Key State firms weighed down by leadership vacuum

Public Service Commission (PSC) chairperson Margaret Kobia: Some of these appointments are being delayed by the ongoing parastatal reforms. Photo/FILE 

By MUGAMBI MUTEGI, pmutegi@ke.nationmedia.com

In Summary

• Key government agencies have been left without a substantive leadership for close to two years.
• Corporate management experts say this is a bad practice that grossly undermines organisational performance.
• That some of the positions have been vacant for more than two years is being seen as pointing to political rather than technical challenges of finding suitable candidates.

 

Nearly 10 government agencies have been left without a substantive leadership for close to two years, raising questions over their performance and effectiveness of the appointing authorities.

The severity of the leadership vacuum is underlined by the fact that most of the agencies involved are in key sectors of the economy such as the capital markets, energy and agriculture.

The list of State firms that are currently run by acting executives include the Capital Markets Authority (CMA), the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC), Rural Electrification Authority (REA), the Vision 2030 Secretariat, the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS), Sony Sugar and the Tea Board of Kenya (TBK).

Corporate management experts say this is a bad practice that grossly undermines organisational performance.

“Most acting CEOs are people who have been picked from within the institutions and who are capable of doing the assigned job,” said Samson Osero, the executive director of the Institute of Human Resource Management.

“Still they do not get confirmed for reasons that may never be known.”

Public Service Commission (PSC) chairperson Margaret Kobia said that while the normal practice requires people to act for about six months after which they are either confirmed or replaced, this has not always been the case in government.

“Some of these appointments are being delayed by the ongoing parastatal reforms,” said Prof Kobia in an interview.

“It has been proposed that some State firms be merged and some be wound up altogether and it should therefore be understandable if some agencies stayed without substantive heads pending completion of the reforms.” 

Prof Kobia’s position is, however, contradicted by the fact that only two of the seven vacant positions involve State firms that are earmarked for mergers or disbandment. 

More than five of the seven positions fell vacant after previous occupants served maximum terms and left, throwing the institutions into a protracted hiring of substantive replacements.

That some of the positions have been vacant for more than two years is being seen as pointing to political rather than technical challenges of finding suitable candidates.

Political patronage has in the past been used to justify nullification of hiring processes that were almost complete with the shortlisting of candidates.

In some cases like the CMA, the process of filling the vacant position had actually reached the penultimate stage with the handover of the names of three candidates to the appointing authority only for the process to stall.  

The ensuing stalemate has left Paul Muthaura with the dubious distinction of being one of Kenya’s longest acting chief executives