To avoid repeat of Patel Dam tragedy, abolish license fees

The Patel Dam tragedy in Solai, Nakuru county, that claimed dozens of lives in one night this week is clear illustration of a much bigger problem that has afflicted this country over the last three decades or so. In Kenya, licensing has been reduced to a simple revenue collection stream for government.

I was horrified a few years ago when I heard the then Governor of Nairobi, Evans Kidero, announcing his government had waived all licenses for the refurbishment work at the Kenya National Theatre!

I got in touch with the Governor’s office and pointed out the dangers of that announcement: That waiving licenses meant that the county government was not going to inspect the quality of work being carried out. Fortunately, the Governor’s office clarified that what Dr. Kidero meant was that the license fees were waived, but the relevant licenses would have to be acquired after proper inspection.

INSPECTION

Nevertheless, county governments all over the country (including Nairobi) are always collecting annual business license fees without doing any inspection of the premises. It is no wonder we have so many unsafe and insecure businesses but all have valid licenses.

As a high school teenager in the mid-1980s, my father would occasionally ask me to follow up on the business license for his shop. The process started with a visit to the municipal council office where I would pick the application form. On returning the document to the council after filling, the licensing clerk would attach inspection forms from three departments, namely, health, planning and environment. A few days later, the health inspector would visit the shop and check whether there was running water, a clean toilet with a working cistern, a bathing room for workers and so on.

PORTAL

Next; an inspector from the planning department would visit and check if the shop has a fresh coat of paint (inside and outside), cracks on the walls and floors, leaking roof, broken pavement slabs and so on. Then finally would be an inspector from the environment department to check that there is a proper rubbish disposal (dustbin) and that there are no signs of uncollected garbage within the vicinity of the shop. We were even expected to unclog the drains along our street!

But what do we have today? Businesspeople simply log on to the license portal on the internet, make the payment and print out the licences at the comfort of their offices. No inspection, no verification of details of nature of business; nothing! It is no wonder people are being licensed to operate discotheques inside residential estates.

This problem is not just at the county level: Why, for example, are drivers required to renew their licenses? How does paying Sh600 per year (or Sh1,400 every three years) help in improving road safety?

RIDICULOUS

After the Patel Dam tragedy, an officer from the Water Resources Management Authority was reported in the press saying that Warma had ordered Patel Coffee Estate to “regularise” the ill-fated dam. It is utterly ridiculous! How can they license a structure whose construction they did not inspect?

Government is not a business to be evaluated on the basis of how much money it is earning! The fees paid for licenses are meant to cover the cost of carrying out the inspection. For this reason, they should be collected only after inspecting.

Perhaps a good starting point to get out of this mess is to abolish all license fees. Let licensing officers re-learn how to do their jobs without the pressure to raise more revenue. Maybe they will start doing the right things.

www.MungaiKihanya.com; Twitter: @MungaiKihanya