11 August 2008
editorial
Nairobi — Politicians have a penchant for creating discord where none exists.
At the weekend, a group of Coast MPs took up the Kenya Ports Authority as a subject of debate and used it as a tool for exciting parochial regional feelings.
They took offence over last week's sacking of KPA chief executive Abdalla Mwaruwa, viewing it as a systematic design to marginalise the coastals.
Nothing can be far from the truth. The port is not a property of the coastals; it is a national asset. Its management is not a preserve of the coastals, but that of any Kenyan who can do the work.
Prime Minister Raila Odinga was spot-on with his rebuttal. He dismissed as misguided the argument by MPs led by Assistant minister Danson Mungatana that the KPA job must go to a coastal.
The port has registered negative performance in the past one year or so, necessitating radical changes. Congestion, due to delays in offloading goods, poor dock infrastructure and inefficient processing of documents, have seen port's revenues slump by more than 50 per cent in the past two years.
Yet, Mombasa port is at the heart of trade in Eastern and Central Africa and Sudan. Sluggishness affects not just Kenya, but an entire region. The economy of an entire region cannot be held at ransom by a group of self-seeking politicians.
But the problem is bigger. It is not just about KPA but State corporations at large. Many politicians hold simplistic views about national institutions.
There is no rule in the book decreeing that an institution must be managed by local people. Such narrow-mindedness has cost this country a great deal in the past, and must be fought at all costs.
A time has come when emphasis must be placed on performance, not the language one speaks, place of birth, or religious inclination.
Politicians must stop meddling in the management of national institutions. They must avoid trivialising issues to score political goals. What Kenyans want is competence and efficiency in managing public institutions; nothing less.
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