Airport inferno response shows malaise in public service

By Ken Opalo

They say a picture speaks a thousand words. And on Wednesday morning the image of officers carrying buckets of water in an effort to fight the fire at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) in Nairobi said it all. We are a nation of M-Pesa and Ushahidi and Konza techno-city and Lapsset, but which lacks some of the most basic amenities and public goods. Majority of our people lack proper housing, indoor plumbing, running water, electricity, and adequate healthcare and education. As the saying goes, when the tide recedes those swimming bottomless get exposed for all to see. That is what happened to us on Wednesday, in front of the whole world.

A fire that should have been contained as soon as it started took hours to douse. Property worth millions of shillings was destroyed, not to mention other losses incurred by airlines, flower firms and individuals from lost business following the hours-long closure of the airport. If Wednesday’s lesson was lost on our authorities, I would like to reiterate it here: Your habit of sleeping on the job is costing the country a lot – from the scientists, bus drivers, doctors, and farmers that we lose every day on account of bad roads, venal public officials and inadequate healthcare to the losses incurred by businesses on account of the high cost of doing business here. Please, do your job well. That is the least you can do for all the tax money you gobble up in salaries and benefits.

As a country and a people, we can thump our chests all we want about Vision 2030 and being the “Silicon Savannah.” But it will only take the next fire disaster at one of our many slums or the odd landslide or famine in parts of our rural areas for our continued failure to pay attention to the basics to be exposed.

To put it mildly, we must not let excitement for the big stuff detract us from paying due attention to the small, basic stuff. How can we run a city of more than 3 million souls without a proper emergency system, including a properly functioning city fire department? Who are we kidding?

The President already formed a team to inquire into the cause of the fire at JKIA. The findings of this team will only matter if we also evaluate Nairobi’s, and indeed the entire country’s state of disaster preparedness. The latter requirement necessarily means those exposed by the Wednesday fire to have been asleep on the job – from the Kenya Airports Authority (KAA) to officials at the County of Nairobi – must be made to face the music.

They must shape up or ship out. For instance, it would be nice for the public to be told how much Nairobi County invested in its current budget towards restoring the capital city’s dilapidated fire department; or how much money KAA allocates for disaster preparedness at airports.

When it comes to the public service, we must not continue with our heads buried in the sand. Public offices at all levels must no longer be mere sinecures and opportunities to get rich quickly as brokers and tenderpreneurs.

Instead, we must require that public officers treat their jobs as full time engagements requiring dedication and professionalism.

And when disasters like the JKIA fire strike, we must use the opportunity to discover the weakest links in the system and weed them out. That is the only way we can improve public service delivery.

The job must be treated with the seriousness it deserves. I can’t belabour the point enough. Incompetence in the public service is not just the simple annoying experience of long delays at the public health clinic, police station, or the passport office. It is inflicting massive costs on our economy.

As the Kenya Revenue Authority continues to milk as much of Kenyans’ taxable income as it can, it is only fair that the public service reciprocates with adequate professional service delivery.

It is unfair that Kenyans have to pay taxes to pay for a police force, fire department, education, healthcare, et cetera, and then spend their after-tax income (for those who can) paying for these same services.

Because the public plays no role in hiring civil servants, we can only channel our frustration at our elected officials – from the County Representatives to President Uhuru Kenyatta. They must know the mediocrity of the public service is a failure on their part to honour their sacred duty to Kenyans.

The writer is a PhD candidate at Stanford University