Kenya’s heritage falling apart as museums cry out for urgent aid

The National Museums of Kenya (NMK) risks closure if the Government does not rescue it from a financial crisis quietly ‘eating’ it from within.

Mzalendo Kibunjia, NMK’s new director general, confirmed that the institution is on the verge of collapse and is in urgent need of financial help.

Dr Kibunjia took over at the troubled institution in February when he was controversially handed a three-year mandate to run the State corporation by Sports and Culture Cabinet Secretary Hassan Wario, who is himself is a former staffer at the museums.

“NMK is broke. It has no money. We cannot even pay salaries, let alone run programmes. We are in a terrible state and we need a miracle to limp back on our feet. We want Kenyans and the government to help us because this is our heritage,” he said.

Established by an Act of Parliament, the corporation’s role is to “collect, preserve, study, document and present Kenya’s past and present cultural and natural heritage.” Under it are about 20 museums that include the Nairobi National Museum, Karen Blixen, Nairobi Snake Park, Nyeri, Tambach, Wajir, Narobi Gallery, Rabai, Malindi, Loiyangalani Desert, Hyrax Hill, Meru, Kariandusi, Kabarnet, Kitale, Lamu, Narok, Kisumu and Kapenguria museums.

NMK also runs 10 sites and monuments: Uhuru Gardens, Koobi Fora, Jumba La Mtwana, Mnarani, Siyu Fort, Songhor, Olorgesailie, Takwa and Thimlich Ohinga.

“About 80 per cent of the money we use is gathered from payments we receive from visits to our museums, sites and monuments. In the last few years, the visits have dramatically nose-dived owing to prevailing insecurity in the country,” Kibunjia said.

As an indicator of how dire things are, the Nairobi National Museum now struggles to collect a million shillings monthly, from a high of Sh10 million. Fort Jesus, which used to collect more than Sh10 million, has dropped revenues to under Sh2 million a month.

Other than gate collections, NMK has four other sources of funding – the recurrent vote and development grant (both from the government), donor development fund and research project fund.

According to another top official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, the total expenditure of the institution is approximately Sh1 billion. While the government allocates on average Sh600 million per year, it has not given the Museums the development fund for several years.

The corporation used to receive an average of Sh50 million per year in development fund, according to the official.

Sh500m debt

In good times, the total revenue collection per year was between Sh200 million and Sh300 million. “You cannot count on the research grants because they are awarded to the researchers themselves and we only get 12 per cent of the total research grants for facilitation and administrative purposes. Donor funding itself is erratic,” the official said.

So dire is the situation that some time last year, the Museums was unable to pay pension remittances for its employees. The corporation currently has a cumulative debt amounting to Sh500 million.

“We cannot even pay suppliers, some for as little as Sh10,000 worth of supplies. We have engaged on essentials-only mode and effected austerity measures to cut down on our costs. It’s that serious,” the official said.

The Vasco Da Gama pillar is falling apart, Fort Jesus is eroding away, “Kenyatta” houses are wearing out and the Karen Blixen house is sinking, said the official, warning that these key national heritage must be rehabilitated before they are gone for good. “Lack of enough cash flow has impacted even on our capacity to attract visits. We have not been able to change our exhibitions for a number of years now. It becomes boring for visitors when they find things in the same position they found them when they were kids,” the official explained.

Other sources within the Museums said unmitigated spending, weak internal checks and general mismanagement have exacerbated the situation. A case in point is where a retiring manager employed about 40 new staff at a time the institution was operating under austerity mode.

Rescue package?

Owing to erratic change of leadership at the board and management levels in the last few years, the institution has not been consistent in its austerity measures as new bosses come with new policies.

This has not been an exception even with Kibunjia’s entry.

“He has dropped all the austerity measures effected prior to his appointment. He is travelling out a lot at the cost of the Museums,” another source complained.

But Kibunjia says he is on a mission to revive a dying institution. He says other than lobbying for greater donor support, he has approached the national government with a Sh800 million “rescue package” request.

“I do not want to imagine a situation where we do not get that rescue package. We are talking of a situation where the Museums could become a museum itself. I honestly do not know what will happen but trust me it’s nothing good,” Kibunjia said.

He plans to use the amount to invest in “travelling exhibitions” where fossils are moved to different world destinations.

“We have fossils of giraffes with long horns like those of a buffalo. How many people know that? And we just have them here on storage and exhibition. We must make maximum use and benefit of these fossils to guarantee ourselves stability and sustenance,” he said.

To make matters worse, the corporation has no substantive chair of the board following the resignation of Louis Leakey a few weeks ago. Leakey quit after serving for less than a year and did not give exact reasons for her resignation. When asked why the board chair quit, Kibunjia said although it was largely to do with her busy schedule elsewhere, the brokenness of the institution may have been a factor.

“She’s engaged in a number of initiatives. They have an institute in Turkana almost similar to the Museums and where she is a director. She also has a young family and she couldn’t manage especially with all the issues we have at the moment,” he said. “At our current state, the board chair is more or less a full-time job. One has to look for money, otherwise the institution will die,” he added.