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Kenyan MPs' salaries are a scar on the nation's conscience
Related to country: Kenya

Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

As previously reported, President Kibaki is already earning more than the presidents of many countries with stronger economies than ours.

Undoubtedly, the salaries paid to Kenyan MPs are outrageous.

If the multiple that the salaries bear to the average national monthly income is computed, the result is truly scandalous.

The figures for Kenya presumably exclude the various lump sums that the MPs have voted for themselves.

March 26, 2008 | 3:16 AM Comments  4 comments

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How to solve Kenya’s refugee crisis
Related to country: Kenya

Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

Story by JACQUELINE KLOPP
Publication Date: 3/26/2008

KENYA HAS AROUND ONE million internally displaced people from violence that started in the 1990s and re-emerged at the beginning of this year.

This makes Kenya look much more like its neighbours in the Great Lakes region which has 10 million displaced people, a figure greater than the population of all of Rwanda.

Figures, of course, do not do justice to the suffering and trauma of people torn violently from their loved ones, homes, livelihoods and neighbourhoods, and thrown into poverty in a host home, cramped camps, forests or slums.

Still, the fact that Kenya’s figures are increasing and violent displacements are now expected at every election time is deeply disturbing.

Displaced people are a symptom of a collapsing State that no longer can, or wishes to, provide security to its citizens. How the Kenya Government deals with the pressing problems of the displaced will be a key litmus test of its commitment to reconstructing the State and entrenching better governance.

It will also be a test of how committed Kenya is to the pact on Security, Stability and Development that came out of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region.

This pact, which is an attempt to deal with the enormous problems of the Great Lakes region, includes two relevant protocols – one on the protection of the rights of the displaced, another on fair compensation for property lost.

Kenya, the current chair of the conference, was among the first to ratify this Pact. Hence it is bound to this helpful framework, which sees the displaced, not as objects of charity, but as citizens with rights.

They should not simply be forced by circumstances or incentive to areas where they have experienced trauma and do not wish to go against their will.

CURRENTLY, THE NATIONAL REConciliation and Emergency Social and Economic Recovery Strategy paper fails to acknowledge the legal framework of the pact.

In particular, it seems to assume, without data collection and consultation, that the displaced will simply go back to their homes and forget about just compensation. While this will be true for some, it is not true for everyone. Hence, the Government must plan for alternatives.

This will involve acquiring land elsewhere for farms or opportunities for urban businesses. If this strategy for resettlement is to be done well, then it is not a “special project” but involves co-ordination between the ministries of Land, Justice and Local Government.

It must also take into consideration the importance of integrating the displaced in a way that does not create ethnic enclaves or ghettos and thus further animosity in host communities. These host communities should also benefit.

In sum, the Government, civil society, partners and the displaced themselves must work together towards a sound national policy and framework in line with Kenya’s legal obligations under its own Constitution and the Great Lakes Pact.

Otherwise, the population of displaced, traumatised and impoverished people will continue to grow.

How a government and society treats the most vulnerable of populations is an ultimate test of its commitment to change the failure of governance that produced their plight in the first place.

Let us all make sure Kenya passes this critical test and moves away from the violent and destructive politics that faces the entire region.

Ms Klopp is an assistant professor of international and public affairs, Columbia University

March 26, 2008 | 3:13 AM Comments  0 comments

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Overhaul of the public sector bureaucracy inevitable
Related to country: Kenya

Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

Story by JAINDI KISERO
Publication Date: 3/26/2008

IN PRINCIPLE, I BELIEVE IN THE idea of a non-partisan civil service. But I still think that this power-sharing experiment between Mr Raila Odinga and President Kibaki offers the best opportunity to do a thorough shake-up of the civil service bureaucracy.

We must exorcise public service of the pervasive and deeply-held perceptions of domination by a few ethnic groups, and try to restore a semblance of balance in key public positions.

This is not to say that merit should be thrown out of the window. In the spirit of healing the nation from ethnic strife and suspicions, and if we went to send strong signals to different communities that they are adequately represented in the running of the State apparatus, we have to deal with ethnicity within the State bureaucracy.

Right now, the majority of top public servants are political appointees who owe their positions to a pervasive patron-client system where politicians secure plum positions in the civil service and parastatals for people who then owe their loyalty to them rather than to their hierarchical superiors.

It is a system which was started by President Kenyatta’s regime and perfected by President Moi. During his first term, President Kibaki tinkered with the system a little.

The first set of appointments to top public positions in the mainstream civil service such as permanent secretaries were nominated by interests from within the Narc coalition – the Liberal Democratic Party, Ford Kenya and Charity Ngilu’s NAK. Most of Moi’s appointees, including career public servants serving out their contracts, were shown the door.

In the case of parastatals, President Kibaki gave ministers leeway to appoint chief executives and directors. In the process, there emerged a clear correlation between the tribes of the minister and the ethnic composition of the chief executive and directors of parastatals falling under their ministries.

The second major shake-up of the public service bureaucracy was to occur after the constitutional referendum of 2005.

During this period, most of the permanent secretaries, chief executives and director who owed their appointments to interests within LDP were replaced, to provide the tottering coalition government the support base it needed to counter the opposition.

This is the reality of today’s public service. The notion of a professional civil service composed of technocratic staff serving non-partisan interests is a big myth.

Politicisation of the State bureaucracy is not just a Kenyan phenomenon; it is part of Africa’s history.

THE REASON WHY WORLD BANK-sponsored civil service reform programmes have not had much success in Africa is because its advocates have tended to wish away the impact of ethnicity on the civil service.

In 2005, President Kibaki’s administration came up with the brilliant idea of performance contracting.

Under the new regime, chief executives, boards of parastatals and permanent secretaries would sign performance contracts with their employer, committing them to achieve certain goals within a given period.

Chief executives sign contracts with boards, while boards sign with their parent ministries. We even created the Results Office under the Office of the President to monitor and evaluate the performance of parastatals.

Did it work? The answer is No. Chief executives with high marks from the Results Office were sacked arbitrarily by politicians and without any reference to their having excelled in achieving performance targets.

Pork-barrel politics has had a corrosive impact on the bureaucratic apparatus. We cannot compromise meritocracy, but we must deal with the problem of ethnicity in public service appointments.

If, as the head of a public entity, you find yourself sitting in a board where you can conduct business in vernacular, or where all members of your executive committee are from one ethnic group, start doing some soul-searching.

Even within the private sector, I know of companies which, in the wake of the political crisis we have just gone through, decided to change their employment practices to make sure their workforce reflects some form of ethnic diversity.

Companies were forced to close some of their branches in parts of the country, and to effect hasty and unplanned transfers after they discovered they had hired and deployed staff without any sensitivity to the issue of ethnic diversity.

In the long run, we will have to embark on aggressive civil service reforms. We have to strengthen the autonomy and independence of the Public Service Commission.

Over the years, this key institution has been turned into a dumping ground for retired policemen and civil servants.

And, although the government has recently endeavoured to improve the lot of civil servants, middle-aged officials are still very poorly paid.

We still have, from within the ranks of the bureaucracy, a small labour aristocracy earning much more money than their colleagues, and creating resentment. Comprehensive civil service reforms must remain a priority.