Rewarding loyalty is the new reality in town

Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua was recently reported as saying that the Kenya government is a company, and opportunities in the public service were dolled out based on shareholding. Many Kenyans were appalled, but somehow let it slip because they perhaps believed that a State Officer at the level of DP should know better.

Lo and behold, the man, whose moniker is Riggy G, was communicating an unofficial government policy on rewarding and punishing citizens based on their choices at the presidential polls. In corporate governance, this practice is referred to as the sanctioning mechanism. It is a time-tested tool for managing employee performance.The difference between a State and a corporation is that in the latter, employees become part of the company on invitation and at the behest of the principals. In the former, however, all citizens have an inalienable right of belonging straight from birth.

In this respect, all citizens, irrespective of their colour, creed, religion, gender, age, political or sexual orientation have equal rights as their President. The law also protects all citizens from any form of discrimination. So, Kenyans are not citizens at the behest of the President. On the contrary, the presidency is a privilege that is conferred by the citizens of Kenya. I think this is the point that has not been made clear to the Deputy President.

Riggy G appears to believe that once a person is elevated to the presidency, then they become bigger than the Constitution and citizens who created them. Until the DP is made aware that his position is one of service to the citizens, and not lordship, such utterances may continue to define his public engagements. But Riggy G must not be given this awkward distinction of being the first Kenyan to discriminate against other Kenyans based on their political persuasion. He is not.Many Kenyans will be surprised to learn that during the reign of Kenya's founding President, Mzee Jomo Kenyatta, university professors were in the same salary grade as the Chief Justice, Governor of the Central Bank of Kenya, Permanent Secretaries and the AG.

After the coup attempt of 1982, which members of the intelligentsia unreservedly supported, a campaign of vilification and discrimination against the academic community began. From then, University Lecturers and Professors had their perks and privileges slashed and stunted. Research grants were curtailed. Today, the gross salary of a university professor is a paltry one-tenth of that of the Governor of the Central Bank of Kenya! An impression has been created that as the numbers of university students increase exponentially, the responsibilities of university professors reduce by the same magnitude! Unfortunately, that reasoning has created a terrible situation of low professorial commitment to the academy, which might take decades to rectify, if there will ever be political will to do so.

Meanwhile, university education continues to suffer a beating with respect to quality, and Kenya continues to lose its premier position as a preferred investment destination in the African region. No investor in their right mind will commit his/her capital in a country that lacks competitive skills. So, some of the silly decisions that politicians make have ramifications beyond the communities that they target.

Bad decisions and utterances

Unfortunately, Kenyans continue to clap as bad decisions and utterances are made, under the mistaken belief that it is the "other" community that is targeted, and not "ours." Before we realise it, our country will have become technically dysfunctional. Apparently, many State corporations and government departments have taken a cue from Riggy G's statement on the State as a company in which Kenyan communities are shareholders. In the last few weeks, there have been several sackings and appointments that appear to strictly follow the script that Riggy G had communicated to Kenyans.

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Senior public servants from specific communities have been sacked and replaced with members of the "shareholder communities." Kenyans know those who have been sacked and who have replaced them. It needs no gainsaying. The latest in series of sackings is that of Meru University Vice Chancellor, Prof Romanus Odhiambo. Prof Odhiambo has been serving a first term as Chief Executive Officer of the university, and according to statutes, is eligible for a second term of five years unless his performance is not satisfactory. It is reported that the University Council has sent him on terminal leave, and his position taken up by a local in acting capacity pending substantive appointment. Students and the university community are terribly enraged.

They poured onto the streets to express their dissatisfaction with the decision of the Council. The suspended Vice Chancellor is their darling. That will not matter for as long as the policy is to get rid of perceived opposition sympathisers from their plum state jobs. People from communities that did not vote for President Ruto are considered as strangers to the government.

The government is not relenting in its quest to sack public servants from opposition regions and communities. I think the Council of Meru University has started implementing in earnest the "shareholder prioritisation" approach to public management. If anybody thought that Riggy G was joking, they had better think again. The guy is dead serious about a state as a company in which the Kenyan communities are shareholders. The ownership structure is determined by the voting patterns that emerged from the August 9 Presidential Poll. That's the new reality in town.

The writer is an Associate Professor of Business Administration and Entrepreneurship.