Why project launches should be regulated

It is amazing how much money there is in Kenya by simply counting how many projects are launched almost daily. Yet, there is very little for a majority of Kenyans resulting from, by arbitrary estimation, 70 per cent of those launched projects.

MCAs are busy launching kitchen gardens, youth sports clubs in their wards, water pumps, new market gates and so forth. MPs are busy launching new classrooms, dormitories, walkway bridges, chamas, and God knows what else.

Governors, on their part, have taken control over the launching of light weight motor vehicle bridges, flood lights on streets, housing projects for county staff, rehabilitated clinics, planting of trees, and all the good projects we long for in the county.

Similarly, the national government is all over the country launching everything. It is roads, roads, roads launching functions all over the place. Well, needless to say, the same road construction is launched every election year and six months into the new regime.

Agricultural facilities, housing for this or that group, marathons, hospital wings, electricity in rural homes, donated vehicles among many other examples are preoccupation of the national government.

An MCA launches his thousands worthy of project. An MPs launches a few millions worth of projects mostly through CDF funds. Governors launch multi-million projects.

The national government, of course, launches a billion plus project. Senators are by and large cash cows for desperate electorate since they have no direct control over funds that will also place them in the race to launch projects.

Dream big

If only half of all those launched projects matured or were to be successfully completed, Kenya would be a better country to live in.

We could tell the younger generation to dream big, but I am not sure it is an honest thing to tell a young person to dream big in a land of opportunists. Anyway, away from this digression, what programs and projects have we not launched in Kenya?

One lesson we can learn from the many launched programs and projects, most of which are in fact public relations exercises, is that we lack a sense of ownership in the projects being launched.

Since most of them come in form of tokens for voting-in so and so, we really do not own them. For utilities such as vehicles, they are used insofar as they run. As soon as they develop problems, they are towed to the backyard and that is it.

Some of the programs launched make sense and indeed are legacy projects. Think of the Nyayo Bus for example. It was a brilliant idea. The Nyayo Bus Service was an initiative of former President Daniel Arap Moi. It was very well managed.

Projects launched

Providing services beyond Nairobi to major cities and towns across the country, the Nyayo bus arrived on time, was manned by uniformed NYS trainees, was cheap and distinctively pleasant in the way it handled passengers. Unfortunately, someone killed this dream legacy project.

We destroy good legacy projects by promising billion shillings projects of which some die as soon as they are launched. Those that somehow survive are conveniently appropriated by a few well connected cartels.

At the end, very few of the hundreds of thousands of the projects launched mean much except for the people who launch them.We should consider outlawing launching of projects. We should just focus on officiating completed projects only.

It makes sense to officiate the use of completed projects. As for programs, they should only be recognised when they are way past midterm (if short term) or their implementation is well accepted and owned by the beneficiaries.

The Huduma Number for instance, was neither owned by many Kenyans as a necessary government initiative nor well understood to compel voluntary registration. It was announced and before people could really contemplate the good intention of the government, threats were issued all over for those who may have needed more time to understand the service they are being invited to.

Launching projects has become a way of justifying access to public funds or getting cheap publicity. What often happens after the launch is nothing but disappointment for enthusiastic Kenyans yearning for any drop of hope in whichever form it comes.

As much as practically possible, we should do away with launching of projects and programs.

Dr Mokua is Executive Director – Jesuit Hakimani Centre