Recent changes proof of Kenya’s trite politics

Last week, President William Ruto instituted changes to his government, largely affecting principal secretaries and the foreign service. Coming barely a fortnight after his handshake with former Prime Minister Raila Odinga, the reorganisation hardly came with surprises. For all intents and purposes, it was business as usual. It was yet another proof of the trite Kenyan politics. It was yet another indication of how little words mean in our political ecosystem.

At the height of the Gen Z protests last year, President Ruto outlined a raft of measures he intended to take to address the issues that triggered the protests. Austerity ranked high among the interventions. In his speech on July 5, 2024, the President listed nine austerity measures he intended to implement.

Among them was reducing the size of government through a reduction in the number of advisors; dissolution of 47 state corporations with overlapping roles; suspension of the chief administrative secretaries positions; and a ban on harambees. An analysis of how each of the commitments have thus far been fulfilled is a story for another day.

Did the signal from the latest changes align with the overall spirit as captured by the President last year? It was not lost on Kenyans that the announced changes occasioned creation of new departments, which naturally creates additional costs in the running of the government. Purely judged by the President’s own template, the move fails to pass muster.

Public servants

Not only is it important to profile the latest development; it is just as important to suggest the lens with which it should be viewed. The biggest challenge the country faces in the public service is the incentive system. A painful reality is that our public service largely remains extractive. Public servants view the positions primarily in private extractive terms. Accumulation is the order of the day.

That the public service has largely been repurposed to serve private interests is incontestably evidenced by a number of things. Consistently, the Public Service Commission has raised an alarm on the number of ghost workers. Its latest report puts the count at approximately 17,000. Then there are the vicious fights to control procurement. In fact, it is no longer a secret that some projects are purposely undertaken out of greed, their value to the public notwithstanding. Tenderpreneurship is arguably the hallmark of the privatisation of public service. T

One wonders if the recent rapprochement has, or will have, any impact in so far as upending the highly extractive mentality in the public service is concerned. Quite unlikely. Which is to say that Kenyans should not expect much from the latest season of our political drama. If anything, it is a perfect case of political convenience overriding merit driven considerations.

But just like in economics, the consequences of bad actions cannot be rigged. It is an uphill climb to try to make the outcome of bad actions look good. If extraction retains its prime place in the public service, public goods won’t have the intended impact. Put simply, business as usual won’t deliver results unusual.

Mr Ogutu is a political commentator.