re: KRA appointments

--- julius Kioko wrote:

There is one issue that is being overlooked in this debate, not just in this forum, but wherever else this issue of the so-called Kikuyu monopolization of top positions is being debated.

Just a couple of years ago, KRA was underperforming. We couldn't collect our own taxes and had to rely on handouts from bilaterals and multilaterals.

Now, we have an agency that is being run by Kenyans that is performing beyond expections so much so that the government is able to budget and live within its means. This is a major achievement in any of these languages: English, Spanish, German, Swedish, Hindi.

But it is obviously not an achievement in Luo and a couple of other Kenyan languages.

What is wrong with us? What do we really want? Do we care for results or what? What is the use of having people from your own ethnic group running underperforming institutions?

Why don't we just give KRA back to Moi's boys and let them run it down?

The question, in my view, should be not who runs KRA so long as he/she is a Kenyan, but whether or not the organization is achieving national objectives, and what the revenue so collected is used for.

Also pertinent is the question of whether or not the revenue collected is distributed fairly amongst the different regions, based on economic imperative and strategic considerations.

That ought to be the only legitimate question. Attacking well-performing civil servants sends the wrong message.

KRA is getting all the media coverage that keeps it in the limelight because of its good work. Ironically, this limelight is now the source of its woes. By attacking it, we are telling other public institutions not to do so well because doing so will expose them to attacks and calls for management overhaul.

By demanding that our tribesmen assume leadership of institutions like KRA, we also saying, without saying so, that we want our tribesmen to go and run already successful institutions. If our tribes people are so full of managerial talent, how come no one is fighting to go revive the under performing institutions? Why were people not complaining when Kibaki first appointed KRA folks when KRA was a dodo?

Kenyans have to learn to work hard and smartly. If you are given the Lake Basin Authority to run, make it successful. It will attract media attention. It will then be prominent. Everyone will then covet it. They will fight to run it.

Imagine if all the public institutions were as successful as the KRA? Kenya would not borrow a single kobole from anybody.

The problem is that we all want to go manage the few already successful institutions. Sadly, there is only room for one at the top of any give institution. If this truth cannot be expressed in your mother tongue, find another language. Like Kikamba.