How it should be, how it should have been

If there is anything that persuades me that the Committee of Experts' decision to eject politicians from the Cabinet it is the recent vitriolic public spat between the Minister for Medical Services and the Vice-President. Prof Peter Anyang' Nyong'o was incensed at Kalonzo Musyoka's decision to not only visit the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital, but also to purport to make policy decisions regarding the problems bedevilling Kenya's second-largest referral hospital. His announcement that the Government would soon release KES 300 million to the hospital was, in Prof Nyong'o's eyes, so unpleasant, he had no reason but to write a whining letter to the President to complain. Kaplich Barsito, the Vice-President's spokesman, must have added fuel to that particular fire by suggesting that as Mr Musyoka is Mwai Kibaki's 'principal assistant', he was well within his rights to do as he did, seeing that he was speaking for the President. Mwai Kibaki, as usual, has not responded, leaving his Minister and V-P to sort things out between themselves. Now, the good professor is suggesting that some elements within government are out to assassinate him!

The destruction of Kenya's public service began in earnest under President Kenyatta and was cemented by President Moi's twenty-four year rule. Even in their oaths of office, Cabinet Ministers professed their fealty to the President first, the people of Kenya coming a distant second. Ministries that were perceived as 'powerful' or 'lucrative' were 'awarded' to loyal MPs; they were rewards for political loyalty and the men and women named to these positions were not appointed for their technical competence. As a result, the public service was used as a weapon to build up the careers of loyalists or to punish those who seemed to have stepped off the line. The people of Kenya suffered as these political games were played: national hospitals frequently went without life-saving medicines or proper managers; the education system is barely creaking along, etc. Kenyans have been getting the short end of the stick for nigh on forty-seven years and with the new Constitution, we have the chance to re-write the rules of political patronage that should serve us well for a generation at least.

Prof Nyong'o and Mr Musyoka should not try to persuade us that they know what is good for the people of Kenya; their records, such as they are, are plain to see. Both should admit that their primary motivation is political; everything else is mere window-dressing.Since the day the Coalition Government was formed, the Cabinet has behaved as if the people of Kenya do not have a voice or an opinion. First there was the unseemly attempt by the Prime Minister to lord it over all his Cabinet colleagues until he was humiliatingly slapped down by the President. Then there were the accusations and counter-accusations of graft by one wing of the coalition against the other. Now it is the apparent 'encroachment' of one member of the coalition into the ministerial turf of another minister in the opposite wing. These people have demonstrated an utter lack of competence that it is surprising Kenya has continued to chug along despite their spirited attempts to derail the country. Their departure from the corridors of power could not come too soon.

The decision to adopt a purely presidential system must have been informed by the fact that Members of Parliament are not appointed to the Cabinet for their technical competence, but for their political utility. The next government will not entertain incompetent men and women in the seats of power; performance will determine whether one is retained in the Cabinet or not. Of course, no one thinks that politics will be completely outlawed in the manner the Cabinet carries out its functions, but considering that it is for their technical skills that the President will nominate them, the chances that Cabinet Secretaries will be pursuing political objectives in their portfolios has receded greatly; the only person to carry the political ball in the Cabinet will be the President. Finally, Kenyans will have the opportunity to witness how an effective ad efficient government will be managed. As portfolios will no longer be used as the lollipops of assuaging the political gods of ethnic communities, perhaps Kenyans are about to enter a phase where the government serves their needs first and that of the political class second. or once, perhaps, politicians are about to become second-class citizens, a place they have long relegated the people of Kenya. If the Cabinet fails, the President has failed and the people will punish him mercilessly at the next general elections by choosing someone else. That is how it should be, how it should have been.