Caution: Using your personal e-mail at work may land you in deep trouble

I miss the golden days of snail mail. You took the trouble to weigh every word you wrote, slipped the missive into an envelope, bought a stamp and then dispatched it through the post office.

Then you waited. And waited. Sometimes she never wrote back and you were left to wonder whether she didn’t like you enough, or if she ever got the letter.

Enough about my high school years, you get the point. It’s a brave new world, and Scott Gration lost his job as US ambassador to Kenya because he couldn’t be bothered.

Let me explain: E-mail came along and all the thoughtfulness went through the window. You hastily bang out an electronic message and send it without even a casual second glance these days.

At some point, organisations decided to have some control over any electronic communication that was sent in their name, so they came up with work e-mail. That’s what you see at the bottom of this column: [email protected]. It is professional, much like having a business card with your company’s logo on it.

DOUBLE STANDARDS

Apparently, former US Secretary of State and potential next leader of the free world Hilary Clinton decreed that all employees should use their official .gov e-mail addresses. Only she didn’t really use her own official address, and even set up servers at her New York home “precisely to avoid the State Department system under which government electronic communications were maintained and disclosed pursuant to federal law,” according to the National Review.

The commentariat and the talking class in Washington, DC, and across those United States has gone into overdrive, speculating whether this means she is unfit for the presidency.

So how does this affect Scott Gration and his former job as Uncle Sam’s guy in Nairobi?

Glad you asked. In June 2011, multiple reports say Ms Clinton sent an unclassified cable to all diplomatic and consular posts asking them to “avoid conducting official Department from your personal e-mail accounts.”

A year later, Gration was forced to resign for continuing to use his Gmail account. In all fairness, a review found his leadership “divisive and ineffective”, so it wasn’t just about the e-mail.

But he’s now calling out his former boss, telling CNN: “I was very surprised to learn of the double standard.”

The retired US Air Force Major General — who still lives in Kenya with his wife — told the network his experience was “somewhat different than Secretary Clinton’s use of her commercial account, yet I was ‘fired’ for the use of Gmail in the US Embassy....”

In Kenya, most government officials routinely use Gmail and Yahoo! accounts, either oblivious to, or unfazed by, the security considerations.

Both the Presidential Strategic Communications Unit and the Deputy President’s Press Service send official news releases to the media using Gmail addresses.

Next time a senator or member of the national assembly hands you his or her business card, look at the e-mail address listed. In my unscientific guesstimate, it will be a personal e-mail address seven out of 10 times.

A senior government source told me last week that a decision couldn’t be made on a delayed project because the president was out of the country.

CAUTIONARY TALE

A draft had been written but it couldn’t be e-mailed to him or his handlers while he was away for fear of it getting intercepted. So they were waiting for him to return to the country so a physical copy could be presented to him for approval.

State House clearly does not have a virtual private network or an encrypted communication gateway to transmit sensitive information.

In many other organisations, private e-mails are still widely used to conduct official business, compromising company information and hiding the communication from official channels.

Dirty procurement officers (some may say that’s repetitive) remain in business precisely because they can fix their kickback deals under the table. Beyond that, a lot of institutional memory is lost when an employee leaves with his or her entire record of official correspondence.

Then there are those strange workers who don’t even bother to check their work e-mails. “Did you see the company-wide announcement sent out last week?,” you ask them and they’re completely blank.

“No wonder you’re still here. I fired you last week,” a good boss should be required to respond.

It is fascinating that Ms Clinton’s use of personal e-mail is jeopardising her presidential bid even before it officially starts, just as it ended Gration’s diplomatic career. May it serve as a cautionary tale.

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Can a school be too big to fail?

Nairobi’s “poorest school”, Olympic Primary at the heart of Kibera, has just over 3,500 pupils and 27 teachers.

That’s an average of 129 eager learners for every teacher. The government allocation, the headteacher told me, is Sh350 per pupil. That is supposed to cover the cost of everything — learning materials, administration, and miscellaneous expenses.

He keeps the gates open everyday because the children use the school even on weekends.

They drink the water from the school, and use the school’s field and toilets. He doesn’t ask guests and well-wishers for money, but for books. Nairobi governor Evans Kidero is having 20 new classrooms built, but where will the teachers come from?

I spoke to all five streams of Standard 8 and found intelligent, inquisitive minds.

Free primary school education means most of them who wouldn’t otherwise be there can attend school. But what is the quality of the education they’re getting?

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FEEDBACK:

On whether MCAs and MPs are living up to the expectations of Kenyans, and the perils of devolved system of governance

BUNCH OF PARASITES:

Larry, you are spot on! I really wish there was an easy way of getting rid of this bunch of parasites. In my area — Kiamunyi Estate in Nakuru County — we have had no water for almost one year now yet a huge pipeline passes by, taking the fresh liquid to Kabarak. The situation has not always been this bad but only started in the last two years, which begs for an MCA to rise to the occassion. Methinks that, while Islamic State hooligans are busy destroying life elsewhere, ours is being attacked economically by these highly greedy leaders. How else can you explain this crazy fight within the Public Accounts Committee, in Parliament and almost all county assemblies across the country? We are doomed as a country unless we realise who our number one enemy is. Al-Shabaab? No! It is these MPs, MCAs and Governors. Duncan Njau

SPLIT THESE ZONES:

Larry, I agree with you 100 per cent; start a change-the-Constitution campaign. Here is how we should go about it: split each of the last eight provinces into two to create 16 counties, split each of the 47 counties to create 94 constituencies, each with an MP and a Woman Representative, and split each of the former 210 constituencies to create 420 wards for MCAs. Mundia

IT’S A TRAGICOMEDY:

Larry, I totally agree with you. It is in fact satirical that, as the Commission on Revenue Allocation sets a ceiling on the amounts of money supposed to be accessed by county assemblies, the Salaries and Remuneration Commission is going ahead to give them additional Sh12.5 billion in order to hire up to 10 ward assistants. Most of the money given to these assistants today ends up in the pockets of these MCAs, and that is what will happen to the additional Sh12.5 billion. It’s time the right bodies told these “waheshimiwas” the bitter truth about accountability and prudent use of public funds. The Controller of Budget should be tough when approving expenditure estimates to ensure that the Public Financial Management Act, 2002 is adhered to. Devolution was meant to assist the ordinary mwananchi realise development at the grassroots level, but unless the COB, CRA and Auditor General tighten their belts, this will be devolved corruption meant to benefit just a few, read the political class. Maggy Munyasya

WANJIKU WAS DUPED:

Larry, we made a big mistake when we passed the new Constitution. If a vote were taken now, the country would vote ‘No’. It is not true that this was what Wanjiku wanted; this was the making of politicians. Njunge Mungai

NO VALUE TO OUR LIVES:

Larry, I can’t agree more. We are heading nowhere with these people masquerading as leaders yet they are just political merchants. It’s time Kenyans, as you say, revised our understanding of leadership and made wise choices. This is the worst system I have ever seen. Did we need a new constitutional dispensation to create positions for people who add no value to our lives? We need to seriously debate this system, otherwise Kenya is headed to bankruptcy. Keep telling them, brother, until they get sick of it. Cyrus Njeru

REVIEW THE CONSTITUTION:

Larry, I totally agree with you that we should do away with the too many leaders who are not adding any value to our lives. The section of the Constitution that brought all these people should be reviewed as soon as possible before ordinary Kenyans become beggars in their own country. Jason Nyakundi