Efforts to spur economic growth will be futile until Kenya fixes policy-to-results cycle.
President Uhuru Kenyatta’s ‘Big Four’ agenda —articulated on Jamhuri Day — goes straight to the heart of Article 43 of the Constitution, where every person has the right to the highest attainable standard of health, including the right to healthcare services, the right to be free from hunger and the right to accessible and adequate housing.
Add commitments under Articles 55 and 56 to promote affirmative action programmes that ensure the youth access employment, as do minorities and marginalised groups, and one begins to see the promise to deliver 6.5 million jobs between now and 2022 as a really big deal.
Various commentators have praised this agenda but appear split between two schools of thought on the likelihood of its success. On the one hand, there is the long-held view that Kenya always had fine ideas but lacks the capacity and will to implement.
On the other, a more recent view is that our plans are not smart enough — more “castles in the air” than practical solutions. Put differently, our plans lack proper context, in terms of evidence-based problem analysis, or public inputs into the articulation of development needs and priorities.
Assessing these views as part of the same development continuum, the real test of ‘Big Four’ will lie in successful implementation, monitoring and evaluation of these promises through realistic plans supported by credible budget allocations, transparent public spending and accountability for results. Let’s see how the agenda feeds into our 2018-2022 Medium-Term Plan and annual budgets.
Results in this context are as much about quality, through lived experiences, as they are about quantity, like an avalanche of ‘dry’ numbers we were bombarded with through government’s delivery portal.
To repeat my refrain, until we have fixed our policy-to-results cycle — beyond traditional public finance management and the accounting mess that is our Integrated Financial Management Information System — we are running around in circles.
As noted last week, the success of the ‘Big Four’ will also demand close collaboration between national and county governments.
Further, the agenda addresses a great part of the ‘Big Five basics’ I have previously argued represent the collective aspirations of every Kenyan household.
Simply, food, basic rights (education, health, shelter, sense of community), income and asset opportunities including good jobs and livelihoods, participatory governance during and between elections, safety, security and accessible justice — rule of law.
So, food, basic rights and jobs are finally on the menu but participatory governance and rule of law are not.
Yet, think about the body responsible for ensuring free, fair and credible elections — Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission. Or the one that should maintain security, law and order — Interior, including National Police Service.
Or provide custodial services, and rehabilitate and reintegrate offenders — correctional services, including probation and aftercare as well as community service orders.
Improve access to justice — the Judiciary and the chain of justice institutions. Provide legal services and protect the public interest — Attorney-General’s office.
Prevent and combat corruption, economic crime and unethical conduct — Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission. Promote national values, ethnic harmony and cohesion — the National Cohesion and Integration Commission.
These are just seven of the 15 strategic objectives that underpin Kenya’s neglected participatory governance and rule of law agenda under the Governance, Justice, Law and Order Sector (GJLOS) or Democratic Governance sector in other countries.
Outside the big players — the police and Judiciary, among others, consider the other agencies operating in this space — covering critical tasks such as witness protection, promotion of human rights, gender equality and freedom from discrimination, prevention of alcohol, drugs and substance abuse, registration of citizens and foreign nationals, crime research, legal education, legal aid, victim protection and commercial arbitration. That is before we get to the 15 tribunals in the sector, all of which fall under the Judiciary.
From an institutional perspective, many of Kenya’s long-term reform issues, including those captured under Agenda Four of the 2008 National Accord, relate to GJLOS under-performance.
For the Kenyan household, food, basic rights and jobs are wonderful, but must surely rest on democratic underpinnings — on voting and civic participation, or personal security and political rights.
Away from political noise, a big part of our current national divide reflects challenges of participatory governance and rule of law.
To build on my point from last week, will the Big Four be delivered absent of democratic governance? Or shouldn’t we be talking about a more inclusive Big Five agenda?
That may be the pathway to dialogue. After all, Kenya is already famous for the Big Five, not Four, correct?
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Note: The results are not exact but very close to the actual.
