How to end cronyism in counties

The late American politician Sam Houston once said that “a leader is someone who helps improve the lives of other people, or improve the system they live under”.

He was right, but not in the Kenyan context, and definitely not in the context of the country’s counties.

The year 2014 was nothing but 12 months of frosty relations between the leadership of county governments and their residents, with the major issue of concern being lack of fairness, transparency and accountability in the hiring of talent.

Across the country, from Mombasa to Malaba, Namanga to Mandera, the cry was the same: county officials were using tribe and cronyism as factors in the employment of new staff, and most of those who were hired did not even have the experience or qualifications to carry out their mandates.

While a section of the public raised questions regarding the calibre of those working directly under Governors, particularly the county ministers and their deputies, others felt that the quality of services had been affected by lack of competent people to run the affairs of county offices.

Most blamed the Governors, whom they accused of failing to recognise the principle of competency in selecting those who joined their teams.

The situation was made worse by the failure of some county governments to pay the salaries of their workers on time, leading to industrial action.

In August, for instance, doctors and health workers in five counties who had not received their July salaries went on strike.

Mombasa, Machakos, Busia, Uasin Gishu and Kiambu counties had delayed the salaries of their employees for weeks, said the Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union (KMPPDU) chairman, Dr Victor Ng’ani, at the time.

“Apart from salaries, workers are also facing other issues such as delayed promotions, arbitrary transfers, nepotism, cronyism and discrimination based on one’s county of origin,” Dr Ng’ani added.

What he was saying in a round-about manner, and what everyone who had keenly followed the events in the counties agreed on, was that county leaders had diverted from the original track of using their devolved units to bring social and economic change to the grassroots.

Instead, it was argued, the rot that had plagued the central government for decades, and which the country was trying to run away from when it advocated for a devolved system of government, had been transferred to the counties.

In Nakuru, Governor Kinuthia Mbugua and his deputy Joseph Ruto, together with the Public Service Board, were fighting accusations that they had used tribal bias in the recruitment of 10 executive committee members and 24 chief officers.

Things, to use a common saying, “were thick”. Quarterly reports by the Controller of Budget (CoB) indicated a major lack of competent human resource at the county level, which hampered delivery of quality services and implementation of budgeted development projects.

So, given the foregoing, is there a need for some kind of radical surgery in the human resource departments of Kenya’s devolved units of governance in 2015?

The answer, it seems, is a no-brainer. In its reports, CoB advised public service boards to establish realistic and effective human resource policies to rationalise management of staff and maintain a delivering public service workforce.

Mr Peter Mbae, the Nakuru County Public Service Board member in charge of administration, finance and ICT, earlier told Jobs that they planned to establish a professional and competent workforce going forward.

“Lack of competent staff is a major challenge that all the 47 counties are struggling with,” said Mr Mbae. “We have collectively agreed to put in place mechanisms that will ensure we have personnel who are aware of what is expected of them.”

However, as the county governments seek to improve their performance in 2015, a few things need to be reconsidered and reshaped into a new human resource model.

Mr Devarest Ambale, the lead consultant in human resource management at Corporate Smarts and Insights Africa, says focusing on the following three areas will radically change the way counties are run in the country:

1Establish evaluation criteria to measure performance in service delivery and appraise accordingly: Mr Ambale says there should not be any joyriding in the delivery of public services, thus stringent but transparent mechanisms must be put in place.

“Those who seem to be enjoying good salaries without performing their duties well have no place in public service management. They should be sent packing,” he says.

According to him, it takes good leadership to differentiate between politics and management of public affairs, the latter of which must be done in the most fair and considerate manner.

In this case, performance contracting would come in handy as the statutory agreement would keep employees on check and remind them of their mandated roles and responsibilities.

2Create relevant departments: The leadership in the county governments has in the last two years come up with some kind of irrelevant positions which only duplicate the roles under already existing departments.

Even though they have more than one personal assistant and a chief of staff, some governors are also seeking to establish the position of Executive Secretary, whose responsibilities are not any different from either of the two.

This is happening against the backdrop of recommendations by the Salaries and Remuneration Commission and the Ministry of Devolution for county leadership to adopt austerity measures to cut their wage bills.

“County governments are creating political departments to satisfy political quests. It is not about getting the right people to do the right jobs. This is in no way contributing to any development in the counties. It is just wastage of public resources,” notes Mr Ambale.

3Divorce politics from human resource management: A man has gone to court seeking the recruitment of some executive members of a county assembly nullified in order to pave way for employment of a new team in a fair manner.

His case is yet to be determined by the courts, and while the courts may rule for or against him, Mr Ambale says this is an eye-opener. Those in positions of power are now more aware of the fact that someone can take them on, legally, should they seem to reward political cronies with jobs at the expense of other, more qualified candidates.

“There must be a deliberate strategy of replacing political cronies with qualified personnel. I know of some counties which are engaging only professionals and they are making good progress,” he notes.