Opinion and Analysis
Central Bank of Kenya Governor Patrick Njoroge during his inaugural
Press conference at the bank’s headquarters in Nairobi on September 29,
2015. PHOTO | SALATON NJAU
By RICHARD GITONGA
Why have so many countries in Africa been eluded by prosperity? There are obviously a myriad of reasons.
Prosperity is too apt to prevent us from examining our
conduct, but adversely leads us to think properly of our state. The
prosperity of a people is proportionate to the number of hands and minds
usually employed.
To the community, sedition is a fever, corruption
is a gangrene, and idleness is an atrophy. Whatever body or society
wastes more than it acquires, must gradually decay, and every being that
continues to be fed, and eases to labour, takes away something from the
public stock.
One wonders what is happening in some of our county
governments. Wasted resources; high recurrent expenditure;
disillusioned citizens; misappropriation of funds; et al.
It appears that some county executives in Kenya and
assembly members have interpreted devolution as a vehicle to enrich
themselves at the expense of the citizens that they were appointed and
elected to serve.
They have embraced an outdated notion that one
cannot get rich except at the expense of his neighbour. Do they perceive
themselves as part of the problem or the solution in the development
discourse of their respective counties?
Every thinking Kenyan’s presumption is that all
county government senior representatives have at least a rudimentary
knowledge of the tenets of good corporate governance.
They know that corporate governance is a system by
which governments and institutions are directed, controlled and held to
account.
They are ideally supposed to be the custodians of
good corporate governance in the sense that they have been mandated to
facilitate the dynamic interaction between people, structures, processes
and traditions that support the exercise of legitimate authority in
provision of sound leadership, direction and oversight.
It is said that power, in the hand of lack of
knowledge, inexperience and ego is a sure way to failure. Failures are
divided into two classes: those who thought and never did, and those who
did and never thought.
On which side of the coin do some of county executives belong? Or is it simply a matter of greed?
They are motivated by fear and greed, and some of
them force their will through blocs of special interests which are
prejudicial to the welfare of the whole society.
Let us not agree to be characterised as failures
because we “thought but we never did, and did and never thought”. We
have the privilege of learning from others who have come before us on
good governance principles.
Let us not be ignorant but instead embrace and be
advocates of the seven common pillars of corporate governance which
include legitimacy, participation, ethical conduct, transparency,
predictability and accountability.
The writer is a director at the Institute of Directors
No comments :
Post a Comment