Cabinet retreat a waste of public funds and time

The Cabinet retreat in Mombasa ended yesterday and it was a charade. You and I, the taxpayer, will of course foot the Sh11 million bill for an exercise you were neither party to nor approved.

The irony is that it was organised to deal with dissent within a Cabinet and a Government brought together not by ideology or shared values but by convenience and, increasingly, selfish reasons.

This may have informed President Kibaki’s argument on Friday that leaders are increasingly tempted to withdraw to "sections of the Kenya population where we think we may gain maximum support".

This was supported by Prime Minister Raila Odinga’s statement that "we are yet to see a seamless working relationship among ministers, their assistants and permanent secretaries. In a number of ministries, ministers still refuse to delegate duties to their assistants and permanent secretaries still refuse to defer to their ministers. This cannot continue".

However honest Kibaki and Raila’s statements were, their bashing of their colleagues sometimes seemed condescending even though the message that they ought to toe the line or face punishment is laudable.

This is because we have a Cabinet that seems to be engaged more in squabbling than real work.

Indeed, a critical examination of the work of the bloated Cabinet reveals a serious dearth of tangible work amid opulence exhibited by a cohort perhaps unable to sometimes rise above provincial and myopic thinking. Put another way, the reading of the Mombasa retreat is that it was undeserved especially because Kenyans are unsure about the quantity and quality of the work done by those populating the Government.

In other words, their performance cannot justify resources spent to take the group to the Coast to bask and engage in meaningless banter that has reportedly left the Cabinet even more divided. This would in effect also create more schisms within a Government that cannot sometimes seem to agree on even some of the most basic issues.

While realpolitik is sometimes difficult to comprehend, Kenyans expect that leaders would give account of their deeds, misdeeds, and inactions. In effect, even a judicious and charitable analysis of the retreat does not really tell us whether the group achieved the objectives of the meeting. The opportunity cost is that people become even more disconnected with politics, the political process, and increasingly become suspicious and even scornful of their representatives.

As people struggle to make sense of the activities of their representatives and Government in the difficult political and economic environment, they want to see an accountable government and governors who are responsive to the needs of the laity.

Accordingly, even though Kibaki and Raila may seek to stifle dissent and, to some extent, free expression, it is imperative that they learn to critically think about the consequences of their decisions and actions.

Nor is spending Sh11 million the wisest way of using scarce resources that would have made real difference to tens of people living in abject poverty, and, undoubtedly, the political process.