Moi is reaping the fruits of his sweat!
FORMER President Daniel arap Moi is engaged in a war of words with Mwai Kibaki. The beef is on the impending referendum which Moi is opposed to. Apparently Moi is unhappy that the coalition government has decided to use civil servants to campaign for the ‘Yes’ team.
AN EAST AFRICAN PERSPECTIVE
By Jerry Okungu
FORMER President Daniel arap Moi is engaged in a war of words with Mwai Kibaki. The beef is on the impending referendum which Moi is opposed to. Apparently Moi is unhappy that the coalition government has decided to use civil servants to campaign for the ‘Yes’ team.
In Moi’s new- found wisdom, it is wrong to politicise the civil service by involving them in partisan political campaigns against their code of conduct. This is very strange coming from the former president. To some of us who remember his 24-year rule, this argument does not make sense because Kenyans have documented many occasions when Moi manipulated the civil service from the local chief to the head of the civil service.
I remember days when Moi used DOs, DCs and PCs as election returning officers during his rule without giving any thought about their being civil servants. The 1988 Mlolongo elections were a clear example of misuse of the civil service by the President to gain political control.
Who but Moi had his rallies addressed by provincial commissioners whenever he went on a campaign trail in all those years of KANU supremacy? And when PCs such as Isaiah Mathenge, Hezekiah Oyugi, Simeon Nyachae, Eliud Mahihu or Yusuf Haji rose to welcome the President at a political rally, was it politics or a Christian Sermon on the Mount?
During the 2002 campaigns, Moi used the provincial administration network to ferry lorry-loads of supporters from every corner of the republic to boost his rallies that were being eroded by the Narc euphoria.
We saw these hired crowds in Afraha Stadium in Nakuru, Eldoret, Kericho, Mombasa and other campaign venues that Moi traversed at the time. And Moi did not just use the provincial administration alone. He ravaged the entire civil service, permanent secretaries, heads of state corporations, the Police, the Special Branch and any arm of the government that could help him contain the tide against KANU. In those days when merit and competence counted for nothing in the appointment of senior civil servants, the presidency became the alfa and omega of Kenya’s political gravy train. Mtukufu had the last word on the future and lives of many a Kenyan.
If Moi liked your face, you would become a top dog in public service overnight. All you needed was a tall relative or a good friend in high places to put in a good word for you. In the same vein, if you crossed his line, it did not matter who you were. You would come tumbling down.
Jokes are told of the era when top civil servants of the ranks of district commissioners and above would buy transistor radios and place them in their offices. This was necessary after Moi had formed the habit of firing and hiring top civil servants during the 1:00pm news bulletin.
Prior to that, many unsuspecting public servants had been embarrassed when they were dumped by the roadside unaware that Moi had sacked them at 1:00pm while attending state functions. On returning to their cars, they would find rude drivers declining to take them back to their offices because their entitlements had been withdrawn!
Perhaps the rain started beating us when Moi chose to use the offices of the Attorney General and head of the Civil Service to scuttle his political rivals. In those days, the Attorney General’s powers knew no bounds. He would pluck MPs from the precincts of Parliament and throw them into detention for years without any judicial process. It was the era of a perfected impunity that knew no limits.
During Moi’s era, the authorities of all provincial commissioners were undermined when he started appointing DCs without consulting the Public Service Commission. However, when he started consulting DCs directly without going through their respective PCs, the die was cast for a dysfunctional administration. The saving grace was his authoritarianism that suppressed discontent among the ranks of the top civil servants.
By 1992 when multiparty politics was knocking on the doors of KANU, Moi threw all caution to the wind. He enlisted the services of every imaginable civil servant, from the sub-chief to the head of the civil service to ensure his victory in the 1992 elections. From then on, the power and influence of the administration Police under the command of the provincial administration grew in leaps and bounds.
If the present administration has seen the need to enlist the services of the civil service during this referendum campaign, it is because Kibaki learnt his skills from the best—Daniel Toroitich arap Moi. Now the master is reaping the fruits of his labour.
jerry@jerryokungu.com
By Jerry Okungu
FORMER President Daniel arap Moi is engaged in a war of words with Mwai Kibaki. The beef is on the impending referendum which Moi is opposed to. Apparently Moi is unhappy that the coalition government has decided to use civil servants to campaign for the ‘Yes’ team.
In Moi’s new- found wisdom, it is wrong to politicise the civil service by involving them in partisan political campaigns against their code of conduct. This is very strange coming from the former president. To some of us who remember his 24-year rule, this argument does not make sense because Kenyans have documented many occasions when Moi manipulated the civil service from the local chief to the head of the civil service.
I remember days when Moi used DOs, DCs and PCs as election returning officers during his rule without giving any thought about their being civil servants. The 1988 Mlolongo elections were a clear example of misuse of the civil service by the President to gain political control.
Who but Moi had his rallies addressed by provincial commissioners whenever he went on a campaign trail in all those years of KANU supremacy? And when PCs such as Isaiah Mathenge, Hezekiah Oyugi, Simeon Nyachae, Eliud Mahihu or Yusuf Haji rose to welcome the President at a political rally, was it politics or a Christian Sermon on the Mount?
During the 2002 campaigns, Moi used the provincial administration network to ferry lorry-loads of supporters from every corner of the republic to boost his rallies that were being eroded by the Narc euphoria.
We saw these hired crowds in Afraha Stadium in Nakuru, Eldoret, Kericho, Mombasa and other campaign venues that Moi traversed at the time. And Moi did not just use the provincial administration alone. He ravaged the entire civil service, permanent secretaries, heads of state corporations, the Police, the Special Branch and any arm of the government that could help him contain the tide against KANU. In those days when merit and competence counted for nothing in the appointment of senior civil servants, the presidency became the alfa and omega of Kenya’s political gravy train. Mtukufu had the last word on the future and lives of many a Kenyan.
If Moi liked your face, you would become a top dog in public service overnight. All you needed was a tall relative or a good friend in high places to put in a good word for you. In the same vein, if you crossed his line, it did not matter who you were. You would come tumbling down.
Jokes are told of the era when top civil servants of the ranks of district commissioners and above would buy transistor radios and place them in their offices. This was necessary after Moi had formed the habit of firing and hiring top civil servants during the 1:00pm news bulletin.
Prior to that, many unsuspecting public servants had been embarrassed when they were dumped by the roadside unaware that Moi had sacked them at 1:00pm while attending state functions. On returning to their cars, they would find rude drivers declining to take them back to their offices because their entitlements had been withdrawn!
Perhaps the rain started beating us when Moi chose to use the offices of the Attorney General and head of the Civil Service to scuttle his political rivals. In those days, the Attorney General’s powers knew no bounds. He would pluck MPs from the precincts of Parliament and throw them into detention for years without any judicial process. It was the era of a perfected impunity that knew no limits.
During Moi’s era, the authorities of all provincial commissioners were undermined when he started appointing DCs without consulting the Public Service Commission. However, when he started consulting DCs directly without going through their respective PCs, the die was cast for a dysfunctional administration. The saving grace was his authoritarianism that suppressed discontent among the ranks of the top civil servants.
By 1992 when multiparty politics was knocking on the doors of KANU, Moi threw all caution to the wind. He enlisted the services of every imaginable civil servant, from the sub-chief to the head of the civil service to ensure his victory in the 1992 elections. From then on, the power and influence of the administration Police under the command of the provincial administration grew in leaps and bounds.
If the present administration has seen the need to enlist the services of the civil service during this referendum campaign, it is because Kibaki learnt his skills from the best—Daniel Toroitich arap Moi. Now the master is reaping the fruits of his labour.
jerry@jerryokungu.com