Is the quality of management in Kenya vulnerable to the country’s political system?
BY SAM KEBONGO
Mohamed Amin is a Kenyan legend. The celebrated photo-journalist died in a plane crash in 1996. Perhaps his greatest achievement was jolting the world to action on the grave Ethiopian famine situation in early 1980’s through his Camera lens. His pictures of the starving Ethiopian children were so vivid and gripping on the soul and conscience of the world. They made great American artistes led by the incomparable Michael Jackson to compose the famous song ‘We are the World’ that rallied a fundraiser that saved many lives.
Mo (as he was popularly known) also published a wonderful photo-documentary on Kenya with a catchy title: Kenya: The Land of Contrasts. This title is one the most fitting descriptions of the country. Travel through it and you will appreciate the ‘contrasts’ therein. Mo could not have had in mind the study in paradox that is Kenyans. This contrast is such a tragic comedy. Kenya produces distance running world-beaters, yet Kenyans prefer the English Premier League; we grow high quality coffee that we don’t drink; and it goes on.
The Kenyan workforce
Contrast, contradiction, irony and descriptions of that ilk also define the way we manage our affairs, especially in the public sector. We have such good and highly qualified managers; in fact, our neighbours who train as managers in their countries are highly regarded in their home countries. No wonder Kenyan managers get rave reviews across the region. They are focused, competent, hardworking and quick in finding solution under minimal oversight. In one of the East African capitals, investors joked that all one needed for their enterprise to succeed was, register it, set it up and get a Kenyan to manage it for you. These accolades are not baseless. In this part of the world, Kenyans are to professionalism as Congolese are to music; naturals. Which begs the question; why is this country teeming with professionals tottering under such serious mismanagement?
Ideology (or lack of it)
Politics is the common presumption when one talks ideology. But this assumption is wrong. An ideology in political science is synonymous to a political belief system of ideas and ideals which form the basis of economic or political theories and resultant policies. The normative nature of ideology is crux of the matter here. In the case of management, a manager should be asking what s/he wants to achieve and how they want to do so, who they want to incorporate along the way and what resources they will need. These ‘normative drivers’ to management are beyond profit and salary. These constitute the difference that the manager wants to make.
It is natural that our ‘management ideology’ should stem from the society and its associated politics, morals and belief system. In an article published in The Standard Newspaper of July 8th, 2016, Sitati Wasilwa aptly said that lack of ideology, clientelism and ignorance characterise Kenya’s politics. ‘…in Kenya, since the dawn of independence in 1963, the Kenyan political model can be viewed as an agglomeration of three layers; politics that is non-ideological, elections based on clientelism and a pool of passionately ignorant citizens…’ A little harsh, but on point.
What has this got to do with management?
Well, everything! First consider that the manager, especially the public manager, operates within a political environment. Plans, policies and even procedures and processes are determined and overseen by the politicians. It amounts to what former Kenyan President, Daniel Moi called, ‘siasa mbaya, maisha mbaya’- (bad politics amounts to bad living).
Management and politics are about governance and as such are close cousins, so to speak. It is fool hardy that in the same environment one would do poorly and another flies. Management is poor because the politics is poor.
Ethics, and mores, justice and punishment
One of the key reasons why we have poor management is a decided lack of fidelity and prudence in our management. Morality and ethics seem to have taken a back seat. Corruption is essentially a management ethics problem. Immoral mismanagement should be treated as such, immoral and unacceptable. We have lost our moral compass and are on a fast-lane towards institutionalising corruption. Mismanagement is the norm. The legal system has two problems: First, it is reactionary. Corrupt public servants whose lifestyles their salaries couldn’t possibly sustain, when the big budgets that they control cannot be accounted for, etc would easily be punished if the law proactively considered their management roles instead of seeking lost cash. Second, could the wheels of justice just move faster, already? Justice delayed, we are told, is justice denied. Our court cases take forever.
You, the honest competent manag er need not despair. Do your part, do the right thing and do things right. Nobel Laureate Wangari Maathai would tell you; “be the little bird that goes back and forth with drops of water to put out a forest fire”. Corruption is unsustainable.
Sam Kebongo teaches Entrepreneurship, Project Management and Quality management. Email: sam.kebongo@gmail.com
