More lessons on public, private sector engagement

Opinion and Analysis

President Uhuru Kenyatta joins other delegates at the launch of the Kenya International Investment Conference 2014 in Nairobi in November. The State and the private sector should work together to promote enterprise. PHOTO | FILE 

By MIKE ELDON, mike.eldon@depotkenya.org

In Summary

• Businesspeople must strive to work with and not against the government.

Thursday, April 2, 2015 was a terrible day for Kenya. It will forever be associated with the devastating attack on Garissa University in which so many innocent people died.

But for me and others who had been invited to lunch at State House that day for the 4th President’s Round Table with the private sector it was a day of mixed emotions.

On the one hand we were still learning of the horrors of the latest Al-Shabaab outrage, but at the same time we were inspired by the constructive collaboration between the public and the private and by the decisiveness of the country’s CEO.

Even if the terrorists had not chosen this day on which to launch their unspeakable attack, the media would still have given negligible space to what was being agreed between the government and the private sector.

After all, it was just lovey-dovey stuff, about working together harmoniously to build a better Kenya. Which self-respecting reporter or editor would be interested in such peace-love-and-unity outpourings when there’s so much juicy material around on corruption, political manoeuvring, crime and suchlike?

I should add that some observers aren’t happy about the private sector’s “cosyness” with the high and mighty. They should be much tougher, such critics feel, citing areas where progress should be made but is not.

I have written about this dilemma before, and I am not shy to repeat that being polite and respectful is not a sin, and that it is not necessarily a sign of weakness.

Of course it is guaranteed to attract negligible media coverage if any, but I firmly believe that businesspeople must work with and not against the government.

Most of what they do is going to be far more effective if it is indeed away from the public glare.

But the challenge with such an approach is that much of it goes unrecognised, and even where the private sector agenda is advanced as a direct result of quiet negotiation it’s too easy to assume it was not a factor.

It’s the lot of unsung heroes on both sides, and one they willingly accept — given that the macho alternative, while offering instant gratification, is actually quite unlikely to deliver the goods.

In some neighbouring countries, where the atmosphere is less liberal, the private sector’s attempts to speak out have, with some justification, seen them branded as supporters of the opposition as a result of which they have been shunned by government.

How the private sector should behave is a delicate matter. And as I have said before, there is a place for “good-cop-bad-cop” strategies. The hard-ball approach of much of civil society offers a good complement to the inevitably softer touch of business, and of course circumstances vary widely, over time and across situations.

Is KEPSA always on target in how it selects the priority issues for its National Business Agenda? I for one have no problems with its choices, and if significant progress in creating an enabling environment for business is to be made, it must be very selective.

At this Presidential Round Table the focus was on integrity, the improvement of government processes and the further spread of e-government. Surely one can’t argue with such a trio.