‘Incompetent’ communities need ‘mercy’ from Kibaki Government

By Hassan Omar Hassan

Have you realised that every time we debate skewed appointments to public service, the response is that the appointees are competent professionals appointed on merit. I watched Transport PS Cyrus Njiru rub it in again as he appeared before the National Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC) on Friday.

That those appointed to the Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) Board of Directors are competent professionals. The reverse of this is to imply that the rest of us are incompetent, lacking in merit and professionalism! And this argument is often repeated in instances where Kenyans take the appointing authority to task over regional and ethnic imbalance in appointment to public service.

And the commissioners to NCIC flanked Njiru as he presented his ‘merit case’ to the media. Where do you get ‘summoned’, present your case and give your statement flanked by the ‘investigator’? The NCIC is investigating this very ‘difficult’ matter.

Though one wonders what there is to investigate. Mr Njiru presented them with ‘facts’. A register of KPA employees I guess.

An attempt to divert attention from the board of directors and ‘confuse’ the issues. Of the 7,000 or so employees of KPA, 4,000 or so hail from the Coast in addition to a host of senior managers. So we must be an ungrateful bunch of lazy, laid back Coastal hoodlums. Where is the imbalance, Njiru and Co may have asked? All we did was to take a handful of policy making board positions and the position of managing director for purposes of strategic leadership, guidance and coordination, Njiru might have argued before the NCIC. Turijaribu Mwaluwa tokaona No (We tried Mwaruwa and said no), they may have averred.

Back to the competence and merit issue. What is so extraordinary about the members of the board so appointed? Do they have the extraordinary gift of Albert Einstein? Or do they possess the extraordinary talent and prowess of Lionel Messi well ahead of others in the ‘game’. Or for that matter what is extraordinary about Njiru himself?

Does he imagine that there are no other Kenyans of distinction who can carry out the functions of Transport PS and leave a legacy that shall echo in the annals of public administration? Who imagines this is 1963 where only one or two people have an economics degree?

Though I agree we might have been incompetent in some respects. We voted Kibaki for president in 2002, imagining “yote yawezekana bila Moi” (all is possible without Moi). The 2007 elections were then bungled. The unbwogable Kenyan was bwoged. In retrospect, I am not in doubt that in making that choice, we were unforgivably incompetent. How could we for a moment have imagined that Kibaki was the man to fight the vices that bedevil Kenya? Impunity, corruption, ethnicity et al. On this account we were grossly incompetent.

Though there are dictates of political practice. You reward the ‘incompetent’ souls with an equitable share of Government resources and opportunities. Some mercy for Kenya and its diversity would help. In other words, you appoint the ‘incompetent’ to address the fragile political balance and sensitivities. Or still, to show some appreciation for voting you into office.

Kenya is at an important phase of transition. We must all pull in one direction. We must reject ethnicity in all its forms and manifestations. We must embrace our diversity. We must overcome fear. Those who think we will be cowed from addressing these issues out of vilification are fooled. Though how I wish NCIC would be bolder.

The writer is a lawyer and former commissioner with the KNCHR