Nairobi — Any government without empathy for its people has no moral authority to govern. Empathy is the capacity for one human being to experience mental identification of his or her ego with the character and experiences of another.

In terms of governance, however, it translates to the capacity of the total collective leadership in government experiencing mental identification with the character and, most crucially, with the life experiences of the governed.

The Executive, the Legislative and the Judiciary, including the entire civil, public and local government services must develop the capacity to experience mental identification of this nature.

There are several reasons to believe that the Government has the capacity to empathise with its people, and that most of those reasons can be demonstrated under the recent, most commendable introduction of the "performance contracting" system between the Government as an employer and the individual worker.

The mere fact that the level and quality of "performance" is necessitated by the need to meet the expressed or observed needs of the governed is enough proof that the collective vision of the Government enjoys the capacity for empathising with those it governs, even if some participate in the process merely as a technical requirement.

There are other areas, however, in which the Government's capacity for empathy with the common people is questionable. I refer to the powers of Parliament to pass laws declaring how much its members should earn without recourse to either the Executive or to some kind of forum of its employers - the people.

The act of making laws, which does not obey either natural circumstances or natural justice, goes against the wishes and aspirations of Parliament's own employers and this demonstrates lack of empathy for the poor.

As the people's representatives, it should be their concern to protect the masses from suffering emanating from seriously skewed systems of distribution of national wealth in favour of a mere 10 per cent of the total population into which MPs belong.

Over and above this unfortunate state of affairs, there are numerous examples of lack of empathy within both the Executive and the Judiciary.

Concerning the latter, one finds it difficult to comprehend how persons can remain in remand, without preferred charges, for more than 10 years! Which law would permit this kind of situation? One would presume only jungle law, where empathy, leave alone sympathy, is a non-starter.

Are there also certain cases which take inordinately long before judgment? Yes, especially electoral petitions which have nearly always allowed the incumbent to complete the five-year term despite the petitioner's need for justice.

Empathy rather than sympathy enhances justice because judicial sympathy would relate to the victim's feelings rather than their living circumstances.

But the greatest and most unfortunate blemish on Kenya's civil and public service is, and has been since 1973, its authorised status of a bona fide business operating "club." There are three aspects to this practice, which render the public service incapable of delivering its best service to the nation.

As the class authorised to issue various enabling documents such as licences and permits, its members must be lured to source additional funds to boost their business opportunities leading to open, or "signalled" need for clients to "cough up" something financial to "grease" the wheels of the public service machine.

In the field of procurement, authorised officers are free to register over five or more companies, which can tender for goods needed by their ministries, and to negotiate tenders with "friendly ministries", usually to the exclusion of non-public servants. Corrupt practices will thus perpetuate themselves in Government.

The number of firms involved in the construction of houses and public works but owned and registered in the family names of many public servants are truly numerous. Only a major study on the ramifications of this policy can review the damage it has caused to the creation of employment and opportunities outside the public service.

This policy of commercialising the public service means giving public servants opportunities and ability to participate openly in town market businesses. All these are in areas where non-public servants could probably perform better.

Lack of empathy with the circumstances of the common people in social and economic life translates into the situation where Government is self-serving.

This is the more reason why budgetary planning and delivery and most other Government development programmes should spell out specific benefits targeting the common people.