Why our moral crisis urgently needs disruptive thinking

19th century French liberal theorist and political economist Frédéric Bastiat told us “when plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men in a society, over the course of time they create for themselves a legal system that authorises it and a moral code that glorifies it.”

For anyone who’s watched The Four Horsemen documentary, the above quote typifies what Kenya looks like today.

Simply put, “to understand something is to be liberated from it.” So we just had a February of corruption allegations, denials, counter-allegations, affidavits, clearance letters, briefcases, “money-sacks”, and unauthorised bank signatories — spiced up by official whining.

Thus we begin March 2016; a year after the List of Shame was presented to Parliament as part of the President’s Second State of The Nation Address; eight months subsequent to the highly celebrated joint commitment by the Governments of Kenya and the United States of America “to promote good governance and anti-corruption efforts in Kenya” and four months after corruption was declared a national security threat right before Pope Francis’ visit to Kenya.

We will end the month with a Third State of The Nation (SOTN) address which will speak to “the usual suspects” — railway, roads, energy, health, irrigation, ICT, security, et al. The usual coterie of spin, sorry, speechwriters is probably busy torturing the data into storylines right now.

Meanwhile, media and the public continue to ask difficult questions about corruption, realising that it’s not just an electoral issue for 2017, but an existential one for the Kenyan nation-state for all time.

The words of Monsieur Bastiat provide a useful background to this thorny question. In this light, even the best written speech might only amount to — as Americans say — “putting lipstick on a pig” in the eyes of a public whose children equate the Eurobond to “a place where money gets lost” on our local TV entertainment shows; where “stepping aside” is what Citizen TV’s Papa Shirandula claims his wife did when she walked out on him a few episodes back.

If ever there was a time for national reflection, especially on corruption, it is now. Indeed, this is the essence of the State of the Nation address, not as PR stunt, but as purposive national introspection.

Lest we forget, we have talked for years on end about fighting corruption without a single high profile conviction to speak of. We still aren’t able to “walk the talk”.

Let’s throw out the usual “anti-corruption box” and reflect on the vice from two unconventional perspectives in the context of SOTN 2016.

Before he mediated over our 2007/08 post-election violence, Dr Kofi Annan had once observed — as UN Secretary-General — that “good government is a prerequisite for good governance”.

Putting lipstick on a pig

Simply it is a necessary, albeit insufficient, condition — since good governance also has a demand side that includes transparency, accountability and participation.

Thought about this way, good government must be competent if it is to be responsive and accountable to the demand side we call the sovereign power of the people.

That seems to be the sort of government the Constitution envisaged, especially when we read it as a policy instrument that aims to promote good, as well as a law intended to prevent bad.

That’s the philosophical/moral side perspective. Reading the Constitution “as policy”, five “capabilities” emerge for all institutions of government. First, a sound policy, legal and regulatory framework. Second, a transparent planning, budgeting and performance framework.

Third, an effective policy execution and service delivery capability supported by a fourth capacity that fully embraces public participation and accountability — which combine to form our 21st Century “front office”. Connecting “front” and “back office” is our fifth capability — featuring the “joined-up” characteristics of “coordination, collaboration and cooperation”.

That’s the technical side of things. If we had thought through the design of national and county government institutions using these five capabilities, rather than pursuing 20th Century constructions of government that don’t change its essence, we would surely be having a different discussion about corruption. As it is said, “don’t hate the players, hate the game”.

Are we incapable of revising the rules of the game — across the board? A second, and far worse, “philosophical-technical” perspective has emerged in the past month — that recent big corruption revolves around projects intended to benefit younger members of society, particularly the youth.

Though we only know about fast evolving scandals around National Youth Service and the Youth Enterprise Development Fund, we might as well begin to wonder about the Uwezo Fund, Youth Empowerment Centres, Youth Employment Scheme — Jobs for Unemployed and Marginalised People (YES-JUMP), National Youth Talent Academy and other ongoing initiatives.

Let’s step back into Kenya’s Country Report for the African Ministerial Conference on Youth Employment held in July 2014; themed Improving, through Skills Development and Job Creation, Access of Africa’s Youth to the World of Work. What was Kenya’s baseline?

The report estimates Kenya’s annual job creation requirement for the youth cohort as over 1.3 million. So, what do our youth bring to the “world of work”?

School dropouts

200,000 don’t attend primary school; 300,000 are primary school drop-outs; 250,000 complete primary but never join secondary school; 180,000 are secondary school drop outs; 250,000 finish secondary school but do not join a tertiary institution; 45,000 drop out of tertiary institutions; only 155,000 complete tertiary education and training.

Simply, 89 per cent of our youth enter the formal labour market with incomplete formal training and inadequate work skills. Worse, 800,000 children graduate to becoming youth without skills. These are all annual numbers.

Fast forward to the World Economic Forum’s 2016 Report on The Future of Jobs. It asserts that — in rethinking education systems in a disruptive 21st Century — we all need to consider that “(by one popular estimate) 65 per cent of children entering primary schools today will ultimately work in new job types and functions that currently don’t yet exist”.

Given this picture of the present and future, the philosophical/moral question we must ask ourselves is how we got to the point where we are robbing the young. The technical dilemma is whether or not our solutions still make sense.

Are we moving beyond “cookie-cutter” thinking and action — beyond money and some training — in addressing the youth question? One final thought.

The 15-34 age cohort in 2014 comprises 3.5 million people who will be between 18 and 37 in 2017, plus another million or so who turn election eligible in 2016-17.

Forget billions “skimmed” from NYS; think millions seeking a youth agenda as 2017 approaches. Now that’s food for thought for SOTN 2016, as well as our new ministry responsible for public service and our youth.

Kabaara is a management consultant. [email protected]