Can Jubilee halt Kenya’s slide to failed state status?

The events of this week highlighted by schoolchildren taking matters into their own hands to reclaim their playground from grabbers were a gawky exposé of the nature of the State Kenya has become.

The gaucheness of the state machinery in confronting unarmed children and the shilly-shallying of top leaders in identifying the land grabbers has left many Kenyans nonplussed and incredulous of the government.

There is no gainsaying that even before the dust has settled and the wind has blown away the tear gas, Kenyans are already stretching necks and tweeting the horizon for the next tantalizing mega-scandal or tragic event.

Kenyans seem to care less as to who was responsible for the 2007-2008 post-election violence that claimed over 1,100 lives and displaced more than 500,000 people, for the massacres in Baragoi, Tana River, Mpeketoni and Mandera, for the terrorist attacks in Nairobi, Mombasa and Garissa and the mega-scandals ranging from Goldenburg to Anglo-leasing and many others that have cost the country dearly.

It is not just Kenyans who are reluctant to hold the government to account, even the government itself has admitted failing to hold public servants accountable.

In a report entitled Evaluation Report on Public Service Compliance with Values and Principles in Articles 10 and 232 of the Constitution for the Year 2013-2014, the PSC reveals that none of the 288 Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) that signed performance contracts achieved all targets in 2014.

The government was unable to appraise staff in 85 per cent of ministries and departments. In the 15 per cent appraised, only 34 per cent of the staff was assessed.

If the government cannot assess performance of public servants, how are they being held accountable? This is a violation of Article 10 of the Constitution that “binds all State organs, State officers and public officers” to the principles of “good governance, integrity, transparency and accountability.”

How does the government award pay rises, promote, demote and dismiss staff without performance appraisals? If the most public officers are not held accountable then the government is also unaccountable.

Since 2010, The Fund for Peace (FfP) has consistently listed Kenya as a failing state. Although the government and its supporters have protested this ranking, there is mounting evidence provided by the FfP, Transparency International (TI), Freedom House (FH), the UNDP, and FIFA justifying this classification.

The FfP ranked Kenya on the basis of the social, economic, political, justice and security indicators. Socially, the country’s youth bulge has contributed to gangsterism, radicalisation, urban violence, and banditry. The state is also cited for poorly managing its cultural diversities, refugees and pressures to settle IDPs.

GROUP GRIEVANCES

The rise of group grievances is attributed to the feeling of being discriminated against for not voting for the “Jubilee alliance” in the last elections.

As Kenya experiences uneven economic development and generates a huge population of urban poor, income disparities between haves and have-nots are widening, and wealth is concentrated in a small population.

With the rise in poverty levels, the government is finding it difficult to provide for the basic needs of the citizens and making policies that diminish purchasing power while bloating the deficit, government debt, unemployment and inflation.

UNDP’s Human Development Index lowly rates Kenya due to high-income disparities, poverty levels, GNI per capita, household deprivations in education, health and living standards.

Politically, Kenya’s factionalised elites are embroiled in endless intrigues and brinkmanship for political gains at the expense of public good, resulting in official corruption, flawed elections and violence.

The high level of corruption is amplified by TI’s Corruption Perception Index, which ranks Kenya as the 29th most corrupt country in the world and the 12th most corrupt in Africa.

The World Bank also ranks Kenya low globally in terms of the ease of doing business.
In terms of human rights, there was a noted increase in violations of human rights and disrespect for the rule of law. This was accompanied by curtailing or rolling back freedoms, police executions, use of state instruments to express political intolerance, attempts to muzzle the press and freedom of expression and clamping down on public protests.

It is as a result of this reality that the Freedom House rates Kenya as partly free due to its “continued” intimidation of “civil society groups that spoke out in favour of the prosecution of President Kenyatta and other top officials at the International Criminal Court”.

Kenya’s security apparatus have failed to contain internal conflicts, proliferation of small arms, riots and protests, violent groups, terrorism and other violent crimes.

In a study entitled Guns: Our Security, Our Dilemma! Enhancing Accountability for Police Use of Firearms, the Independent Medico-Legal Unit (IMLU), found out that, between 2009- 2013, the police were responsible for 67 per cent of gun-related deaths in six major urban areas.

The Institute for Economics and Peace ranks Kenya as the 12th most terrorist-prone country in the world and third in Africa.

The damp squib is also experienced in the sports world, where we are dejectedly witnessing the collapse of cricket, rugby, football and even athletics. Most sports that could be used to unify the nation are on their knees.

Kenyans are nostalgic of the days cricket and rugby teams were world class. They crave the days their athletes were sources of pride and admired cultural ambassadors. Even FIFA has not spared us by ranking Kenya 117 in the world, the worst in the country’s football history.

Kenya is also navigating dangerous waters when it allows state responsibilities to be taken over by opportunistic politicians such as Mike Sonko and criminal syndicates such as Mungiki.

While the later takes advantage of the vacuum left by a retreating state to provide services such as security for a fee, politicians who purport to offer services to the public contribute to fungibility, which relieves the national and county governments responsibilities of providing for the citizens.

Fungibility frees money for junkets, allows misappropriation and abuse of public funds, and leads citizens to shift demands for services from governments to politicians.

This creates a dependency on politicians which they exploit to demand or increase their salaries and other benefits to meet voters’ exorbitant demands.

Why is Kenya failing as a state? It is obvious that Uhuruto’s Kenya is more complex than Jomo Kenyatta’s, Moi’s and Kibaki’s. Despite their limited experience in state management, Uhuru and Ruto are supervising a budget of Sh1.77 trillion, a bureaucracy of 170,000 and 48 governments.

The ethnic groups have remained 42, depending on how one counts them, but they number 44 million people.

Added to ethnic diversities are economic, religious, generational and gender differences that require specialised skills in governance. The state governors must have the capacity and capability to manage these diversities and to deliver public goods and services in ways that do not marginalise some groups.

The state must also be governed in a way that institutions and systems are respected.

VALUES OF EQUITY
Such a state must also embrace the values of equity, equality, fairness and justice, failure to which fault-lines that weaken or erode the fibre holding us together emerge.

The strength of a state is measured by its capability to deliver high quality public goods and services to its citizens, secures its borders from external threats, maintains law and order, and guarantees an enabling environment for citizens to enhance their livelihoods.

If Kenya fails, it will not be because we lack leadership that has the energy and opportunity but because we have failed to implement the Constitution, misgoverned the state and abandoned nation building.

Prof Ng’ulia is a security expert. [email protected]