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Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Want to be Rich? Grow Grey Hair and Belong

Our national priorities often negate the very tenets of what we stand and aspire to become. Here we are as a nation crafting glossy vision 2030 which in light of what we practice is unwittingly designed to be an illusion at best and mirage at worst. Kenya is not drifting in the doldrums because of want or lack of policies. Far from it since almost every government office has its shelf suffocating from dusty white papers. The problem is these blueprints were all designed with the singular objective of not being implemented. Instead they were authored to create impressions of motion bereft of any real movement.

We live in a dynamic world that demands progressive leadership from in front and by example. Sadly for Kenya our fate rests with dinosaurs who are so allergic to new ideas they will readily and summarily dismiss any attempt to infuse creativity as insubordination. Our penchant to fall for TOKENISM for progress is infectious. When confronted by challenges we often seek quick fixes to wriggle ourselves out. In the meantime we leave the problem unresolved and on a worse scenario festering underneath to reappear with full furry at a later date.

Old is wood

The adage that old is gold is frequently used to intimidate or even cover up incompetence. What is passed as experience may as well be a catalogue of past failures that clouds your vision for a better and efficient route to success. At independence we correctly identified poverty, ignorance and disease as our primary enemies. But almost half century later we are still shamelessly shifting goal posts with coloured targets which are nothing but functions of the original malices.

Only in Kenya do you find greying technocrats who owe their positions exclusively to their native tongue. Just imagine only four permanent secretaries of strategic ministries share close to 250 years between them. And they are in good company starting with the civil service boss who has clocked more than 20,000 days on this planet and still counting while directing technical levers of the government. Smart Muthaura even knows how to draw an MP’s salary and more without the headache of campaigning. All he needs is a circular and hurrah a PS’s remuneration hits seven digits per month.

Road to nirvana

In the meantime, the most important cogs in the wheel of national wholesome development are relegated to the back banner. Getting rusty never killed or so it seems. Only when we start from the basics by squarely addressing the pillars of EDUCATION and HEALTH CARE will we mark a departure from our hitherto circular dance with tokenism. We must make no mistake is substituting quantity for quality. Making our dinosaur PSs millionaires every month is the epitome of inverted priority. Instead we could chose to permanently pave the road to nirvana by competitively remunerating our teachers, nurses and doctors.

14 comments:

  1. well, I am not sure I understand what this is about, but if it is about the salary increments for Permanent Secretaries, I can only call that a slap on the face of the kenyan people.

    Unlike most other Kenyans, I actually have no problem with Members of Parliament drawing six digit salaries because of the obvious unreasonable expectations we place on them. But pS's? Give me a fucking break! This is daylight conmanship

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  2. Sure at Taabu, we need young people to drive us forward. People who are beyond retirement age of 55 years have no business being in our future. ODM starting with Raila, 63 years old, Ntimama and the rest of those dinousers should take a break & retire and leave energetic Ruto on the helm. PNU lets not discuss them since they are not part of our future.


    Ivy

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  3. One word comes to mind when I think of home: IRONY.

    On another unrelated note, Chris, Oscar, Taabu and all the other distinquished bloggers who post on kumekucha, I have a favor to ask

    Q. Is it possible to have a least one article a week or a month or so, that carries positive news or thoughts concerning our motherland?

    Just a thought guys, cheers!

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  4. Oscar
    For once i agree with you on something at least on this post you have some facts and credible supporting evidence , it is indeed sad that this kind of octogenarians are at the helm of management in our country.People like Raila have the right intentions but i dont see them getting any where , so far all he has done is ceremonial stuff(PR) , did you see how he was humiliated in parliament the guy is supposed to be a pm yet people(PSs) are awrded salary hikes without his knowledge let alone approval .Also look at the ammnesty issue he claims to be in govt , remember this is the same government holding the freedom fighters , yet he does not know how many and under whos jusrisdiction they are being held , now the police wants us to report them as missing persons , isuggest we start searching at ngong forest.

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  5. watch?
    Remember what happened to their youth?? think hard- so what happened to our disappeared youth from all over kenya??
    http://myvideos.africast.tv/category/Kenya/0/6834e5f2-887f-4728-a158-9ac400a45fb5.htm

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  6. Same old complaints!

    What has grey or black hair got to do with performance? I expected a blow-by-blow analysis of the performance of these grey PSs (from OP to PM office) rather than innuendoes. You sound like those who were telling us that Passaris should be elected MP for Embakasi because she is beautiful. Good thing that the people of Embakasi saw through these hogwash arguments.

    These empty/vanity arguments of grey versus black hair are the reason that makes Raila spend endless hours painting his hair jet-black. FYI, it the grey matter between your ears plus motivation that primarily determine your individual peformance. We had black-haired but illiterates under Moi who ran down every institution the led. Economically speaking, by 2002 Kenya had been taken back to stone age by the RV illiterates with even the Central Bank being run from State House. Let us develop useful performance-assessment criteria and stick to them.

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  7. Hate Kikuyus, call them all the names you like. But the fact is you’ll die singing that old and tired song. You have been singing the same song in your blog for years. Your fellow Luos have been crying about “injustices” for years. Nothing has changed. Work hard like Kikuyus and other tribes. Kenya doesn’t have free things.

    Luos – under the foolish leadership of Jaramogi and now his son Raila – have lived on empty politics and politics of confrontations since Kenya attained independence. While other Kenyans are busy trying to make a living for themselves and their families, Luos drink and eat politics. Opposition is their other name. When they are not playing politics, they are busy marrying strings of women.

    We live in a modern world. If you want to prosper, stop being primitive and have a positive attitude towards life, what you do and your own country. Your persistent whining and complaining wont change your lives. Nobody will ever uplift your lives. It is yourselves. Even you go Raila is busy filling his stomach while he rides over your empty bellies. Woe unto the cursed Luos.

    Kikuyus are hardworking, industrious, enterprising, have a positive attitude towards life and believe in eating your own sweat. You can be as jealous as you wish about Kikuyus. The reality is you’ll never catch up with them.

    All your hatred and insults don’t bother Kikuyus. As you politic and preach hatred, Kikuyus are busy with their lives and they are least bothered with your verbal diarrhea. You will diarrhea as much as you wish and then eat your own trash.

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  8. Taabu,
    For the first time, I fully agree with your posting. It is more issue oriented compared to you previous posts more inclined on personality bashing. Keep it up and let's have a rational discussion on the issues affecting Kenya.

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  9. Can someone please explain to me what anon 8:56 PM is on about. This kind of messages should be deleted. Out of topic kabisa. They are AGAIN STILL ON KIKUYUS WORKING HARD? THE REST OF KENYA LAZY. Endelea kujidanganya basi. The post had nothing to do with this kind of message. Haki na hawa watu jameni..wana shida mingi sana. Mungu saidia.

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  10. Anon 10:48..Precisely i agree with your comments i will not even go there. I dont think i want to waste my time this morning with such NONSENSE.

    Taabu
    I asked a qn last week..Does permanent secretary mean permanent until death do you part?
    Anon 8:28 i agree with you at a point...Why the obsession with white and grey hair...But come to think of it, when will we ever come to nurture our talent and skills if all the old people will continue holding the mantle. When will i come out in the fore if my CEO who is 60 something and he is still saying mpaka nife.....How will the youth ever make a mark in the civil service?
    Right now in the corporate world it is us guys who are pushing through (23-40) and we are sure making a mark....What i am saying in short is that if my old man was retired at 55 years, then they should all go...Otherwise it remains one thing...ROBBERY WITHOUT VIOLENCE!!!!

    Ivy

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  11. Be careful about your comments as concerns tribes in this volatile Kenyan scenario. It is not true that Kikuyus are allthat hard working as compared to other Kenyan tribes. The truth is that any one, given the favours and resource accessibility these people have enjoyed since independence would appear more wiser, brilliant and hard working as compared to many others who have been denied the same.Watch out, for many of us have experienced discrimination even in our regions in terms of jobs,training opportunitiesand even property allocation in favour of a Kikuyu simply becouse many of their own are in Key positions and have a big say concerning these things.

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  12. Anon 8:56, you are telling us to "work hard" like Kikuyu's. Never! Never! Never!

    We do not want to "work hard" at STEALING, FRAUD, CARJACKINGS, PROSTITUTION, CONNING, ROBBING BANKS, DECEPTION and other criminal/fraudulent/immoral activities that Kikuyu's are known to "work hard" at.

    You Kikuyu's are the scum of Kenya. There is nothing superior about Kikuyu's. They just deceive themselves that they are. They have the moral standards of a HYENA. They a living a big LIE

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  13. Msema Kweil, please ignore anon 8:56, he is looking for VALIDATION on the wrong blog.

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  14. This is definitely the wrong approach to work started in the mid 70's of Kenyatta's rule, dropped a little the first few years of moi rule, then came back with a vengeance in the last half of his rule and is now totally out of control from when Kibaki took over.

    I am not against well remunerated staff. But the focus has shifted completely from actual performance of the work to an output dependent on how much goes into the pocket. its sheer madness. first we have the MPs alluding to this that they are not effectively serving their constituents unless they dip frequently into their pocket. which i find to be the craziest solution to a chronic problem (it may be slow going but setting up structures through such as CDF or other very local community based systems with local leaders to cater for funeral expenses etc independent of the MP of the day is far more insightful than giving a chap x hundred shillings to take to villagers, we all know how pockets develop holes in direct proportion to the distance traveled)

    I also know its impossible nowadays for staff to work simply for the joy of job satisfaction, but if anyone believes that a fat compensation automatically breeds better service then its a mistaken concept.

    We even thought that grey haired folks equal wisdom but instead we have seen the most shrewd and evil of thieves with white hair and balding foreheads.

    Side note: Ivy could you please add something else to your handle, I start by checking the handle so that I know what to read and what to skip but lately iko hii mwengine ako na vituko.

    right now sijui if its you or the evil twin ana ita watu "dino-users" hii ni nini

    UrXlnc

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