The danger of public officers being involved in political campaigning

Per State House, public officers are free to campaign for the re-election of President Kenyatta and his Jubilee Party. Per State House, the Cabinet and Principal Secretaries involved are just making known the investment of taxpayer money, thus enabling citizens to realise Kenya’s transformation.

Now, if you argue that CSs and PSs are in order to campaign for the President by highlighting the government’s transformation of Kenya, then you may consider that they may also be free to cosy up to rival parties, by highlighting his shortcomings, or to plainly declare that politics is grist to the Kenyan Civil Service mill. If you do, prepare to confront these difficulties.

First, the law states that public officers shall not act as agents for, or further the interests of, a politician or political party; they shall remain politically neutral during their employment; will not publicly indicate support or opposition for a political party or candidate; or engage in activities of any political party or candidate at an election.

GRAVE IMPLICATIONS

Unless power makes arrogant and insensitive, herewith the grave implications of this difficulty: One, State House is publicly encouraging public officers to break the law.

Two, it is turning a blind eye to this violation by VIPs. Three, if Wanjiku must always obey the law, State House, CSs and PSs cannot be exempt at any time.

Four, the constitutional requirement that CSs be picked from outside Parliament was meant to depoliticise the Service. That’s why when, in 2013, Mrs Charity Ngilu and Mr Najib Balala were surprisingly picked to serve as CSs, Deputy President William Ruto submitted that only he and President Kenyatta would be politicians in the Cabinet.

He said everybody else would quit politics. Mr Eugene Wamalwa and Mr Mwangi Kiunjuri who, like Mrs Ngilu and Mr Balala were out-of-favour politicians, followed. In came Mr Charles Keter from the Senate as Energy CS, proving the Presidency invests little stock in the Upper House.

SHUNNED POLITICS

And Joseph Nkaissery transitioned from Minority MP to CS in an attempted conversion of an opposition enclave. Zilch! Only Mr Balala has publicly shunned politics as State House’s political agenda has trumped the spirit of the Constitution.

That leads to the second difficulty; the permanence of the civil service vis-a-vis the temporary tenures of political parties in governance. Governments come and go, but must find and leave a civil service primed to translate their policies and legislation into workable blueprints and implement them.

Which is why British civil servants, for example, are required to be competitively recruited and promoted within a system which rewards merit; to be impartial and neutral and to retain their roles when governments change. Witness the following.

One, in 2014, Permanent Secretary Martin Donnelly reminded the UK that it was proclaimed in 1854 that their governments would not run effectively without efficient officers who possessed “sufficient independence, character, ability and experience to be able to advise, assist, and, to some extent, influence, those who are from time to time set over them.’’

REJECTED AFTER ELECTIONS

Kenya’s 20 CSs and 45 PSs sit atop a pyramidal edifice and whether they are retained or ejected after elections, the experienced senior officers below them remain on post. Indeed, CSs and PSs recruited from outside the Service depend on the experience and impartiality of these officers to manage successful transitions.

Two, per Susanne Mueller, in 1966 President Jomo Kenyatta argued against civil servants dabbling in party politics, because in the “division of interest between politics and professionalism the efficiency of the Service would suffer”. He warned a situation would “develop where civil servants are promoted and appointed on the ground of political zeal rather than professional competence”.

Last, per the Straits Times of April 27, 2016 Singapore’s Premier Lee Hsien Loong advised that “Ministers live in the land of politics and Civil Servants in the land of policies.

And when you cross the border, there is a rigorous checkpoint, you are frisked as you enter a different country.” These reminders by Sir Martin, PM Loong and Kenyatta are instructive as State House blurs borders erected since 1854 for political gain.

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