Before it is too late

First, you people, she does not approve every single price list cooked up by those people in procurement. Second, there's a PS with the most massive chip on his shoulder feeling a little put out that it is his sticky fingers all over the financial system of the Ministry. Third, you people have been on her case ever since Dr Nelson Githinji became NYS head-honcho, got a 20 billion shillings rise in appropriations, expanded its recruitment and became the hottest political football since Raila Odinga set up the Efficiency Monitoring Unit. Finally, what is it with you people and this anti-feminist obsession? Don't you want a smart, talented and capable woman to prosper in what is very much a man's world?

That is the sum and substance of the defence. Pity. It refuses to acknowledge the sheer politics of it all. It is not every day that a ministry gets the personal protection of the head of government; when it does, everyone knows that sink or swim, that ministry is the flagship ministry and the fortunes of the government will be built or dashed by its success or failure. But that is not the case with the Ministry of Devolution and Planning.

Jubilee seems to have several flagship programmes underway at the same time: the SGR, the Galana Irrigation Scheme; LAPSSET; Huduma Centres; Safaricom surveillance; the Roads Annuity Scheme; an expanded NYS. There is no rhyme or reason to what constitutes a flagship project anymore. Mwai Kibaki had three that stood out: free primary education; roads; Vision 2013. We are yet, almost three years in, to find out what project coheres the Jubilee administration.

What has been certain is that it has lurched from one catastrophe to another, most of the catastrophes traced back to Cabinet Secretaries and their praise-singing minions. Security became a byword for incompetence under a much unloved Cabinet Secretary before the arrival of the less gaffe-riddled Nkaissery. Much has improved since. It worked once; perhaps when it comes to the stewardship of the economy and the elimination of grand graft from key ministries, a new team will make the difference.

No one wants to admit that they made a mistake. But that is a luxury a head of government can ill-afford. She may be competent, capable and intelligent. She may have spearheaded the successful transformation of moribund programmes or departments. But any hope that the head of state will ride out the storms this Cabinet Secretary has wrought are overly optimistic. Mwai Kibaki dumped Mwiraria, an ally and  competent finance minister. In that is a lesson for this regime. It is unclear whether this lesson will be learnt before it is too late.