State appointments: It’s just politics, not merit

I am not much of a believer in coincidence. It is not a coincidence that when the opposition CORD began talk of a referendum to increase allocations of revenue to counties mid last year the government promptly allocated more monies to counties for the current financial year. It was to demonstrate that we do not need constitutional amendment to achieve such things. The people in power have the good sense to do it in and of themselves.

The recent parastatal appointments are not coincidence either, coming as they did when the push for the referendum has begun in earnest with the launch of the Okoa Kenya Bill for the amendment of the Constitution. One of the proposals therein is to cap appointments from one ethnic community to public service at 15 per cent.

A statement from State House spokesman Manoah Esipisu was quick to point out that the appointments were reflective of Kenyans’ diversity as they represented all 47 counties as well as women, youth and the disabled, but few Kenyans actually share that view.

But that seems to have been the whole point once again, to demonstrate that we really do not have to undertake constitutional reform to achieve these things.

Perhaps the most unfortunate fact was that the appointments came nearly 18 months after parastatals were appraised. The President had appointed a task force which evaluated their structure, operations, management policies and governance. This was not some list drafted in a few moments of miscomprehension. Rather, it had been carefully thought out and put together. We should be afraid as Kenyans if after 18 months of ‘thinking’ these are the sort of appointments which in the estimation of the Jubilee leadership will bring brilliance and sublime execution in our parastatals.

Just when I had re-adjusted my expectations of this government to what I estimated to be suitably low levels that would spare me further disappointment, the President went out of his way to fish for political rejects and retirees, their relatives, cronies and friends of other politicians, and some people of questionable character to reward with top parastatal jobs. How this is consistent with his earlier expressed desire to revitalise the outfits and position them as viable corporates that can generate their own income and deliver their mandate with less input from the Treasury is not clear to me. It is just confounding.

Let us call a spade a spade. The appointments have little to do with merit, expertise or a newfound appreciation of the concept of equal opportunity. To understand one of the many problems with the list, up to 1.6 per cent of the 302 positions was reserved for just one family.

In a fast-evolving and changing political landscape, the President and his Deputy have chosen to employ the old tools of trade. They will fail. To the ordinary Kenyan, who is by far the majority, it matters little to him which moneyed political family’s son or daughter you appoint. What matters is the improvement in lives over the course of a five-year term. It will be near impossible for Jubilee to mask its lack of delivery on core promises with misguided appointments.

In a country where the retirement age is 60 for most people, the list was full of characters that I was first introduced to in the 80s in civics class. It made a rather obvious attempt to be ‘all inclusive’ by amongst others appointing a sister of Raila Odinga. Ostensibly, we are now to believe that all inclusive appointments can be made by people assisted by little else apart from their good conscience.

Not so, not so. The proposal by Okoa Kenya will ensure that there is a guarantee that appointments are made in an equitable, just and rational way from all communities in Kenya. The era of using appointments to secure political support is long gone.