Public Office Is A Service, Not An Enterprise
By Samuel Mbithi Kimeu
The country is angry with MPs for awarding themselves monumental salary increases at the expense of Kenyans. The civil society and the private sector have come out to warn of the negative implications of Parliament’s move. This is not the first time this debate has taken place in Kenya. It is time to reflect on why this is becoming a recurring issue, determine ways and act to bring the matter to an end.
Public office is a service and trust to the citizens; it should not be an opportunity to amass wealth. It is not proper for Members of Parliament to determine what they earn. They should not be judges in their own cause. Nowhere else does the system allow anyone to determine their pay and benefits. In the private sector where enterprises exist for profit, CEOs benefits are not unilaterally determined and are negotiated based on performance. Non-performance attracts immediate sanctions, including dismissal. Healthy book balances make it easier to negotiate better pay. It is fundamentally wrong for Members of Parliament to hive off huge salaries and allowances on the basis that there are corporate and parastatal heads that earn more than they propose to pay themselves. This argument fails to appreciate that public service should not be motivated by profit and personal gain. For those whose purpose in life is to amass as much wealth as they can, the public sector is not the place to do so. Regrettably there has been rapid commercialisation of public service in the recent years that can only spell doom for this country if not addressed. This coupled with the attendant erosion of core values that ought to underlie public service is one of the challenges that Kenya will have to grapple with in the post-Kibaki era and that will be difficult to reverse.
There is however a silver lining. The most potent tool in the hands of Kenyans to begin putting matters right is the vote. The power of that small card in the pockets of over 12 million Kenyans is so enormous that if well utilised it would radically change the way things are done in this country. There are two opportunities to exercise this power in the referendum and the elections expected in 2012. On 4th August 2010, Kenyans will have a rare opportunity to change the governance landscape of this country. A vote for or against the Proposed Constitution of Kenya (PCK) will have very serious direct implications on all Kenyans. On the matter at hand, a positive vote on 4th August would not only firmly deal with the issue of Members of Parliament increasing their salaries at will but also the glaring and nonsensical disparities in salaries and benefits across the public service. The PCK establishes a Salaries and Remuneration Commission to determine salaries for all in state service, including Members of Parliament.
In matters of elections, Kenyans must begin to act as the Human Resource Managers that they are. In the world of employment, performance and ethics are the determinants of whether one keeps his/her job or not. Tools of performance management are all the rage to help measure results as accurately as possible. Performance is rewarded and encouraged while non-performance is swiftly sanctioned and punished. The only opportunity Kenyans have at present to exercise this power is during elections. If Kenyans are sufficiently outraged by the conduct of their Members of Parliament then the outcome of the next elections should be evidence enough.
The writer is the Executive Director, Transparency International-Kenya 
