Appraising Kibaki’s Government

Ongoing road construction on Thika Road in Nairobi

In 2002, there was a landslide election in Kenya that toppled the one time dictator, Daniel Arap Moi and a rulership that was so detrimental to Kenya’s development and growth for 28 years. This election victory resulted from a coalition of a number of political heavyweights who had had enough of Moi’s rule and had selected the current President, His Excellency, Mwai Kibaki as the official opposition leader. Mr Kibaki has been in power for just over 9 years and I thought it may be a good idea to write my thoughts on his leadership.

It’s very difficult for one to appraise the Kibaki government without comparing it with the Moi regime. During his time, Moi consolidated all the power to lie with one person and made sure that his opponents were silenced. His cabinet ministers, however, always spoke in one voice in public (something that has been missing in Kibaki’s government).

Moi did not take well to criticism and advice by intellectuals (what a waste!) and as a result his kitchen cabinet was full of people that had no real governance experience and expertise on many issues (Kibaki has tried to capitalise on intellect and expertise).

Corruption, political andeconomic problems, during the Moi era, became the order of the day with government being unaccountable to anyone, and civil servants very poor in service delivery (it was very often that one would go to a government office and see hang behind desks yet the workers were nowhere to be found despite being paid every month).

Moi also kept the same cabinet ministers for the longest periods (I remember thinking that governments never changed when I was much younger since we had school textbooks and exams that asked us who ministers were and it was always the same people).

Ok enough about Moi’s era!

Since I have been home, I have asked a number of family members and friends what they think have been the flagship successes and challenges of the Kibaki era (Kenya is now preparing for a change in political guard in 2012), and almost everyone has talked about the following successes:

Roads infrastructure

During Kibaki’s reign, there has been a huge focus on building roads and spreading the network into ruralareas.  And with the emergence of China as one of the country’s key trading partners, the government has been able to access funds for this critical project. I continue to rave on here and be surprised that roads that would have otherwise taken years to build are taking much less time and that the Chinese are working really fast in getting the work done. This has helped expand small and medium businesses beyond the key trading centres, Nairobi, Mombasa and Kisumu, and ensured goods and services are reaching the mostly rural population in the country.

Free primary education

As soon as he came into power, Kibaki announced that each Kenyan child was entitled to primary education (in alignment with the millennium development goals) and introduced the freeprimary education scheme. Although the implementation of this had not been careful thought out and planned, and monies have been siphoned off,  there is no doubt there are children that would never have dreamt of accessing any form of education that have benefited immensely from this scheme. We can only hope that the necessary reforms and planning will be implemented to ensure sustainability of this scheme.

Rural electrification and water access

My parents now have both running water and electricity in our rural home. The Kibaki government sought to ensure that access to electricity and water was ensured for Kenyans. Nothing has ever been completely free in Kenya (including the free primary education—parents still had to pay for school uniform for instance) and the government made sure that they provided the necessary infrastructure and each family/ home would then have to pay so much money to get access in their homes. Most people can now do small things (they couldn’t do before) like charge their phones, have indoor bathrooms and toilets, and even operate small businesses from their homes. Of course, water rationing and black outs are the order of the day but somehow people manage.

A new constitution

Kenyans can pride in the fact that they have an all inclusive new constitution, since 2010, which was drafted in the most consultative manner that government could manage. I think it has been a dream of most Kenyans to see devolution of power, a more transparent process of appointing senior government and judicial officials, a document that stipulates media freedom, and amongst all, puts the importance of technical expertise in the selection of leaders rather than patronage and deployment policies that they were used to. It is a pity that the current members of Parliament are busy seeking ways of amending the constitution to suit their individual interests but we can only hope that other arms of governance like the judiciary will be able to fight for the proper implementation and interpretation of the document.

At the same time, there are various things that have been so apparent with the Kibaki government that should never have happened and that will need special attention by his successor:

The rich have become richer

Fiscal policy in Kenya has been managed in a manner that ensured that the supply of money was curbed (I don’t think this is bad at all). In the Moi era, there was clearly so much more circulation of money and most people were able to afford basics, economic woes notwithstanding. Now, politicians and eminent businesses/ business people are the only ones that have access to money (Kenyan MPs are the most highly paid in the whole world) and this has created a class of rich and untouchables that have continued to enrich themselves using taxpayers’ monies.

Bloated government

After the 2007 elections, which was highly contested between Kibaki and Mr Raila Odinga, and which resulted in a coalition government, the cabinet and government in general was expanded in ways that have continued to buffle me (how can you have two ministers that are in charge of the health portfolio--- no wonder it has been difficult to resolve the doctor wage dispute). This situation has led to government departments/ ministries not being able to function properly, their duties not clearly spelt out, and various ministers fighting publicly about the extent of their responsibilities.

Kibaki’s silence on major issues

I am sure sometimes Kenyans wonder whether they still have a President in power. It takes the President a long time to address the public and very often one is not sure what government’s stance on certain major issues is. It is not uncommon to have Ministers contradict one another and fight in public over fundamental issues, and very rarely will the President address the issues being raised. At the moment, there is a public outcry on the price of fuel and the resultant increases in food and commodity prices, and the looming public health crisis due to the ongoing doctors’ strike yet Kenyans have not heard anything from the President.

Reckless politicians

It has been very embarrassing to hear politicians (including the President) insult each other in public (cabinet ministers included) and just having absolutely no respect for one another. What example are Kenyans supposed to follow if their leaders behave this way?

Corruption

In the early days of Kibaki’s administration, it was very clear that graft was being fought left, right and centre with an active Kenya Anti Corruption Commission (KACC) formed and given a mandate to fight graft. Bribery to civil servants was carefully watched and whistleblowers were protected but as the years went on, we have gone back slowly to the Moi days where corruption was rampant everywhere (especially with major scandals like Anglo leasing and very recently one involving the youth fund). Corruption is a difficult ill to get rid of in any society and there has to be political will for any significant progress to be made.

There have been clear gains for the Kenyan population at large during Kibaki’s leadership and I think most would agree with me that Kibaki has achieved what Moi could not in 28 years in 9 years, and that progress is ongoing. But at the same time, there are certain areas where a lot of work needs to be done to ensure that the country can develop in a sustainable manner, achieve Vision 2030, and increase its competitiveness in the region and beyond.