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Focussed on the youth; Forget those retiring, They can....
21st May 2007   

“The older generation of Kenyans can be let to die as quickly as they retire,” exclaimed my host, a senior public servant with whom we were discussing entrepreneurship process as the new focus of developing the youth in Kenya. “These elder citizens have been the cause of the mess our youths are finding themselves in.  We are not thinking about them any more beyond retirement. So many things were going wrong for the youth yet these seniors were only clinging to their dear jobs without caring for the future of their siblings,” he added.

And how are they going to be made to die? I enquired “These senior citizens can be easily let to die through emotionally induced illnesses (EIIs), like it happened in the early and mid 90s. That time, many public servants were retrenched majority of whom, went into chicken and egg business, particularly in the outskirts of Nairobi. This resulted to market saturation or too much supply that was unmatched by market demand therefore leading to reduced profits and eventual business closures. The end result was suicides and heart attacks, which led many to their graves early in life," he calmly explained.

Apparently, this is not fiction but  a real life scenario in the 1990’s as reminded by this youth minding executive. I personally know of 3 deaths of early retirees from one public service department which occurred within 6 months after retirement. But, upon reflecting on the matter, I now see the frustration of my host. That, 600,000 youths in this country exit primary school annually and only 300,000 are accommodated by the country’s secondary schools. Four years later, only about 10,000 of the secondary school graduates are admitted in public universities, whereas the private universities accommodate another 10,000. Then, only about 20,000 of the youth find their way into tertiary institutions of learning, leaving a balance of about 260,000 without any chances of progressing academically. This translates t0 50% of primary school teens being offloaded to this harsh world by the school system, armed with only minimal knowledge for their existence. Worse still the secondary system offloads another 86% of later age teens to the world with few or no opportunities of employment to lean on. This ugly scenario is still not enough. The graduates produced by universities four years after, are not guaranteed of any job opportunities. Even more worrying about these observations is that they do not occur after every 8 years of primary, 4 of secondary and 4 of university, but it is infact an annual ritual.

I am now imagining a situation whereby majority of the 70% youthful population of this country are unemployed yet with so much energy going to waste or being mis-directed into undesirable social vises like drugs and crime. The situation indeed has been getting worse over many years. Yet, we have had leadership in this country which has always claimed to be mindful of the welfare of the youth. And worse still this leadership has been renewed every 5 years without a break.

Each time I think of management styles, I count three of them. They include crises management, maintenance management and innovative management. Majority of Kenyans have been used to the first style most of the time. It involves struggling to survive in this turbulent world. It covers those who are in dire poverty and surviving on less than 1 dollar a day who comprise about 60% of our population. Even majority of those above the 1 dollar a day are not any better. They are considered to be fine yet they just survive on a day-to-day basis. They struggle to meet their routine bills including fees for their children.

Our leaders on the other hand, have in the past embraced maintenance management. This management style assumes all is well. It is like just a matter of servicing a car, which is greased and oiled after attaining some prescribed mileage. There is no time to worry about breakdowns. And worse still no worry about change which is brought about by many factors, technology included. The leadership in our country has for many years not been bothered about the crises that have been building up over time as the majority of the population wallows in abject poverty and at most just managing to stay afloat. The population has had no thought of putting the leadership under pressure to change from maintenance management. Even when change has been envisaged, only narrow perspectives have been considered. Indeed, the focus has been, it should be our man this time.

This maintenance management style of steering the country has disregarded continuing change. The population growth rate has been higher than   economic opportunities can offer. Growth in facilities, structures and employment opportunities had also been ignored. There have been no attempts to vigorously create wealth or reduce unemployment. Indeed, the country’s development had been stagnant.  Things had just been left to take their own course, like a ship in deep seas operating without a compass. Yet it is still moving. Worse still there has been uncontrolled sleaze or corruption if you like. It had been a free for all attack on public resources better known as “Mali ya uma” in Kiswahili. The more you have been able to strategize in helping yourself from public resources, the more popular you had become to the authorities. And once resources are depleted in one public institution, you are moved to the next to continue with the plundering.

In management terms, there has been no innovation or creation of more “mali ya uma.” No attempts were being made to inculcate the culture of innovative management in the administration of the country’s resources. But what has changed in the recent past?  Institutions like New KCC have come back to live. Milk is no longer poured on the roadside as was happening in Nyandarua sometimes back. Instead, milk products have been re-invented thus allowing easy accommodation of in-exhaustive milk stocks. Kenya meat commission has also been re-invented. The cow has once again become a coveted asset. Many other economic activities have also been re-invented far and wide only through focusing on our existing resources. Indeed, Kenya is slowly regaining its past glory of being an Agricultural country.

We are also seeing innovative ways of tax collection, which have led to tripling of annual tax revenues. What of performance management? Contracts have now been signed in almost every government department. More innovative management has been witnessed through implementation of the youth entrepreneurship fund, which will to some extent address issues of the youth and maybe trigger more and more innovations at the individual level. Is the constituency development fund (CDF) not part of the innovative management we are currently witnessing?

It appears that the country is in a way re-inventing itself. If the tempo was to be maintained and not swept under the carpet like has happened to the (former) Michuki rules, meant to tame the rogue Matatu industry, then, the sky could be the limit for dear Kenya.

Innovative management must be encouraged across the board. Forgive me for attributing our current innovation and re-invention to laizes faire or hands off leadership style. I once mentioned this leadership style while discussing leadership with a bank staffer.  The example that immediately came to mind was our own President Kibaki as the best practitioner. To my amazement, the lady staffer wondered around whether it is indeed a leadership style or refusal to take charge.

On the contrary, you are given the freedom to operate as long as the desired results will be delivered. No need to keep being stepped on the toes. Apparently, the style can be applied not only to public affairs but also to the business scenario. Managing the state is not much different from managing a large business. It is no wonder that large multinational companies are run by presidents. If recently published, opinion polls about our country’s leadership were to be relied on, then my view of laizes faire leadership style would certainly be unchallenged. But above all, the bitterness earlier expressed by the youth minding host is now  understandable. Give people freedom to innovate and they will deliver desired results. Indeed, Vision 2030 will only be achieved through innovative management.

The writer is a Management and Entrepreneurship Consultant for  Newtimes Business Solutions, Nairobi

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