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For every problem, there is a commission doing nothing but drawing fat salaries

Thursday March 30 2017

The National Cohesion and Integration Commission was created to reconcile ethnic communities, check hate speech, and help bring to account those who incite violence against other ethnic groups.

But since its formation, not a single person has been jailed for any of the above crimes. Is this because the NCIC has been successful? The answer is “No.” On the contrary, since its formation, Kenyans have continued to suffer violence and death because of incitement of one community against another.
So we know that the NCIC has failed. In a discussion on a local TV station recently, its chairperson admitted as much. In his defence, he blamed the failure on inadequacies in the laws that created the NCIC and inadequate funding.

In response, Prof Michael Wainaina, a discussant on the same programme, painted in sublime eloquence a cultural attitude that is central to Kenya’s, and by extension Africa’s, crisis of socio-economic development.

Here was a body created to stop the recurrence of the ethnic violence that left hundreds of people dead in 2008 admitting failure six months to another closely contested election.

If the chairperson of the NICC, argued Prof Wainaina, had determined that such an important body was not given the resources it required to succeed, he should have resigned immediately. And yet for four years, he and his fellow commissioners continued to draw huge salaries running a commission they knew could not succeed!

What a damning indictment of not only the commission but the mental attitude with which Kenya has run its affairs since independence, for the NCIC behaviour is not an anomaly; it is part of our national culture. A look at a few other failing or failed commissions will suffice to show just how deeply ingrained this behaviour is in our national culture.

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The Salaries and Remuneration Commission.

The commission was created to harmonise salaries of all public workers. But just the other day, doctors ended the longest strike in Kenya’s history. Among their grievances were poor conditions of work and salaries. They pointed out that many hospitals lacked basic equipment.

They also argued that Kenya was the only country in the world where politicians, including Members of County Assembly, earned more than doctors. Indeed, Kenyan MPs are the highest paid in the world and can, and do, award themselves extortionist salary increases and allowances.
Other public workers have over the course of the SRC’s existence decried skewed salary packages, and threatened or even gone on strike: Teachers, nurses and, just the other day, university lectures, etc. Over the same period, MPs have continued to draw huge salaries and allowances. Now they have awarded themselves gratuities that will cost billions of shillings. Yet, as the country suffered huge disruptions due to strikes over salary discrepancies, and the public purse continued being drained through “legal” theft in parliament, SRC fat cats continued to draw huge salaries.

A few years ago, the SRC halfheartedly tried to stop MPs from increasing their salaries yet again, but quickly acquiesced when it was threatened with disbandment.

The National Drought Management Authority.

You would not know that such a body existed given the regularity of deaths and suffering every time there was a drought.

This year’s drought had been forecast months ago, just like others before it, and yet this time, as in other times, people and their livestock have perished. We cannot stop drought from occurring, but, surely, should we not be able to stop deaths of people and livestock?

The National Environment Management Authority. Every year when it rains heavily, Nairobi and other cities are flooded, causing death and destruction. The flooding is caused by buildings in natural waterways, a fact pointed out uncountable times by environmental activists. Today, buildings in those areas still stand, and others are being constructed. No doubt Nema officials are rubbing their taxpayer-fed bellies in contentment, waiting to rush to the next scene of a disaster, and once again threaten to take action against illegal constructions.
We urgently need to reverse a culture that sees nothing wrong with drawing salaries for no work done at worst or for crisis management at best.
In serious countries, bodies such as the ones above are proactive, leading in the creation of a national culture in which a great moral (and legal) burden is placed on public officers to perform to the highest standards without any excuses, and failure results in resignation or jail. How many deaths will it take to stop the gravy train?

Tee Ngugi is a Nairobi-based political and social commentator. E-mail: [email protected]

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