Kenyans ill-prepared to deal with tragedies
Dear Mr/Mrs Public Safety Officer, Forgive me because I do not know if you exist. I am writing to you because this is a sad time for the people of Kenya. More than 20 people are reported to have died after Nakumatt Downtown Supermarket burnt down.
More than 25 others cannot be accounted for and their families are spending sleepless nights and restless days, wondering if their loved ones are dead or alive.
If you exist, sir/madam, this is the time to make your presence known. Of course, you will be lucky if the people outside the rubble that was the supermarket do not lynch you. After all, they have never seen you at work.
But even if you have been doing a shoddy job, the recent tragedy is wake up call to you and to other officers and agencies whose jobs is to ensure public safety and to prevent disasters like the Nakumatt fire from having such a devastating effect.
The problem with Kenyans, sir/madam, is that we do not learn from history. Remember when a building collapsed in downtown Nairobi, we made lots of noise.
But once the victims were buried, we forgot all about the tragedy. Today, we are angry. We are inconsolable and we are demanding answers. Were water hydrants working?
Was there an emergency door at the supermarket? How many fire engines does the council have? Where were they when they were needed? How are we, as a metropolis, prepared to deal with a similar tragedy in future? Who should be held accountable for the deaths of the innocents?
But hardly do we ever ask: How can such a problem be avoided in future? And if it cannot be avoided, how can we respond in a way that will reduce lost of life and property to the barest minimum? What did we not do that we should have done? What did we do that we should not have done?
There is only one person who can give us guidelines on these matters – you. But we do not even know if you exist.
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Internet the way to go for public services
Judging by the launch of the online tax returns filing system launched by the Kenya Revenue Authority on Thursday, one can safely conclude that the internet is going to play a major role in streamlining public services in the near future.
With the system now up and running, it is possible for an importer to file documents online and have the goods cleared without having to queue for days on end at KRA offices at the port or elsewhere.
Employers and other major tax payers can also file their returns online and KRA will be more than happy to receive their billions. But commendable as this reform may be, it still remains a small step compared to the task ahead. Consider, for instance, that the mountains of documents at the Ministry of Lands – some of which date back to the 1800s – are yet to be digitised.
Even in other ministries, especially those that deal directly with the public, there is a great deal that needs to done to improve service delivery and reduce red tape, which has made Kenya a not-so-attractive business and investment destination compared to other countries in East Africa, particularly Rwanda.
Interestingly, although Kenya is better wired to the internet than Rwanda, it is not considered as tech-savvy as the land of a thousand hills. What this means is that it is not enough to put some services online. It must have a tangible effect on business efficiency.
The higher the number of beneficiaries, the better the service. It also calls for the training of public officials to adopt thinking that puts them in the inner lanes of the information superhighway.
As it were, many civil servants are still living in the age of the typewriter and have turned public offices into torture chambers where getting served is akin to squeezing water from a stone. The Government is using analogue minds to process digital services!
Be that as it may, the willingness demonstrated by KRA and other public institutions to embraced e-services is an indication that the Government has realised that its arms have to embrace technology if they are to achieve any meaningful reforms and remain relevant in the modern, globalised economy.
As much as the Ministry of Information and Communication has been vilified for some of its oversights, it must be acknowledged that it has done better than the private sector in driving the agenda of embracing internet technology as a business-enhancing strategy.
But as is the case with the new tax returns systems, many of the e-reforms are targeting what marketers call “high-end” customers, which simply means those with big money. In financial terms, public institutions are investing a great deal of money to serve only a small fraction of their customers.
True, this may be the first phase whose success or failure could determine if the plan can be expanded to lower tax brackets. But still it ignores the vast majority of people who require services from KRA and who have no option but to queue for days to get served.
Tiresome
Take the PIN card for instance. It is still tiresome for those seeking to register as tax payers or who for one reason or another have lost their PIN cards to secure this piece of paper easily and conveniently. Yet, the PIN card is not a security document.
KRA should consider providing this and other similar services online so that one can print out a PIN card by logging in their names and identity card numbers.
This would go a long way in making the business systems friendlier to a greater majority who need the card for various transactions.
What is more, this would free up vast space at Times Towers and eradicate the hoods of brokers who have turned the KRA headquarters into an informal market of dubious services.
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Pilferage of letters continues
The days of the scented love letter may be long gone, thanks to the arrival of the internet and SMS. But that is not to say that the post office is allowed to lose the items that its customers choose to send through it.
There are times that one has to send books, magazines, cards and other forms of “snail mail” using the traditional method. And these days, this is likely to cost quite some money since the post office has increased its charges considerably.
But judging from the complaints raised in the Cutting Edge column of the Daily Nation, it is evident that cases of pilferage by post office staff are becoming increasingly common. I know someone who sent a card to his sister in Greece on December 10 but it is yet to arrive.
Sent parcel
I know because it happened to me, just as it happened to Boni Okwaro. He sent a parcel from Japan on the same day and the recipient is yet to get it.
Such cases have not helped to improve the battered image of the post office and it is not difficult to see why potential customers are turning to private courier service.
But since the post-office is a public institution, we shall continue to insist that the postmaster-general guarantee his customers that their letters and parcels will be delivered without being tampered with. Or has he already started implementing the Kenya Communications (Amendment) Act of 2008?
