How to salvage Kenya’s public service

This column touched on the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) last week. The response from readers has been overwhelming. It is a demonstration that Kenyans are critical about governance. The contents of the feedback led me to ask myself what really ails Kenya.

The questions led me to a subject that I have dealt with in the past.

This relates to the manner in which public service is handled. For the past two months that lecturers have been on strike, the debate has been about who is right between employers and employees.

In this debate, what may be lost is the impact on students and university education. I support public education. However, one cannot escape the reality that the delays negatively affect education. I have had discussions with students who have overstayed due to frequent strikes and closure of universities.

It is not enough to argue about the advantages of public education as compared to private education in an environment where the former suffers from frequent disruptions. The end result is that even for the diehard supporters of public education, one starts to have misgivings.

This explains the increasing focus on academies and private universities and for those who can afford it, sending people to foreign universities.

The second area of similar concern is health care. Health is one of the Big Fur Agenda for the Jubilee Government. In the past few weeks there have been three issues in the news. The first relates to the announcement of the imminent arrival of Cuban doctors.

It is reported that part of their task is to help in rural areas, including in the fight against malaria.

The second report relates to the roll-out of a health insurance scheme through the National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) for secondary school children. Thirdly, the piloting of a universal health programme.

The above is happening against a background of skyrocketing costs of medical services. Just last week social media was awash with news of a lady who died within one day of admission to a hospital.

READ: Adherence to rule of law is never optional

The reported costs for the one-day treatment was close to one million shillings. This cost is out of reach of most Kenyans.

Cancer has become a killer for many. The cost of cancer treatment in Kenya is prohibitive.

Coupled with the state of cancer treatment in the country, the number of deaths from cancer is rising. Others seek specialised treatment out6side the country.
Reports indicate that cancer treatment in India is cheaper than in Kenya.

These two examples demonstrate that Kenya is increasingly letting its public service run into trouble.

Instead of fixing the problem, there has been a tendency to prefer private service. However, no country can prosper on privatisation of basic public service.

A review of most developed countries demonstrates that the provision of basic services are always in the hands of public entities.

When you leave them to the vagaries of the market, the end result is not just inequitable access but also skyrocketing prices, invariably out of reach of the ordinary citizen.
This turns public service into an opportunity to amass wealth for private gain.

Part of the motivation for this lopsided approach is the desire to have resources to meet the cost of basic services, which, as opposed to being provided by the public, is provided by private business.

The consequence is a discussion among ordinary middle-class Kenyans about where their children go to school.

The discussion revolves around which private school, how much it costs and similar trend.

In reality though, we need to ensure that public services are of good quality so that every citizen sees it as the logical place to go to.

We have to ensure that our discussions on the Big Four Agenda addresses this fundamental issue.

We must make public services truly public and truly about making services available.

Our target must not be tokenism. It must be about truly bringing back service delivery and quality in our public sector.

This way, every citizen will be guaranteed access to quality services at an affordable cost.

This must be the focus of any reforms efforts.