Unresolved conflicts of interest make conflict attractive

With 45 days to the D-Day of general elections, our political campaigns have gathered dizzying momentum.

Irresponsible, inflammatory statements fly in and out and a lot is said, criticised, attacked, judged and condemned. Yet very little thought is attached to the impact of what is said.

If we look at this scenario with perspective, it is obvious that many candidates do not care about the country’s future; they just want power for its own sake, blatantly, and at any cost.

One just wonders if some of our candidates, political figures and leading bloggers are aware of the impact their vile hatred, concealed or expressed, makes on unsuspecting and somewhat simple or unexposed Kenyan voters.

In my view, this is where ‘politics’ turns into ‘pillitics’, which is the art of pillage.

As we approach general elections, any sincere and 'honest' politician, policymaker or democracy stakeholder should be genuinely thinking of Kenya’s future.

One of the biggest concerns in our political discourse should be the revamping of professionalism in our public service and how its size and skills will impact Kenya’s economy and society.

DOING BUSINESS IN KENYA

Our public service has made amazing strides over the years. According to the “Doing Business in Kenya 2016” survey:

starting a company in Kenya requires, on average, seven procedures, takes 23 days and costs 22.0 per of Kenya’s income per capita. While the process is less efficient compared with the global Doing Business 2016 average, it is faster and costs less than half of the regional average in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Construction permits are more complicated and lengthy. “It takes 108 days and costs 3.8 per cent of the warehouse value” which is on average “about two months faster than the average for Sub-Saharan Africa (162 days).”

However, the number of procedures will vary from county to county, and these differences “are driven mainly by how local authorities manage the preconstruction clearances issued by various municipal departments—including utility providers, public roads administration and fire and health departments—and by how many inspections take place during construction.”

When it comes to commercial dispute resolution, it takes, on average:

427 days and costs 38.8 per cent of the claim value. This is more than six months faster than the average Sub-Saharan African economy, but almost twice as long as in Rwanda…and nearly three times more expensive than in Tanzania. Kenya’s average score on the quality of judicial processes index—7.8 of 18 possible points—is 1.4 points higher than the average for Sub-Saharan Africa, but only half the United Kingdom’s score of 15 points.”

TASTY WOOD

This means our justice system is the second worst in the region, and pretty mediocre when compared with others worldwide, but still better than the African average. In the land of the “chongos”, a one-eyed man is king.

I dream of the day when a candidate will say, "I will increase efficiency and lower the average length or processes in starting a business in my county or the country... I will also reduce bureaucracy in this and that way".

Believe it or not, our public service efficiency is encouraging, though it can and should be doing much better. Huduma centres and eCitizen have set the right tone, though we have a bloated public service under the national government.

We blame devolution for our crazy wage bill, but the real problem is not devolution but its lack. During the State of the Nation address at Parliament Buildings, in Nairobi on March 15 2017, the President said:

Today, the public wage bill stands at Sh627 billion per year, amounting to 50 per cent of the total revenues collected by the government. This staggering amount is used to pay the salaries and allowances of 700,000 public officers including those of us here today. In simple terms, 50 per cent of all the money collected as revenues in Kenya goes in to the pockets of less than 2 per cent of the country’s total population.

We created 47 new counties and allowed them to hire thousands of Kenyans, but we did not reduce the bloated size of our national government. This is why our wage bill is choking and eating into our development budget like termites in tasty wood.

CURSE OF CORRUPTION

Corruption is a key element in economic stagnation. We speak a lot about it, condemn it and curse it; yet we do nothing to end it.

Serious candidates will tell us of specific measures and steps to end this ethical mess. The only way to end corruption is by making it more expensive than honesty…and this is not about to happen. So, what are their proposals? We want to hear.

According to Samuel Kimeu of Transparency International - Kenya, Kenya loses almost one-third of its national budget to corruption every year. This comes to the astonishing figure of US$6 billion (Sh608 billion).

This is so serious that President Kenyatta admitted in his 2017 State of the Nation address that levels of corruption are threatening national security.

The Auditor General has incessantly issued qualified opinions concerning departments of both national and county governments but his pleas have fallen on deaf ears. Parliament is not interested.

We seem not to realise that money unscrupulously amassed in search of a “happy” life full of personal assets will trigger self-destruction of the State we live in. Once corruption reaches a critical mass, we find ourselves in a failed State.

Already in 1970, there was a growing concern about integrity in the public sector. A commission was formed to recommend the way forward for Kenya’s public sector.

It considered efficiency and accountability, including the organisation and structure of the Public Service, remuneration and conditions of service, the methods of recruitment and conditions of employment. This was the Ndegwa Commission.

DERIVE PRIVATE GAIN

The Ndegwa Commission suggested general principles to be observed by ‘all those who serve the Republic’. These principles were:

(i) That the servants should give their undivided loyalty wherever and whenever it has a claim on their services;

(ii) Public servants should not subordinate their duties to their private interests, and should avoid situations of conflict of interest between their duties and their private interests;

(iii) Not to use official positions and information coming to them in such positions to derive private gain to themselves or their associates;

(iv) Not to engage in occupations or businesses which might prejudice their status as public servants; and

(v) Maintain professional and ethical standards expected of them by the nation in carrying out their duties with efficiency, integrity and impartiality.

As time went by, we disregarded these principles and deformed them to justify personal gain at the expense of public service.

With time, a constant state of unresolved conflicts of interest has obscured, and even killed, the conscience of many public servants who join government to grow richer. They end up looting the State.

This tension cannot be resolved by turning a blind eye to these conflicts of interest. When the North is lost, inflammatory statements carry the day.

We care little about the country, and much about our personal wealth, yet it is the country we are looting. This is the beginning of a failed state.

Dr Franceschi is the dean of Strathmore Law School. [email protected]; Twitter: @lgfranceschi