Technocrats in government appear to be lost in the turbulent sea of public service

There has been an increasing tendency of the government to recruit some successful private sector managers into the public service leadership with the aim of improving service delivery and efficiency. But has this objective been achieved?

To answer this question, let us look back at the era of President Moi when the recruitment of private sector technocrats was attempted.

Faced with a country in political and economic crisis in the 1990s, President Moi tried all the survival tricks. He consented to Kenya becoming a multiparty state.

Later, as the political pressure piled up, he agreed to the formation of the Inter-Party Parliamentary Group that oversaw the creation of an all-inclusive electoral commission in which opposition parties were represented.

However, those bold political manoeuvres pale in comparison to Moi’s grand decision in the late 1990s when he appointed technocrats, the so-called ‘Dream Team’ to his government.

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In a move aimed at appeasing donors and simultaneously containing the political hurricane facing his government, Moi surprised friends and foe alike when he not only fished out one of his lead critics, Dr Richard Leakey, from the Opposition, but also went ahead to make him Secretary to the Cabinet and head of the civil service.

Kenyans who were suffocating under the weight of a corrupt and inefficient government then anxiously waited for the miracle from the Dream Team. It never came true by the time this team of experts quietly left government.

What I can vouch for with certainty is that their performance in government was nowhere near that of the succeeding Kibaki team led by career civil servants under the stewardship of Mr Francis Muthaura.

Hate him or adore him, Mr Muthaura was very professional in his work, even in the tumultuous political climate of the Grand Coalition government. It was during these 10 years that Kenya achieved tangible post-colonial development with significant percentage of funds from domestic sources.

Fast forward to 2014 and we have a new breed of technocrats in governance, some elected as governors and others appointed as Cabinet Secretaries in the ‘digital’ Jubilee coalition government.

WHAT AILS KIDERO?

Take the governor of Nairobi, Dr Evans Kidero. With a trail of success as a CEO, right from Glaxo-Smithkline, to the Nation Media Group and finally as CEO of Mumias sugar factory, he is by all parameters one of the most successful corporate managers in Kenya.

But has his credentials brought the glamour that was envisaged in the capital city?

Since assuming the job as the governor of Nairobi over one year ago, even simple measures that one imagined required a month or two like cleaning up the city and lighting the streets, are yet to be realised.

The city streets have never been so untidy in post-Moi years. There is darkness in nearly all estates at night where muggers rule, and hawkers’ occupation of the city has reached an all-time high.

In short, the performance of the Nairobi county government is a pale shadow of what was achieved several years back by a career public service administrator, Mr John Gakuo, who was the Town Clerk.

Mr Gakuo’s stint at City Hall was characterised by some of the most conspicuous positive developments ever witnessed in the city.

The streets were swept and those found littering arrested, pedestrian crossings were clearly marked and motorists compelled to give way or face the law, street lights were installed and remained in working condition, grass alongside highways was cut and trees planted.

BUREAUCRATIC MAZE

All that beauty and order evaporated when Mr Gakuo retired. The slide backwards began under Mr Philip Kisia and not much has changed since.

The question is: Are successful managers in the private sector capable of similar feats in the public sector? Today’s Cabinet, like Moi’s Dream Team, is full of technocrats picked from the private sector, but it appears to have made minimal impact one year down the line.

Confusion reigns in many important sectors, right from the haphazard security operations to erratic deployment of doctors in the devolved healthcare system.

The tides of the public sector ocean appear too strong for the ship captained by the private sector technocrats. They are either taking too long to learn or are simply overwhelmed by the bureaucratic maze of public service.

From this, one can conclude that the public sector in Kenya is best managed by those who have undergone a baptism of fire and emerged unscathed.

Managers of public service institutions should be picked from among their rank and file, so long as they are identified through proper vetting that considers best leadership qualities untainted by the neoplastic corruption that lurks in our systems.

Dr Odhiambo is a senior lecturer, College of Health Sciences, University of Nairobi. ([email protected])