Former Prime Minister Raila Odinga (centre) talks to Nairobi governor
Evans Kidero (right) and Kisumu Central MP Ken Obura during the home
coming party of member of county assembly for Shauri Moyo-Kaloleni ward,
Ms Priscah Auma Misachi, in Kisumu on December 15, 2013. Raila has
supported the appointment of Mr Francis Muthaura to chair a parastatal,
but has asked President Uhuru Kenyatta to apologise for “glaring
mistakes” in some of his other placements. PHOTO | FILE
NATION MEDIA GROUP
The year has began with hue and cry over
appointments made by the President for Parastatal Board Chair Persons
and members. The appointments should make the public sigh with relief,
but this has not happened.
There are several
reasons that this should not occupy too much national time. One is that
the appointments are not technical but at the policy level. How CEO’s
and other technical appointees implement policy determines the
effectiveness and efficiency of public bodies, not who sits as board
chair. Board chairs in the public sector are not involved in the day to
day running of the organizations, and a non-cooperative CEO can render
their skills and competencies ineffective.
Coordination
between top management and the board may be the most important factor
in the effectiveness of a board Chair. This is where ironically people
like Mr. Muthaura have advantage over fellow appointees.
After
serving in top public positions he should be so well versed with the
operations of public institutions that his experience will play a direct
role in implementing policies that he has had an opportunity to
implement previously.
But does the public have a right
to an opinion on the appointments? Yes! Will that opinion change the
appointments? No! It will however help to ‘mulika’ the
appointees, hopefully making them determined to do a better job,
especially those who the public have shown little confidence in.
The
other problem with public opinion is that if the public listened to
itself it would realize it is no better than politicians in the end.
There has been anger especially over the replacement of Prof Shaukat
Abdulrazak as Chairman of Lamu Port and Lamu -Southern Sudan - Ethiopia
Transport Corridor (LAPSSET) with Mr. Muthaura.
The
argument goes that one from the coast region should chair LAPSSET. The
corridor will transverse Kenya into neighboring countries – will Kenya
get a new chairman each time the project enters a new county?
The
worst thing about dragging the good professor into these debates is
that the guy is a professional. Is he qualified and suitable for the
job? Yes he is. Can he deliver? I bet he can. But those are not the
issues being raised. The fact that he was born at the coast is not a
qualification I am afraid, regardless of how politically persuasive it
might be to the masses.
The painful reality that the
people of the coast must come to terms with is that when someone is that
good, that qualified, that driven, he starts belonging to us as a
nation. I sympathize if he is one of the few from the coast, but when he
became that good the region lost him to the nation and it has to remain
that way.
The minute a person becomes an achiever, an
expert in some area, that knowledge and expertise cannot be used for the
benefit of a region or a community but rather for the nation at large. Wanapwani, it is all right to lose ‘your son’ to the common good.
Even
as the public continues to challenge and give ideas to the president
and his deputy on appointments, let the arguments be logical and useful.
It might help them look at the remaining appointments in a new light.
In
any case the appointments are long overdue. The public sector was
slowly grinding to a halt without boards to approve management
decisions.
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