Can Kuria and Owalo reform service delivery?

Former Cabinet Secretary Eliud Owalo. [File, Standard] President William Ruto recently added personnel to his core economic team with the appointment of former Cabinet Secretary Moses Kuria. Ruto also appointed former Cabinet Secretary Eliud Owalo to oversee performance and delivery management. Most reasonable Kenyans saw these appointments as the usual doling out of sinecures to failed politicians. And you cannot blame them for their cynicism, so far in his tenure the President has time and again prioritised rewarding his boosters over actually figuring out how to deliver for Kenyans. That said, it is also worth taking the appointments seriously. Both former CSs did not particularly excel in their portfolios before their dismissal. But those who know them agree that they are intelligent people and have a work ethic that can be channelled to good use. Being able to channel their talents - which should be the job of a good job - is critically important. Kuria has not always earned himself points with his brash public utterances, to put it mildly. Owalo, too, has often come off as a lightweight, more interested in form over substance. How might the President make good use of these two gentlemen's time? An obvious way would be to task them with developing a monthly performance metric against which the administration will be judged. It could be a monthly report on the number of businesses registered and jobs created, or a monthly report on the rate of absenteeism by government workers - from teachers, to doctors, to nurses, to bureaucrats. The point here is that even as the President refuses to drop the habit of governing the country from the rooftops of Prados, he ought to put together a team that sweats the details on the boring day-to-day work of governing. New projects are great, and often attract the attention of voters. But even more important is the task of ensuring that the proverbial trains run on time. Hospitals must be stocked. Schools and hospitals must stay open and efficiently running. Emerging crises must be resolved. Government workers must be kept motivated. Someone has to sit down and oversee this boring work. It is common knowledge that too many of our public officials waste their time on workshops and other travel all year round. Kuria and Owalo have the background to potentially force a reorientation in how we run the Public Service, with specific attention to boring day-to-day work. But only if the President gives them direction. -The writer is a professor at Georgetown University

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