CS Henry Rotich has failed Kenyans and should be shown the door

NAIROBI: Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich should be fired. The Treasury has failed President Uhuru Kenyatta. And because of that, Kenyatta should set a precedent by firing Mr Rotich to demonstrate to Kenyans and other government officials that he takes the job of governing seriously. How did we not know, months in advance, that we were going to face a cash crunch? Does the Treasury have forecasts of its cash position? Do the people doing the forecasting have an inkling of what they are doing? Does Rotich know the kind of impact this lapse has had on the Kenyan economy?

Some of you are probably thinking that well, Rotich is not solely responsible for the failure at the Treasury; that his underlings should also take the flak.

This is the wrong approach to viewing the current problem. The positions of bosses exist primarily so that there are individuals who are accountable. Whenever everyone is responsible, no one really gets to take responsibility. So let us not disperse the responsibility for this failure. Let us focus it on the main office charged with managing our finances — that of Rotich. And let us acknowledge that Rotich has failed, and because of that needs to be relieved of this job. That is the only way to show that we care about outcomes, and not just dishing out positions to well-connected individuals.

Of course this will not happen. I know that. This is Kenya. But the point here is to illustrate that what we have come to accept as normal is actually pretty anomalous. Basically we have come to a point where the Treasury is run like a fish market kiosk.  There is always money for projects, which breed scandals, and then amount to absolutely nothing more.

Kenyans have come to suffer-manage the wanton theft in the public sector, with good-hearted humour and occasional dismay at the all-pervasive tenderpreneur culture. Again, we have normalised a very pernicious behaviour in the public sector. But how do we get the vast majority of our people to realise that things can be different?

Running deficits and acquiring debts are not, on their own, bad things. States live forever, and because of this governments typically have access to debt at very low interest rates. Furthermore, in order to expand tomorrow we need to invest in infrastructure and education today. So it makes sense in a lot of cases to borrow today and invest in the future. The operative word here is to invest.

Indeed there are certain sectors in which the Jubilee administration has done a stellar job. Rural electrification is one. There are schools all over Kenya that only recently saw electricity for the first time. Adding all primary schools to the grid is a big achievement for President Kenyatta. Now if only we had more successes like this. I am sure the project was marred by some corruption. But the goods were delivered. And now it is up to Kenya Power Company to ensure that the lights stay on.

Agriculture is another area where the government has done well. Farmers in the Rift Valley have seen improvements in extension services. As a result they are seeing better yields and will have more money in their pockets. This is a success that should be built on, and extended to all parts of the country where people live off the land. Again, there was most certainly corruption in the implementation of this programme. But the goods also got delivered.

The point here is that it is not the case that the Jubilee administration is failing in all areas. It is just that the successes are thin and far between. And that the many failures are attributable to the incompetence or abdication of duty among senior government officials like Rotich. In the vast majority of these projects, government officials simply pocket the money and walk away. The NYS scandal in which millions of shillings were stolen is just the latest in a string of such project disasters.

How can a government official that looks the other way as people steal billions of shillings have the guts to then tell us that there is no money to pay salaries for tens of thousands of workers on time?

I have nothing personal against. Rotich. He is probably a good man. But his office has failed the President. And that calls for some sanction to show that failure in office is not an option. We cannot continue to reward incompetence and expect different outcomes.