The Crips & Bloods: Made in Kenya
There’s no way Uhuru Kenyatta is running the ministry of finance. I was watching him at a news conference and he looked beaten down. His eyes were bulging red from excessive drinking, his mouth has the black outlayer seen on people who smoke excessively, the bags under his eyes make him look worn out and tired, add in prescription pills of valium and there’s no way he’s functioning.
The ministry of finance needs to be run by a serious thinker and policy maker and at some point, future presidents of Kenya need to start taking these ministerial positions seriously and stop putting just anyone in there. I’ve looked closely at India’s economic transformation and the one thing that emerges from reading about that country is the competence of the people who were put in charge of changing that economy — people like Manmohan Singh, P. Chidabaram and Y.V. Reddy, the former governor of the reserve bank of India. These guys were serious thinkers and readers and they designed and implemented fundamental changes to the economy that are now working (example here).
Public policy today requires a certain level of intellectualism because the issues one has to confront have become so complex. You can’t just have a buearucratic enforcer (which is what I think Kinyua, the PS at finance really is). You need people who have a broader understanding of the world and who have lived and worked outside of Kenya. I’m beginning to believe that this should be a requirement for future finance ministers: international experience outside the borders of Kenya.
I wasn’t even impressed with Kimunya because everytime I heard him speak in interviews he’d just start stummering and mumbling. He didn’t seem to have the capacity to discuss broader issues of economics outside of the bureacratic mumbo jumbo stuff that Kinyua was probably feeding him.
Is anyone else beginning to notice this? the anti-intellectualism and thuggishness of many of Kenya’s ministers and even bureaucrats. There’s no respect for reading and thought and how long can you keep running a government like a gang in south central Los Angeles?
That’s my new name for this Coalition illusion government: The crips (PNU) & the bloods (ODM). They’re just like these guys here.
KE…..
Lol funny comparison of coalition govt being akin to the Crips and bloods.
Well, You do have a point. But you have to understand that for kenya to have those types of leaders and ministers, there needs to be an instituitional and constitutional overhaul of the mechanisms currently in place now.
I have always believed that the constitution should get rid of Assistant Ministers as NONI had said.
MP’s should only pay their role as MP’s. Ministers should not be politicians, i.e. MPs.
Actually the Ministers should be technocrats with the skills KE described abaove who have secure tenure contracts. ask me why ?
Look what happens when ministers are shuffled around for political expediency and convenience: Look at Michuki as the Transport Minister, he cleaned up shop but look what happened when he left, went back to chaos.
Until Ministers are xcluded from being picked from MP’s, kenya will always encounter the same clogs in moving forward toward development.
Let the minister be a competent technocrat with secure of tenure, who will indeed have to implement policy and nurture policy till it works, instead we have some ministers who actually do make a differnce like michuki, but as soon as they leave the office, so do their progressive policies.
KE,
Its funny but you see many things the way I see them. I guess its because you live in the west.
Anyway. I have said before the CPA courses offered by KASNEB do not even scratch on the details and intricacies of public finance that the Global markets have. The world is changing very fast and this is the reason why I have said time and time again that NO change(reforms) can be brought in Kenya without first hand International Experience.
The person who will bring REFORMS will have brushed shoulders with the International heavyweights. Especially at a macro economic level. I DON’T MIND you dumping on UHURU but I will be quick to DEFEND Finance PS Joseph Kinyua.
He has been a breath of fresh air in Kenya. A times I feel that If Kinyua was not there the entire Finance ministry would be a bunch of Unskilled people.
Mzeiya
Blocking ministers from taking ministerial posts will not stop corruption. What will happen is that the people running the ministries will be compromised by the politicians.
What needs to happen is to send some people to jail for corruption. And I mean long jail terms. This will stop them in tehir tracks.
Another thing that needs to happen is for the corrupt to be stripped of their ill-gotten gains and to be publicly humiliated. Paraded at Kasarani or Nyayo stadium.
There should probably be some public executions of the corrupt (I dont know if I have gone too far with that one).
If the above is done – 95% of the corrution will be eliminated within days. It is very difficult to have 0% corruption.
Kei O
0% corruption might NOT be good for an economy (theoriticaly)….Might set in lethargic tenderncies…..
Mungiki
Yesterday Mungiki Raided the region around (globe cinema) from 4pm to 5pm…
Every car was stoned,valuables handed to Mungiki men who were about 400 youths and some chaps of upto 60yrs. The two policemen who were patrolling the area took off (ran faster than jeliomo) leaving the patrol car behind to be ‘inspected’ together with many women & girls
KeiO ..Mungiki is real…..They are gaining strenght daily….I project the city will be a lockdown by Dec at this rate if nothing happens to arrest the situation
Sorry for digressing…but this is an imidiaite concern with far reaching ramification for existance of the fragile Nation….Over to you Keio & others
Lord
Thank you for informing me about Mungiki’s existence – but really I am the wrong person.
Please forward any information that you may have to the relevant authorities e.g. the police, AP, GSU etc.
Truth be told – I really don’t care about Mungiki.
I have also wondered what business (no pun) Kenyatta has running the finance ministry. Do we even know what he studied while at Umass Amherst? Did he finish his studies?
I concur with the need for thinkers being at the helm. The problem though is that most of the old guards who strut around with their doctorates, actually went through a sort of affirmative action to get them. There was a time in Africa when all you needed to succeed in education was to chose school instead of herding cows…once you chose that path the question about your intellectual abilities became mute because the missionaries pushed you through all the way because it made a good headline to talk about the first African this and that…
Erm, just checking… Kenya is in Africa, no?
So expect for a few exceptions (Rwanda & Burundi)… don’t expect much.
Ahh, and S.Africa has also announced it’s entry into the Africa we all know… with zuma & his corrupt sidekicks…!!!
No wonder michael jackson held his nose when he stepped on African soil…
(Yes, I am disillusioned by the corrupt, inept & maniacal bastards that run most of the continent)
KEI O,
This goes out to people like you who always say that they don’t care what goes on in Kenya and they are Kenyan.
Kei O said ,”Truth be told – I really don’t care about Mungiki.”
You know its baffling why you’d say that you don’t care. Kwani where do you parents and relatives live. If you don’t have a single family member living in Nairobi then it means you are a villager.
People like you are just douche bags with no moral identity. How can you allow yourself to say something like that. Kwani you want your relatives to be killed ?
You almost sound like the arrogant son of the soil who left home after high school from the village and went to the city and told the people in the city you don’t care about the security of the village.
All I have to say is Shame on the Arrogant son and all his forsaken family & relatives.
Inspekta Sikujua
I do not dwell on Mungiki. That is for sure.
My immediate concern right is how I can make more money. I am just being honest here.
You can rant all you want about villager, son of the soil etc – but my concern right now is: how do I make more money? NOT Mungiki.
Yes, it is true, I have relatives in Kenya and in Nairobi too. I have financial interests in Kenya and in Nairobi too. But I also have relatives and financial interests outside Kenya. Watajipanga wenyewe. I am not my brother’s keeper.
Do you really think I am going to lose sleep over Mungiki? Hell NO!
On that note, let me go and make some more money. In the mean time, continue ranting.
See you later when I am little bit richer than I am right now.
Kei O: My immediate concern right is how I can make more money.
That should be everyone’s focus right now.
It must be very difficult trying to extract money from your clients in these times.
KE
Funny enough no! I am actually overbooked. People are examining their options right now.
Lets focus on making money and forget all this pointless politicking.
Thats my solution right now.