Theatre over academic credentials a blemish on the nation's moral fabric

 

Nairobi Senator Johnson Sakaja after he visited DCI Headquarters in Nairobi on June 17, 2022, over his degree issues. [Boniface Okendo, Standard]

 

For many people across the country, the unfolding sagas around the academic qualifications of politicians is just another comic relief from the hard economic times we are living in. What with fuel pump prices competing with the cost of ugali and threats that even the little we have may soon be out of the shelves. In truth, there is nothing new about these purported academic frauds of people gannering for top positions of political leadership in the country.

Any citizen of above average knowledge about our politics understands well there are many fakes in the system. In any case, this is like just another scene on the electoral drama since the introduction of basic levels of education as a preliquisite for certain political offices in the country. For me, it is irrelevant what the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC), the courts and other vetting agencies do or do not do with the cases.

What bothers me most is the courage with which these folks have - that they can breach any constitutional provision, enabling legislations and basic codes of moral decency in society. Yet, they have absolute faith that they shall get away with it. Given their profiles and associations, one just wonders how high or deep such contempt for the people is in the country. The patterns and trends of these cases are indicative of how entrenched this problem is in our national fabric.

Three important questions beg for candid answers: One, how many more of such persons are holding strategic political and appointive positions across both the public and private sector? Two, what does this picture paint on the nation locally and across our boaders? Finally, what does this mean for the economy?

In previous articles here, I have articulated the drivers and hinderances to growth. A fortnight ago, I demonstrated the burden of constitutional commissions and other relevant agencies to the taxpayer yet their impact on the socio-economic wellbeing of the citizenry is doubtful. In ordinary times, I would have by-passed this discussion. However, the medium- and long-term implications of what is happening make it treasonable for professionals to remain silent. The drama playing out in the electoral dispute tribunals and in our courts is grievous mockery of the soul of the nation.

Sacred obligation

To better characterise the issue at hand, it is very misleading when people turn the debate as to whether education is necessary or not for anyone to hold certain public offices or not. The right characterisation is to premise the discussion on established order by the people of Kenya in exercise of their constitutional rights and powers. Thus, if the people have deamed it right through legislation, policy or even established traditions that are acceptable to impose such requirements, then it becomes a sacred obligation for each one of us to not only respect these wishes, but also to comply with them.

In the broader scheme of the national social and economic order, this issue speaks directly to four fundamental drivers of growth and development. This includes the role of institutions, education, governance and behavioural attributes. First, the question of good education as a driver of economic growth is well documented in empirical economic evidence. Education raises people’s productivity, promotes entrepreneurship and technological advancement. Further, it secures economic and social progress and improves income distribution.

In leadership, quality education is an important driver of the perspective that leaders can be made and just not only born. I am on record on this page as saying that it is a statistical impossibility for any government or institution to outgrow the vision of her leaders. Schooling is such a fundamental human life experience that it is unimaginable how an individual who has ever been through it can confuse times and dates they were in school. Even if not for anything else, can’t people protect the dignity of their children and loved ones? It is similar to our traditional rights of passage. One forever remembers those with whom they underwent that right of passage together. For example, even though my community (the Akamba people) abandoned elaborate circumcision ceremonies, I still remember most of the other seven boys with whom we were whisked together to the village circumcisor one early Sunday morning in August 1985. How much more is it for a process that takes a minimum of three years of one’s life, often full of pain and sacrifices?

For better context, my three-year-old daughter can easily produce trails of evidence that her dad has been to a graduation ceremony, if need be. How then does this become a national pre-occupation at such a povital point in the history of making of the nation? Second, the fact that these people can pull such stunts is a clear indicator that they may be privy to priviledged information as to the quality of the responsible institutions. In other words, they may be signalling that the mandated institutions are either toothless or the individuals in them have a price to tinker with things.

Economists are continuously providing persuasive evidence that institutions significantly matter in economic development. This is because they determine the costs of economic transactions, validate the sanctity of contracts and contract enforcement, and increase availability of information. They thus reduce the cost of transactions, risks and uncertainty. A good case in point is the unnecessary legal costs, judicial time resource and productive human energy expended on these sagas. This cost is eventually padded into the electoral costs and society through taxes.

Fundamental flaws

Thirdly, the sagas expose the fundamental flaws in the country’s governance structures. Mushraq Khan (2007), a professor at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, opines that there are two perspectives of evaluating role of good governance within economic development. The first perspective is advanced by liberal economists who view good governance as market-enhancing. This focuses on the capabilities of governance to reduce transaction costs and enhance markets efficiency.

On the other side, heterodox economists stress the role of growth enhancing governance. This focuses on governance capabilities to overcome entrenched market failures in allocating assets, acquiring productivity, enhancing technologies and maintaining political stability in contexts of rapid social transformation. The number of political candidates going through this drama is an insult to the nation’s “purported” established governance systems. This is a nation whose citizens pay through sweat and blood to keep the wheels of governance rolling.

The fourth attribute speaks not of economics per se, but the moral fabric and soul of the nation. The country has presumably about 10 million children enrolled in various basic learning institutions across the country. I want to believe at some point the parents of these children get to have conversations with them about their studies and future learning aspirations at dinner tables across the country. With the question of fake academic certificates of prominent persons in the nation dominating the mainstream and social media, what sort of conversations are these parents supposed to share with their children? What should the young people sweating it out in the nation’s 64 universities think of their sacrifices and labour?