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Thursday, May 07, 2009

Terminal Benefits

A fool-proof method of getting rich in Kenya: really suck at your government job. As Gladwell Otieno, former head of Transparency International, Kenya and Execitive Director of the Africa Center for Open Governance (AfriCOG) wrote in an article in the Daily Nation, "no matter how dismal, negligent or even criminal your performance may be, you will not only never be held to account for it, you will be amply rewarded". 

I belatedly learnt (courtesy of the Mars Group) that it cost upwards of Kshs. 68 Million to fire the ECK Commissioners responsible for bringing us to the brink of anarchy. Each recieved between Kshs. 2 milion and Kshs. 5 million for their trouble. This is in addition to the Kshs. 2 Billion frittered away over the past 15 years on such things as sitting and subsistence allowances for daily one-man meetings (see AfriCOG report here). Compare this with the Kshs. 10,000 - Kshs. 25,000 offered to the victims of the ECK's bungling to rebuild their homes and shattered lives. 

Who says crime (and incompetence) doesn't pay?

2 comments:

Tamaku said...

The moral compass of our leaders broke down a long time ago. Who will fix it?

Gathara said...

Tamaku,
Too true! Guess we fix it by changing the system and not looking for messianic leaders to do it for us.