo fund; and that’s the nonsense that is the 1.1 billion shilling pocket change he flew to go peddle in Migori County yesterday.

Look I was born and raised in Miwani – at the heart of the Sugar-belt region in Kenya. The poverty is despicable for a region that boasts the only ecological zone in Kenya that can efficiently produce sugar – and it used to do so. Sugarcane is a lucrative business known world over. So what keeps them poor? The sugarcane industry in Kenya (and this is where you are free to call me conspiracist) was deliberately brought to its knees and neglected by 4 consecutive administrations because of political-economic reasons we can argue on another platform.

My point is that the 1.1 billion shillings that the president went to dangle in Nyanza has very little to do with fixing the real chronic issues that have killed sugarcane farming in the region. Why do I say so? There are 5 milling factories in Luo Nyanza – Muhoroni, Chemelil, Miwani, Kibos (all in Kisumu County) and Sony Sugar in Awendo. I can tell you for a fact that the problem with those industries is with the MANAGEMENT and not the areas that they owe farmers (which is the non-problem the president went to fix). They have always been mismanaged, people used to walk into those factories and emerge with sacks of 50shs notes during KANU campaign time. That’s why they end up not paying farmers, that why they end up suspending operations, that’s why they are perennially in receivership and always squandering farmers investments.

Mr President – PRIVATISE all those cane milling factories and let the private sector do what they do best. We have invested a lot in improving the private sector in this country, they must now be let to reap us benefits. Kenyans in the sugar-belt region care least about who owns Chemelil sugar factory – so long as it is crushing cane and paying famers in time; so long as Miwani sugar factory can keep employing fork lifters, electrical engineers, cane cutters from the area etc; so long as Muhuroni Sugar can keep generating spillovers in terms of Small Micro and Medium Enterprises and informal sector business like they used to do. Your graceful 1.1 billion clearing areas won’t fix the real problem but simply kick the can down the road – as you dance your way home with political mileage.  

Free public money from such wasteful, abysmal expenditures and use it to invest in proper infrastructure in the sugarbelt region – the feeder roads in the area that make cane farming a nightmare. Farmers cultivate sugarcane but cannot afford tea with sugar! Even after painstakingly tilling and patiently working a farm for 18 months. So when someone sits somewhere and calls such a farmer lazy – you baffle me.

You see, Mr President the 1 billion shillings allocated to Athi Galana irrigation project in FY2013/14 is such kind of ‘in-genuine’ solutions that fail the feasibility and allocative efficiency test. Same as this 1.1 billion areas clearing PR exercise. Go to Siaya County at the former Yala Swamp and you will see what private sector investment in agribusiness can do – Dominion Farm.

I wonder - If it wasn’t politricks then what? - I ask myself; why did the president choose the one political hot bed in Luo Nyanza to go dishing his political confectioneries? If he was genuine (and I would love to believe that he was), there are 4 other cane farming zones in the sugarbelt region all in a politically conducive, receptive Kisumu County. Why did the president choose the one county where political tensions were ripe; where a governor had just been threatened with impeachment up to the supreme court; the controversial ODM-PDP-Jubilee governor? To fuel tensions and blame it on the perennially politiking, lazy, hooliganist, intolerant Luos?

NOTE: I am well aware that there are those who will disagree with me from the 1st sentence; there are those who will agree with me from the title. Well – accord yourself the dignity to reflect and argue suitably.

Don't be too full of yourself

Living Kenya's real politik: 

Of Gladiators, Transitionals and Spectators

Verily, verily I tell you. Hark my voice. If you had anything in any way to do with the installation of President Uhuru, and you haven’t yet gotten your piece of the meat, or bones - YOU ARE TIME BARRED. The King wound up the rewards, rents and favours machinery last night with decorations for the oldies - the likes of Mwakwere, Ongeri etc.

So check yourself; you there. You who were so mad about the 'young' savvy president you were willing to butcher your neighbour, abuse and insult your friends on social media.

DO THE MATH. What have you gotten in return for your loyalty? For your grand standing? For your tribal fiefdom? Maybe chronic insecurity - you and I still living scared in the same Nairobi. Maybe poor public transport – You and I still chocking in dust, traffic jam packed rowdy matatus? Maybe the ingering spectre of poverty - its 15th you and I worried about our pockets?

Next time you go wearing party colours and chanting people’s names and reciting their awesomeness, remember me. I am your countryman, I might not be your brother, or your friend, or your tribe, but I got KENYAN blood running deep down my vena cava. I got the resilience and go get it attitude, same as you, that defines who we are as Kenyans.

Remember me. Remember that we will still share the same Matatu to wok, to town; that we will still share the same dingy pubs downing a Tusker, drowning our sorrows, chanting our frustrations at poorer bar maids and reliving our aspirations in our drunken selves. Remember that they shall have found themselves perks - all friend and foe - somewhere in government, in some state authority, department, embassy etc. sipping on their Moet, Chivas Regals and Hennessies in Karen.

Folks it is never that serious. Politics I mean. It is you and me, lowlies who haven’t gotten the hang of it. It is you and me, desperate with our sorry sore cheap lives that go on hating.

My political science professor at Maseno University, Tom Mboya taught me Basic concepts in political science. He said there are three levels of Political participation: 1) Gladiator stage, 2) Transitional, and 3) Spectator.

Gladiator stage my friend is where you find the folks on the news last night, receiving jobs and accolades. The ones you defended so hard when they were accused of hate mongering – like Makwere, or presiding over misapplication of state funds – like Ongeri. The ones the electorate rejected at the ballot at the ballot like Gitahae. Yes, despite all that, they are in government, ambassadors – the true face of Kenya out there - in DC, India, UN etc.

You my friend, my brother, my countryman – you are down here with me – in our Spectator life. Ordinary Kenyans, cheap, but not too poor to afford 10MBs for hate mongering on face book. Busy hustling for our survival but not too occupied to buy party emblems, red ribbons, oranges and yellow hats to show up at Kamkunji, Uhuru Park, Tononoka, Bukhungu, 54, Afraha, Kericho Green etc. That is our role – showing up for the numbers on TV later on. Singing ‘baba’, ‘shiyenyu ni shiyenyu’, ‘kamwana’. And of course the solemn one, showing up at 4am, standing on long ques for 7 hours to do the sacrosanct duty – VOTE.

I won’t say much about the Transitionals – but take care, they are the ones that look almost like you and me, but they are not us. They have access to the Gladiators and are in ‘transition there’. And they have access to us – so they can peddle all the falsehopes and whip emotions. They are the ones who block you from accessing ‘our man’ – ‘baba’ – ‘omundu khumundu’ when they ascend to power and we need to be rewarded.

My 2pence counsel to you this morning: - Do the arithmetic. Does the math add up? Elect your level of participation and live it, knowing the true consequences and opportunities that come with it.

#Okwaroztake - I am a spectator – at least for now; an open minded one, am I?

The 3 games in the USA - Africa summit:

America playing catch up with the Orient; Obama playing legacy politricks; and Africa playing host

Last week President Obama hosted Africa’s crème de la crème in Washington at the ‘US-Africa summit’. This was by all means a good thing and deserves a round of applause. However, it is imperative that Africans put this meeting into context and reflect on its efficacy.

Ask yourself: who decided the timing and schedule of the US – Africa summit? Who decided the venue? Who elected who to invite and who to alienate? Who determined the agenda?

Symbiosis or clever lopsidedness?
This summit came at a point in time when both the USA and Africa need one another.  Maybe USA needed Africa more. To claw back on Chinese influence in Africa after a lost decade fighting terror in the middle-East, to reassert US hegemony and ‘big-brotherdom’, to tap into Africa natural resources and to increase trade and investment in the region.

Trade: - Over the past decade, US-Africa trade declined substantially when some of US arch rivals and Africa’s trading partners like the European Union, China and Japan expanded their portfolio of trade and investment in the continent. Notably, EU-Africa trade expanded to an all-time high of about US$200 billion in 2013. Chinese – Africa trade likewise increased exponentially from just about US$10 billion in 2000 to US$ 170 billion in 2013 (largely exports to Africa - 70%). Meanwhile big brother USA’s trade that stood at US$80 billion (US$ 40 billion imports from Africa due to AGOA and US$ 20 billion exports to Africa) in 2011 declined to US$ 60 billion (US$ 40 imports from Africa and US$ 20 billion exports to Africa) in 2013. It is important to note that even the small portfolio of trade with Africa (US$ 20 billion exports) was very crucial for American jobs – supporting over 100,000 jobs. Therefore for America, this summit could not have been for a better reason than to explore and expand export opportunities for American goods and services in Africa.

 For Africa, this summit came at a time when the continent was ripe with opportunity and required strategic partnerships for trade, investment and for combating some of the ills that have perennially hamstrung economic, social and political progress in the continent like terrorism and violent conflict. It’s important to note that Africa’s trade with the rest of the globe accounts for only about 2%. Yet Africa is home to 14% of the global population; has an increasing middleclass population which will expand to 100 million by the end of 2015 and has consumer spending projected to increase to 80% by 2020.  This means market, that the continent could bargain with or leverage for intra-Africa trade. Moreover, African countries are prospecting or already exploiting and commercialising substantive natural resources, oil and gas, in Ghana, Mozambique, Angola, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, and South Sudan for example. African countries have also made considerable progress in regional integration and cooperation. The East African community for example was one of the fastest growing regional blocks in 2013. All this is evidence to the economic and political opportunities that Africa is realising that require strategic partnership and cooperation (multilateral or bilateral) like with the USA.

Just a playing ground or real prospects?

Africa is now undoubtedly a pot of gold, and a beehive of economic and political activity that could be a tipping point in global political economy. How the super powers like China and USA handle Africa could mean great opportunities or their greatest undoing. Could Africa be merely the amphitheatre for deep seated political and economic wrangles between the West and the Orient? Are African leaders alive to this reality? How could Africans exploit this for the best interest of the continent? These are difficult questions that require reflection amongst Africans.

Nonetheless, three possible good things that I hoped the summit could herald. Maybe Africans should check with their Presidents and entourage if any of these came through:  

·         Increasing USA Africa trade and investment through a strengthen and extended AGOA.  

·      Enhancing trade competitiveness in Africa: - African countries can exploit partnerships with USA to speed up progress towards meeting the Bali agreements on trade facilitation for example. This could also pave the way for useful Public Private Partnerships under AGOA that enhance competitiveness. Such links could also help build the capacity of private sector in African countries to promote investment in key sectors like energy, agriculture and other trade related infrastructure.

·   Africa US cooperation could also support and deepen regional integration in many of Africa’s mushrooming regional blocks like the EAC, ECOWAS, SADC, and COMESA. US partnership in Trade Mark East Africa is a good example of how strategic cooperation could facilitate integration.

Tricky partnerships

Nonetheless, the flipside is that this manner of cooperation or partnerships between the USA and Africa could as well have been detrimental to Africa or yield dismal returns. The summit itself could just have been another of the many conferences of ‘nothing’ that have been witnessed in the past. The agreements and pronouncements made also risk benefiting the USA more, judging by the lopsidedness of the conduct of the meeting.

However, one thing poses a greater threat to possibilities of a favourable outcome both for the USA and African countries. Both the USA and African (as individual states and as AU) appear to be ill prepared for the outcomes of the conference. Why? The US is not the only country that has noticed that potential opportunities in Africa. China has, and adapted quickly, fronting innovative modalities for development financing (that some African countries are warming up to), pursuing fewer restrictions on credit/loans and assistance strategies. The USA on the other hand is stuck in idealist modalities for development cooperation. Further, while China is actively and aggressively engaging Africa in all corners, US infrastructure for economic diplomacy in Africa appears lame and ill suited to succeed. China currently has over 150 commercial attaches in different corners of Africa while the US department for commerce has presence in just about four countries in the continent each of which supported by no more than two officers.

Africa on the other hand has failed to determine a common political-economic agenda and framework for haggling with potential partners in the international arena. The continent (AU) was unable to meaningfully influence the conduct of the summit in terms of setting the agenda, agreeing the modalities for engagement and so on. However, it is fair to note that some regional blocks like the East African Community met ahead of the summit in Nairobi and compromised to front some of the EAC’s infrastructure projects like Lamu Port Southern Sudan-Ethiopia Transport (LAPSSET) Corridor project as a block instead of individual bilateral engagements. In fact the architecture of the summit was in such a way that it couldn’t allow serious bilateral or even multilateral dialogue for substantive action.

Legacy politricks?

The question that cannot escape being asked is that about the timing of the summit. Why did the Obama administration choose 2014 to host this meeting? Why so late in the course of his tenure? Was Africa ever seriously on his agenda? Was this Obama’s clever way of making peace with his clearly underwhelmed kins? Is this summit for Obama’s memoirs? Every US president has had something to take home to the books in their sunset days. Bill Clinton penned the Africa Growth Opportunity Act (AGOA), that though not been fully exploited was something both for Africa and for the Democrat. George Bush, despite the bad name took the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) to his memoirs as one of the greatest initiatives for Africa. PEPFAR was very successful in supporting programming and interventions for combating HIV/AIDS. So, when all is said and done, was this Obama’s legacy card for Africa?

Beyond selfies, cowboy boots and statesons, what?

In summary, when all the picture ops are exploited, when all the dinning and winning on White house south lawn are done; when all the interviews with CNN and curtains drawn o the US-Africa summit, what have African leaders brought back home? Beyond selfies, cowboy boots and Stetsons; what should they have returned to Africa with? May be three things:

·     Extension and strengthening of the Africa Growth Opportunity Act (AGOA) beyond its expiry date in 2016. Strengthen the Act and encourage African countries to fully exploit the opportunities it offers. There are some countries that exported very little to the USA despite the provisions of AGOA.

·     A road map to a US-Africa trade and investment treaty: - The leaders could have laid the ground work for a bold move towards ratifying a treaty of partnerships (not necessarily of equals as many African leaders demand). They could have left Washington with a framework of action towards actualising this in the future.

·     From aid to partnerships: - This summit should have ignited the departure from more of aid or Official Development Assistance (ODA) or Humanitarian Assistance towards more of meaningful and inclusive partnerships for development financing, for combating terrorism and violent conflict, and addressing food insecurity and disasters like Ebola and HIV/AIDS. 

You do the math; sum up the expense of summoning 50 heads of state to the US for some 72 hrs and the returns. Check the bag of goodies that your ‘leader’ brought back home. Was it worth the hype? Are the prospects real?

You kill me Kenya!

You kill me Kenyans; with your shameless double standing, with your selective reasoning; with your insolence and ethnic chauvinism. You are poor (just like me). You own no land (just like me). You will die poor (just like me). Your children will inherit nothing (just like mine). But you are rich in your ethnicity – you are Luo, Kikuyu, kalenjin, Kamba, Luhya, Gussii, Ogiel bla bla. If ethnicity were monetized we would be billionaires! But you will die for your tribesman; what he owns you own too right? When you go home to your humility, you dine with him right?

Kenyans hark my voice. What your president and his company want you to do (and he's sure you will), is resign to the cheap lazy conversation of chest thumping and ethnocentrism and forget the real issue. How the point shifted from the chronic land grievances in the Coast instigated by historical land injustices to the guilt of former Lands Minister James Orango for not detecting illegal allocations, I wonder.

The point that people want to bury their heads in the sand and wish never existed is how a group of people found themselves in the Coast, settled in land that never belonged to them, but to people who were originally there, born there, displacing and disenfranchising them.

Kenyans it happened, all these will not end until we acknowledge that these injustices occurred. They have been well documented in the Truth Justice and Reconcilliation Commission report and the Ndungu report - of the Commission of Inquiry into the illegal/iregular allocation of public land. They will have to be addressed my fellow countrymen.

We all love Kenya. If you are young, take note that these folks in high office today will tear down this country to dust and leave us and our children this filth that they call Kenya and we will have to live in it or die in it. Wake up, we all hustle today to own 1/8ths of land in Nairobi when people are talking of thousands of hectares of land. But you are willing to defend them on social media, abuse, and murder and kill your 'facebook friends' because they are your fathers? Your brothers? Your mothers? Your tribe? Painful indeed!

Uhuru and Ruto are doing a great disservice to this nation. If they had no interest in addressing the 'sensitive' land issue - they should have kept off it and let Kenyans deal with it like we always have - accepted and moved on. Not open up a dangerous conversation they are not willing to honestly engage in. 

I hope no one finds this - hate mongering'. Am poor, I cannot afford 5 million Kshs bail. I only got my voice, my mind. Those are free, bequeathed to me by Ochieng Okwaroh (who never owned land) - no law, no man, can ever alienate or take them away, so long as they are just. I got no land and am not obsessed with land.

I am Okwaroh Ja' Paprombe. Good day Kenyans

Mr President: - focus on the real issues

Implement recommendations of TJRC and Ndungu reports

As Okwaroh I refuse to let people in public office insult my intelligence like Uhuru Kenyatta is trying to do. 

You show up on TV claiming to revoke titles for some 500K hectares of land allocated by the Government of Kenya when there are deeply rooted, chronic land grievances all over the country; fuelling ethnocentrism and threatening our nationhood that you are NOT saying a thing about. And we all know why!

IMPLEMENT the recommendations of the TJRC report, the Ndungu Report - "Report of the Commission of Inquiry into the Illegal/irregular allocation of public land. Public money and time was spent conducting investigations and gathering historical information for these two reports. But you want to rely on politically expedient 'new' investigations right?

This is the same president whose lieutenants told the International Criminal Court (ICC) that there are no records of his ownership of land in Kenya. Then he demands respect from Kenyans?

We passed the days of whimsical presidential decrees eons ago. Address the real land issues at the Coast not hiding behind LAPSSET if you want respect.

http://www.africog.org/reports/mission_impossible_ndungu_report.pdf

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-171707/what-tjrc-report-said-about-lamu-violence

God help us, forgive us for we have sinned.

Deliver us from the yokes of shameless PR, waste & kleptocracy

Dear Uhuru, Jubilee and Co. 

Next time you feel inspired and fired up to take Kenya to the lord in prayer, please, just kneel down on your well manicured office floor and pray, or in the car, or in the gym or on the plane now that yours is an airborne presidency.

Spare us the extra expenses of prayers at 5-starred hotels. The spectre of Safari Park Hotel wont rocket the prayer items to the almighty. 

We pray every day for our beloved Kenya - on the jam chocked in dust fumes and noise; in the quiet of our humble homes; in the sanctity of the many shrines that we have built with our honest kind contributions. Some of them are actually spruced enough to suit the ostentations of your stature and honour. And we believe God hears our prayers, we believe God sees our tears. He does respond! 

This is how God commands us to pray sir:

 "Matthew 6:5-12 - But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will repay you. "And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition, as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words"

"1 Timothy 2:8 - I will therefore that men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting"

I have hosted events in these starred hotels like you hosted prayers yester. A breakfast meeting like that costs at least 2000 Kshs per head. I saw on TV dignitaries well over 1000 sir, praying for Kenya at Safari Park. We spent at least 2million bob praying, even if we discount all the other costs of taking you and your convoy to Thika road and back, the time wasted on the jam for the rest of us lowlies.

I am hurt sir, that whilst prayer is good, and God asks us to pray and take all our tribulations (terrorism, Anglo leasing, ethnicity in public service etc) to him in prayer, we spent so much in a shameless PR exercise. I am not judging - I leave it to God! I am not righteous.

Amen.

AU; wobbling shamelessly like tuk tuk tires as bloodletting endures in South Sudan, CAR

This is the reason I got little patience for that cabal of selfish power mongers calling itself the African Union (AU). You have whined big time about how the west (US, France, UK, Germany etc) hijacked the process in Libya, Somalia. Big question is: 

What has the AU done in the wake of genocide in South Sudan; bloodletting in the Central African Republic? Even Somalia (what have been the returns thus far?).

When it was time to yank tirades at the west about the ICC, about sovereignty and imperialism - you were super-vocal. When it was time to peddle cheap rhetoric about the 'alternative' that is China - you made the loudest prolonged noise (in unison). When it was time to yap aimlessly about homosexuality - folks had loads to say uh?

But when serious commitment and concrete action is urgently needed to address some of Africa's saddest realities in South Sudan, CAR, Northern Nigeria, Eastern DRC, Kenya - people are wobbling like tuk tuk tires.

SHAME - where is Mugabe? Museveni? Jonathan? Zuma? Uhuru? Where are they with the balls now? Where are those others, multilaterals so bent on setting up political federations and unions like the East African Community, IGAD etc. Show us something.

#ListentoSouthSudan

How Uhuru Kenyatta has missed the point on the wage bill debate. Focussing on salary instead of the chronic wastage, pilferage and missapplication of resources in the public sector in Kenya

I am so sick in the stomach after reading this article. I dont know whether to weep or be annoyed for this country. These are just excerpts of an article by Paul Mwangi - former civil servant in the Government of Kenya giving a graphic account of the obscene wastage of public resources presided over by the national government. The article is crossposted after these quotes.
..........................................................................................................

"Standard lunch order in most of the meetings I attended was Chinese"
"I was also entitled to an official car, armed driver, armed bodyguard and two Police guards at the house"

"And though I took only about three to five cups of tea in the office, I learnt that my secretary was entitled to pick Sh20,000 to Sh40,000 to make my tea every month"

"At the end of the month, I received my airtime allowance in the form of cards from various service providers. The total amount was Sh27,000. If there is one thing my relatives, friends and subordinates miss from my service in government it is free airtime. Because try as I did, I couldn’t spend more than Sh7,000 of the allocation. And I got new cards every month."

"I don’t know but I have heard that the President’s confidential account often runs into billions of shillings and in the last regime was the cause of the short and tumultuous tenures of many a Comptroller of State House under whose office the account is operated"

"And when the work is done, the committee members would be paid an allowance for serving in that committee. This goes anywhere from Sh10,000 to Sh50,000 per person. If it is a gazetted task force, the sum would be a few hundred thousand shillings. Never mind that these allowances are being paid for work that everyone was employed to do in the first place, and will be paid for with a salary at the end of the month."
..................................................................................................

"Every day is party time in government offices - By PAUL MWANGI

For slightly over 12 months since January 2012, I served as the Legal Advisor to the Prime Minister. It was a position that placed me at the highest levels of the Civil Service, with a pay grade of Job Group “U”, otherwise known as “PS level”.

What I learnt and observed about government in that short period of time makes me conclude that the President’s attempt at bringing down the wage bill by taking a 20 per cent pay cut, and enforcing the same across the board, is incredibly naive. (READ: Backlash meets Uhuru’s move to take salary cut)

The problem with the exorbitant public wage bill is not the salaries. In fact, I think it is a good thing that the government is now able to attract competent staff and Kenyans will benefit from good public service, less corruption and thus a more productive private sector.

The problem with Kenya’s wage bill is wastage and abuse. All the way from State House to the tea room at the ministries, tax payers’ money is lost through wasteful use of resources and abuse of authority.

The first encounter I had with waste was when a requisition was made for furniture to my office. As a senior government officer, I was entitled to my own colour printer, computer, laptop, ipad, television, document shredder and water dispenser.

I have never seen such wasteful use of resources in the private sector in Kenya. In the commercial sector, printers are shared by many offices, as are water dispensers, shredders and televisions. And laptops are only issued to persons engaged in field work.

AIR TIME

At the end of the month, I received my airtime allowance in the form of cards from various service providers. The total amount was Sh27,000.

If there is one thing my relatives, friends and subordinates miss from my service in government it is free airtime. Because try as I did, I couldn’t spend more than Sh7,000 of the allocation. And I got new cards every month.

And though I took only about three to five cups of tea in the office, I learnt that my secretary was entitled to pick Sh20,000 to Sh40,000 to make my tea every month.

I was entitled to tea, coffee or hot chocolate as I desired and to a choice of sugar or honey for my sweetener.

There were no less than ten senior offices to whom this allocation was made and many of us never got to know how much was picked or spent on our office accounts.

The fault, I came to learn, was not with the senior officers. The rules of service set these entitlements and they accrue as a matter of course.

This account is just a tip of the iceberg.

I was also entitled to an official car, armed driver, armed bodyguard and two Police guards at the house.

Personally I did not think anyone was looking out to harm me so I only took an official car and an armed driver which I used during working hours. But I have observed that since the NARC government of 2003, the use of police security has become increasingly abused.

It is surprising that in the Moi government, with all its excesses, one never witnessed the almost comical spectacle we are being treated to everyday on our street where every minister, senator and governor is running around with several chase cars blaring sirens and a security detail at the expense of the taxpayer.

Without doubt our Cabinet Secretary in charge of internal security and his Permanent Secretary need to be accorded some serious security but who wants to harm the cabinet secretaries in charge of such mundane responsibilities like fisheries, sports or economic planning?

Sometimes in the process of work, it requires ad hoc committees to be formed by members of the same department or ministry, or sometimes members from various ministries, to see through a process or discuss an issue.

When this happens, tea must be served at 10a.m. and at 4p.m. together with snacks. The snacks will be a samosa, a sausage and a ndazi per person. And lunch too. Standard lunch order in most of the meetings I attended was Chinese.

I think it is sad that for the level of service the civil service gives Kenyans, it would be having Chinese lunches at the tax payers’ expense.

ALLOWANCES

And when the work is done, the committee members would be paid an allowance for serving in that committee. This goes anywhere from Sh10,000 to Sh50,000 per person. If it is a gazetted task force, the sum would be a few hundred thousand shillings. Never mind that these allowances are being paid for work that everyone was employed to do in the first place, and will be paid for with a salary at the end of the month.

But to make this bad situation worse, there are kingpins in the accounts offices of almost every government department that control all payments with absolute discretion to pay or deny.

These big wigs’ names must be put in every payment list for money to be approved. So for every committee or task force requisitions, these kingpins earn sitting allowances as a matter of course.

Their names must also appear in every list of per diem payments for people travelling out of station.

I heard of accountants who make at least Sh500,000 in a dry month through these illegal payments.

But it is not just the lower cadre bigwigs who exercise these abuses. I learnt that all senior government Ministers have confidential accounts that run into millions of shillings from which they are authorised to spend money without the scrutiny of the Auditor General, or the Controller of Budget, or Parliament.

These monies are allocated directly from the Treasury and are replenished as they are spent at the direction of the Minister of Finance.

The worst abuser of this confidential spending was the Office of the Head of the Civil Service and the Presidency at State House.

I don’t know but I have heard that the President’s confidential account often runs into billions of shillings and in the last regime was the cause of the short and tumultuous tenures of many a Comptroller of State House under whose office the account is operated.

In this day and age, it is unbelievable that any office in the public service can spend millions of shillings at its discretion without any budgetary approvals and with immunity from any form of scrutiny, even from Parliament.

This picture of abandon, waste and abuse would not be complete without mentioning two other practices.

One is foreign travel. We have too many Cabinet secretaries, permanent secretaries and other senior government officers are flying out to attend meetings that are not critically necessary to the tax payer or that can be attended by diplomatic mission representatives.

In many instances, the President, Deputy President and Cabinet Secretaries are accompanied by staff and other people )whose presence and services are totally irrelevant to the taxpayer who pays for their travel.

There is no guideline in government regarding what is essential travel or who are essential personnel. In many instances, the work being done during these travels can be completed by foreign missions and the knowledge being sought can be learnt from the internet.

RETREATS

A similar wasteful practice is the going for retreats to do work that can be easily done at the office. In these retreats, all manner of staff members jump into the bus for the free tours. They collect allowances for these attendances while others, who never left the office, are also on the allowances list. But let’s not go there.

The second practice that I must mention in closing is training at the East and Southern Africa Management Institute at Arusha, Tanzania. Popularly known as ESAMI, this institute is a regional training centre owned by ten member governments to train senior government officers in critical areas of management.

However, this Institute has become the place where some Permanent Secretaries sent their sycophants at the ministry and their girlfriends to while away their time and earn allowances. Many senior officers who qualify and deserve to go don’t get a chance.

Some people are known to have attended many times over while others wait for a single chance. And when they attend, they are not only paid full salary but are paid allowances that run into hundreds of thousands of shillings for being out of station.

These are just some of the wasteful practices that are a culture in Kenya’s civil service which the President should be addressing. I want to believe that he is not being briefed on the full picture but I remember that he has served for more than a decade as a Cabinet Minister and five years as a deputy Prime Minister."

15 Reasons why there is little glitter on Kenya's silver jubilee

President Obama said at the Nelson Mandela Memorial on Wednesday that "there are too many [people] who stand on the sidelines comfortable in complacency when [their] voices must be heard". As Kenyans, over the 5 decades of our nationhood, quite often we have succumbed to this manner of complacency, reducing ourselves to victims of mediocre leadership, bad governance and underdevelopment. As Kenya celebrates her 50th birthday, I refuse to be part of that crop of complacent citizens, always scapegoating and sugar-coating stuff when our unequivocal opinions against ineptitude need to be heard. This blog is a cynical one, negative if you elect to see it that way. It is by all means intended to make noise only about the unacceptable bad things that have gone on for too long in Kenya. They say there is nothing as stubborn as facts. So instead of arguing, I elected to use statistics to drive home my discontent with the status of affairs 50 years after independence. Here are 15 reasons why there is little to celebrate about Kenya's 50 years of self government:  

NOTE: The methodology employed in the analyses was entirely based on the famous pronouncement by Kenya's first president Jomo Kenyatta on 12 December 1963:  "The new government [would] eliminate three great scourges - poverty, ignorance and disease." Data was sourced mainly from the World Bank (World Development Indicators), IMF, Africa Economic Outlook, UNDP's - Human Development Index, the OPHI's Multidemensional Poverty Index, the Reporters Without Borders' World Press Freedom Index, and Transparency International's Corruption Perception Index. The data was used to analyse and track the trajectory of international indicators of poverty, education (ignorance) and health (disease). Comparisons were made with select countries in Africa (like Botswana, Uganda and Rwanda which were more or less at par with Kenya in 1963) and others in Asia (Singapore, South Korea and Indonesia) - mainly due to a common reference by leaders in Kenya to the Asian Tigers and their purported commitment to making Kenya a middle income economy. 

1. Half of Kenyans still poor despite independence promise 5 decades ago

Eradication of poverty was item no.1 in the independence government's to do list. The president in his inaugural speech declared poverty enemy number one to Kenya. Nonetheless, 50 years down the lane Kenya has ended up with nearly half of the population still caught up in poverty.    

In 2013, about 43.3% (15 million) were living on less than US$ 1.25 a day and about 47.8% were entangled in multiple dimensions of poverty and deprivation. What is more alarming is the fact that, poverty indicators are worse when sub national data is considered. The national figures mask marked extremities and chronicity in many counties across the country especially in rural areas. There is a cohort of individuals whom poverty eradication programmes and traditional service delivery channels are characteristically leaving behind.

2. Alarming inequality 

The '50 years of independence celebrations have been running on the slogan: 'pamoja twasonga mbele' - Swahili for 'together we forge on'. Therein is the connotation of oneness and a commonality in progress and aspirations for the future. The data however illustrates how far that is far from the reality. In Kenya today, the gap between the poor and the rich has widened to unprecedented breadths. The country has grown to have a minority proportion of population controlling the bulk of the country's wealth as the majority as struggle with access to basic day to day requirements for human survival. Some 4 million people (10% of total population) control nearly 40% (37.8%) of the country's total income leaving the other 37 million Kenyans to share the remaining 60%. 

  

Worse still, there is a cohort of 4 million other Kenyans (the poorest 10%) who share just about 2% (1.9%) of the country's total income. Isn’t it intriguing therefore to imagine how the country could possibly be moving ahead together when some Kenyans worry about hunger and very basic needs like a toilet as others whine about Wi-Fi and smart phones? 

3. Corruption continues to squander Kenya's prime years 

There is some commonality in the appreciation that Kenya has lost colossal amounts of public resources that could otherwise have been leveraged to improve service delivery and grow the economy to corruption. Throughout the 3 epochs of independence in Kenya (the Kenyatta, Moi and Kibaki regimes), corruption was alive, facilitating the plundering of public resources, the weakening of institutions and destruction of the national fabric. It is interesting to note how successive administrations nonetheless postured their commitment to fighting corruption even as the country witnessed Goldenberg, Anglo leasing, Oil, Maize scams etc.

In 2013, the Transparency International's Corruption Perception Index showed Kenya still trailing at position 136 out of 177 with 2.7 indicating a highly corrupt system. In fact, Kenya never scored more than 2.7 points since the inception of the index in 1995. This is despite investment of substantial public resources on legislation and institutions aiming to deal with corruption. Whilst the CPI is a useful indicator of corruption, the reality of corruption in Kenya is more pronounced, endemic and systemic (both grand and petty corruption). The prominence of corruption is an indictment on the moral fabric of the Kenyan nation and on the commitment and aptitude of the country's leadership. 

4. A hung, exam-centric education system

Despite receiving one of the largest outlays of public resources over the past five decades (average 18% of total government spending), education performance in Kenya has remained unsatisfactory especially in areas of access and quality. Learning outcomes have been low. For example research showed in 2012 that 7 out of 10 children in class 3 could not do class 2 work and over 10% of children in class 8 could not do simple class 2 math. The education system is largely exam-centric with little focus on creativity, innovation, critical thought and complex reasoning. The human capital the country has been churning out of the education system has not been sufficiently suited to for economic development. 

Moreover, there are still over 1 million school age children out of school (denied access to basic education).  Long term lack of access to basic education has precipitated skills deficits amongst young people. This has not only been counterproductive for economic growth, but also made the exit from poverty difficult and predisposed the country to violence. The system and its delivery channels still not reaching marginalised: there is need to address prevalent inequalities that limit the poorest and marginalised from accessing quality education.  

5. More than half of Kenyan women still giving birth in deplorable conditions 

Five decades after independence, over 50% of Kenyan women still delivering in deplorable conditions without basic medical care. In 2013 more than half of expectant women delivered without the aid of a skilled birth attendant. This was more pronounced in rural areas where women had to walk long distances to access antenatal, delivery and post-natal care. For some of them, even where it was accessible it was not affordable thus resorting to unsafe home deliveries that exacerbated maternal mortality, death of children before age 5 and growth of a population of physically and psychologically disadvantaged children due to birth complications. Surely, a sovereign state unable to guarantee safe motherhood after 5 decades has benefitted least from its freedom. Meanwhile peer countries and other states Kenya has aspired to be like perform way better even though they tax their citizens much lower than we do in Kenya. 

6. Over 73 out of every 1000 Kenyan kids did not live to see their 5th birthday in 2013

In 2013, at least 73 out of every 1000 children died before their 5th birthday in Kenya and the situation will not be any different in 2014. Meanwhile, the statistic was only about 55 in Rwanda, 31 in Indonesia, 4 in South Korea and 2 in Singapore. Incidentally, Rwanda and Indonesia had higher infant mortality rates than Kenya in 1963 and they both taxed their citizens lower than Kenya did over the same period. Clearly, we could have done a tad bit more with 50 years of self rule.

7. Over 70% of the population without access to proper sanitation 

How is it possible that a country and her leaders can find the audacity to lecture people about self determination in the international political arena when they cannot guarantee themselves basic sanitation - a dignified way to shit (as crude as it may sound? Even after 50 years of self determination, less than 30% of the population in Kenya has access to proper sanitation.

8. Minimal public expenditure on health

Despite having aimed to fight disease as one of the impediments to development at independence, the intentions seem not to have been followed through with policy commitment and resource allocation. Investments in health remained minimal in Kenya over the past 50 years. The government spent no more than 5.0% of the country's GDP on health. That is even after President Moi went to Abuja, Nigeria in 2001 and declared together with other African heads of state that Kenya will spend at least 15% of total government revenues on health. In fact, between 2002 and 2012, average government spending on health as a proportion of total government revenues was only about 4.1%. The World Health Organisation recommends that to meet the minimum requirements for basic healthcare, every government must spend at least US$44 on every citizen every year. However for Kenya, per capita public spending on health was just about US$17 in 2013. 

What it means is that the country’s healthcare system was deprived of necessary resources to expand facilities, procure medical supplies and to employ and sustain sufficient medical personnel. No wonder since 1975, the country’s doctor to patient ration remained very low - one doctor serving at least 10,000 people. Question is, how did we expect to nurture a healthy productive population then? Look yonder; since 2000 Rwanda has increased investment in health from 4.5% of GDP to over 10.8% in 2012. The returns are evident - marked decline in maternal mortality as well as infant mortality.

10. Increasing debt burden

The average Kenyan in 2013 owes way more than is justifiable. The stock of the country’s external debt increased significantly over the decades of independence. In 2013, the country owed more than US$12 billion down from less than US$2 billion in the first decade of independence. The question is: what has driven the exponential growth in the country’s debt? Was it justified? What is there to show for the increased indebtedness? For what reasons did we borrow so much? In everyday life, those who owe so much have little control over their affairs; they command little respect and predispose themselves to danger. The Kenya child born today inherits a burden of debt that has faint justification for. What is worrisome is the fact that this trend in borrowing will continue at least in the midterm.    

11. Taxing heavily, borrowing overly yet still living beyond our means

Despite heavily taxing Kenyans and borrowing a lot, the government of Kenya still operated on budgets with significant deficits over the 50 years of its independence. The country’s accounts seldom balanced. Most of these deficits were funded by increased lending (which explains the enormous external debt portfolio) and Official development Assistance which increased the country’s vulnerability to influence by donors and other development partners. This was surely antithetical to the sovereignty narrative and pointed towards low capacity and/or overwhelming resource demands. 

12. Dismally performing economy

Squandering our wealth and destiny or bankrupt of ideas? Kenya began almost at par with Botswana, and Indonesia at independence in terms of national wealth. At independence, per capita income in Kenya was US$321.8 compared to Botswana (US$ 373.3), Indonesia (US$281.0) and Rwanda (US$ 196.8). Incidentally, in 2012, Botswana was more than 11 times richer than Kenya, Indonesia more than 3 times richer and even Rwanda that started poorer than Kenya was inching closer. Economic growth has been intermittent and slow, disrupted by both internally and externally driven vulnerabilities. 

The talk of transforming Kenya into a middle income economy, transforming agriculture and industry to drive growth appears to have been no more than the rhetoric. Successive administrations articulated the prominence of agriculture – it being the 'backbone of the economy'. However, this was not followed with commensurate commitment in terms of policy, and resource allocation. The agriculture sector despite employing a large proportion of the country’s workforce and contributing substantially to the country’s GDP (average 22.7% between 2002 and 2012) remained largely underfunded, underdeveloped and inefficient. Again Kenya ratified a declaration commiting to spend at least 10% of the country's national revenue to agricuture. However, by 2012, the ountry had not only failed to beat this target but was also allocating the least ever proportion of resiurce to the sector (jus about 1.6%).  Likewise, industrial development was touted throughout the 50 years of independence as a crucial driver for economic growth. Politicians promised an industrialised economy by 2015, then shifted to 2020 (after realising the inevitability of failure).

Well facts are stubborn: Kenya is still far from an industrialised economy and the agriculture sector is still largely subsistence oriented with minimal value addition. Agriculture value added as a percentage of Kenya’s GDP declined from 35.3% in 1965 to 29.3% in 2012, in fact, save for 1976-77 (mostly attributable to the coffee boom), it never grew beyond the proportion in 1965. Likewise, industry value added as a percentage of GDP declined from 18.1% in 1965 to 17.4% in 2012 (it never went beyond 20.7% throughout our history).

13. High cost of living despite heavy taxation

Kenyans are so far among the most taxed citizens in the globe. In 2011, the tax - GDP ratio was at 19.5%. That was higher than Singapore (13.8%), Indonesia (11.8%), even South Korea (15.6%), yet the level of economic growth, infrastructure development as well as access to public goods was way higher in these countries. At nearly 20.0% of GDP, having increased the tax rate and overly broadened the tax base – the government should have been in access to domestic resources sufficient to guarantee effective service delivery and better living standards for Kenyans. 

Nonetheless, the status of public service is deplorable and the general cost of living continued to increase as evidenced by the rate of inflation. The question that begs then is what have we done with our tax money? What good do law abiding, taxpaying citizens take home besides the plethora of negatives - poor infrastructure, inept public services, high costs of consumer goods etc?  

14. Still struggling with press freedom

Since independence, Kenya posed as a forward looking state seeking to embody the ideals of modern liberal democracies. A key tenet of civilised democratic societies is the openness and freedom of the press. Whilst Kenya has progressed in removing barriers to media freedom, there are outstanding issues that the country has failed to address. Legislation and regulations limiting access to information, punitive laws allowing prosecution of journalists/media houses as well as government quasi-control of the media have derailed the pursuit of free press. The Reporters Without Borders’ World Press Freedom Index has ranked Kenya below the ‘satisfactory situations’ category since its inception in 2002. All the rankings have been under ‘noticeable problems’ implying that Kenya has failed to address pertinent issues crucual to realising free press. 

 15. Trailing even in soccer