Kenya’s problem is purely that of inept institutions run by clueless people

Unfortunately in Kenya, our culture is to retain underperforming officials or move them to another institution to preside over more rot. FOTOSEARCH 

In Summary

• The typical Kenyan management style sees no evil, hears no evil, speaks no evil, then stonewalling and, when pressed, undertakes half-hearted measures.

By TEE NGUGI
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News coming out of Kenya’s largest referral hospital, the Kenyatta National Hospital, in Nairobi is horrifying.

It turns out that the institution has been hiding a dark secret — the alleged rape or attempted rape of women who have just given birth. That someone can commit such a horrific crime is difficult to understand.

What is equally difficult to understand is why KNH which has all it needs to ensure the safety of its patients remains, like almost every other institution in this country — a bedlam of ineptitude and criminal negligence.

When the alleged rape reports first emerged on social media, authorities at the hospital did what has become a cultural staple of Kenyan officialdom — stonewall.

After pressure and anger from the public, officials at KNH gave half-hearted declarations that they would investigate the matter. But even then, questions swirled around our brains.

How can such things happen in a major national hospital in the middle of the city? Are there security personnel at the hospital and what is their job description? Are there security cameras at the institution, and do they work? Are there reviews of safety measures every once in a while?

Does the hospital have systems that would encourage victims or whistle blowers to report such crimes, or is their system structured in such a way as to muzzle and victimise anyone inclined to report crimes or other malpractice?

The same reactive “crisis management” style of doing business characterised the education sector: There were recurring incidents of school burning by students; exams were up for sale, and teachers, pupils, police officers scrambled to buy the best results; there were cartels in the school book trade which used to cost the government billions of shillings. The then minister Jacob Kaimenyi adopted the typical Kenyan management style — see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil, then stonewalling and, when pressed, undertake half-hearted measures.

It took a more visionary, more diligent, more motivated minister, Fred Matiang'i, to rescue the moribund Education ministry. If you think about how fundamental education is to our development agenda, it just boggles the mind why such an inept individual was allowed near the ministry, let alone head it.

Mystery of land ownership

There is yet another ministry forever mired in crisis — the Ministry of Lands. This ministry is very sensitive due to the vexing land question.

Since Independence, the ministry, as opposed to judicially managing land issues, became Corruption Central, its reason for being seeming to be facilitating and “regularising” the stealing of public land.

Here too are cartels, lurking in the corridors, doing lucrative deals in collusion with ministry officials at the expense of citizens. A recent TV expose revealed that it is virtually impossible to know whether a Title Deed is genuine or not. It might bear all the hallmarks of official sanction but still be a fake. Trying to get authentication for land purchase is to experience a truly Kafkaesque experience.

One is shuffled from office to office without getting any clear answers to one’s questions. And to this ministry is where the government, in its infinite wisdom, brought Jacob Kaimenyi to, ahem, streamline the mess.

Then we have the National Transport Safety Authority which was created to research and give advice on road safety policy. The NTSA cowboys were everywhere, wielding alcohol blow gadgets like John Wayne.

It is true drink-driving kills, and must be stopped. But at the beginning, NTSA officials would hide near driveways in order to surprise a driver coming home or, alternatively, waylay drivers at entrances of pubs.

The agency failed to understand that road safety is a combination of many factors — the structure of roads, signage, strict implementation of laws by the police... By the time the agency was ordered off the roads, the road carnage was the same or worse than when the agency was created.

The agency’s plan to introduce a points-system licence is a good one and, if corruption and proper implementation were eliminated from the equation, could go a long way in bringing sanity on Kenyan roads.

What is always puzzling to many is that the solutions to our institutions’ and agencies problems are always very clear: Strict enforcement of policy; merciless application of penalties for non-performance and negligence, regardless of the person’s ethnicity or position; Hiring of people purely on merit not on sycophancy.

Unfortunately in Kenya, our culture is to retain underperforming officials or move them to another institution to preside over more rot. I am yet to see a country that achieved a developed status using the true and tested Kenyan methods.

Tee Ngugi is a Nairobi-based social commentator.