For over half a decade, the operation and management of state parastatals in Kenya has witnessed political meddling and the impact adversely affecting the successful running of these organizations. Since Kenya attained her independence in 1964 and the establishment of many state corporations that followed after, the question of efficiency in operation and service delivery has always been made in an attempt to rationalize matters.
In many cases the issue of nepotism and corruption in job recruitment and lack of integrity in the leadership of these parastatals has led to the partial or full collapse of these vital institutions. From the assurance and reliance on government funding or bail out, the parastatals have been on a decline for many years. With the many examples including the national courier, Kenya Airways that was established in 1977, the 46 years of its operations have been tumultuous to say the least with government intervention so often from its inability to make profitable business.
Other state corporations including sugar millers and textile manufacturers have also experienced the same fate with production shutting down and financial and legal woes that necessitate government intervention. The poor management of the parastatals can also be partially attributed to lack of proper oversight as well as political meddling where some of the organizations are used for political mileage during or after political campaigns to the detriment of the millions of Kenyans that greatly rely on the services from these parastatals.
In a bid to streamline the privatization agenda and goals of the government and to foster the privatization process, the government of Kenya through the treasury and related ministries are working closely to create the privatization Authority. The authority will be charged with special mandates to recommend and oversee the privatization processes of state parastatals among other key roles. Public participation therefore, has been encouraged in the process through diverse public participation forums to give opinion, remarks and recommendations to the process of creating the privatization authority.
Retrospectively, the government of Kenya should have borrowed a leaf from other developed nations to model a privatization authority as well as also finding proper mechanisms that would foster the running of state parastatals that have more often than not been riddled and fully crippled by corruption and mismanagement with no real legal consequences to the looters and perpetrators of this crimes. In most cases, the leadership of these parastatals are political appointments lacking real professional capacity to run the parastatals and therefore, the end result is failure and total collapse to the detriment of the Kenyan tax payer.
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