Focus on Kenya’s policy problem on Jamhuri Day

Kenya has a policy problem, not a constitutional moment. Actually, we have a public policy problem. For some, "public policy is the outcome of the struggle in government over who gets what".

Guess whom? For others, public policy is "whatever governments choose to do or not do".

Guess when? Here’s a nice definition: “Public policy consists of political decisions for implementing programs to achieve societal goals". This last one is a brilliant view from South Africa.

In simple terms, policy is the way to connect politics to programs, from whence projects are envisioned and designed, procurement follows, and payment emerges. We often start the wrong way around.

Why does policy matter? It helps leaders to understand and then fix the “wicked” (as the Brits say) problems of the people. It is the most important role of government. Our fiscus, our economy, our society – these are all the results of policy that understands problems and sees opportunities.

Which is why our 2010 constitution transformed Kenya from an administrative to a policy state. Let’s recall how the constitution was supposed to transform the meaning of government.

Five capabilities. First, adjusted/aligned policy, legal, regulatory and institutional frameworks. This post-colonial, pro-colonial Jubilee administration is struggling. Observe the thinking in our health and education sectors as prepubescent and prehistoric. And that’s our social core in these Covid-19 times.

Second, an enhanced policy and planning to results framework. Well, we now have an almost one trillion national Covid-19 recovery strategy and a Sh132 billion county idea. Who’s paying for that?

Capability three. Policy execution and service delivery. Jubilee is a procurement government that works through projects, not programs informed by policy. If service delivery was a key performance indicator, then young doctors wouldn’t be dying through lack of salary, insurance and PPE.

How many of our 1,000-plus projects are policy-programmed to address problems of the people?

A former House Majority Leader confirmed ten per cent on SGR. The NGO AfriCog demonstrated “budget corruption” in a greedy focus on urban, not rural, roads. Increasingly irritating, Kenya Power cannot deliver (while KenGen is super-profitable). Infrastructure madness might have a different name.

Capability four. Public participation and accountability. Let’s start with the second. Accountability is commonly confused for accounting in government. We have probably 50-plus years of this. Can we do a Christmas Tree with Diwali-like fireworks for every corruption conviction? Oh, it won’t happen. Ever.

Participation does. I attended one. No advance material. Zero note taking of comments. Nothing close to a meet conclusion. It’s a bit like signature collection. There’s lots of “why” but not enough “who”.

Capability Five. Let’s call this the “middleware” (between front and back office). This should be the “sweet spot” between how national and county government converse. To ask questions like why smaller (national) government needs close to a trillion while bigger (47) county governments need a tenth of that for Kenya to recover. It’s almost laughable, but we live in “Casino Royale” territory.

Those are capabilities - capacities I leave for another day.

So let’s get back to this policy problem. We could start with the idea that neither of our post-Covid spending elegies actually solves the issues of the people. We could then ask why government exists when we are setting out our begging bowl to deal with this trillion-and-more budget deficit.

At which point we may begin to wonder if, in the Covid-19 times that have inspired “big spend” strategies, Kenya can actually afford more…to fix less?

Tomorrow is Jamhuri Day. The Internet reminds me (from school) that it’s more important than Madaraka Day. That independence trumps internal self-rule.

Between the usual Presidential mishmash of data bombardment and flowery wording, it might be useful if we actually hear that Kenya’s is not a constitutional moment, but a political, indeed, a policy one.

The policy opportunity required a redesign of our theory of government. Slimmed-down “policy and standards” national with limited cross-county spend responsibility. Empowered and capacitated “delivery-led” counties within smart and flexible regional economic blocs. Delegated security arrangements. Dead regional development authorities. Dead provincial administration without a federal charter. Parastatals on a “need to exist” basis. Simply, political will to implement policy

Functional independent commissions as a veritable (and world leading) “fourth arm of government” supporting our basic rights: Education, Health, Jobs, Security, Justice, Participation. Policy, again. Hell, our constitution re-envisioned the Kenyan person. What’s to change if we can’t implement Article 43?

Eish, this policy-led implementation opportunity equated the “Enemy of the State” with the “Enemy of the People”. In a normal country, tomorrow’s leadership speech might be “policy-led”; lest Kenya is divided by the endless and useless power plays emerging from BBI. Of course, this requires an honest acceptance and graduation of government thinking from procurement to projects to programs to policy. In other words, a leadership not reduced to the micro-management of projects, or “toys and gimmicks”

Policy matters, however its “wickedness”. We miss this point. BBI is the unfortunate result. And it will lead to a 2022 that makes 2007 and 2017 look like a Christmas party. I predicted both, I predict again.

Fellow Kenyans, Happy Jamhuri Day!