Kenya: Ministers Must Show Discipline
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The Nation (Nairobi)
EDITORIAL
20 August 2008
Posted to the web 21 August 2008
Nairobi
The other day, Kenyans witnessed a Cabinet minister join a group protesting at the closure of abattoirs in her constituency that had defied orders by the National Environment Management Authority to meet specified sanitation and waste disposal standards.
That the minister for Public Health and Sanitation could encourage defiance to rules touching on health and sanitation merely because those affected are her constituents clearly demonstrates lack of discipline.
It was always going to be difficult to enforce harmony and collective responsibility in a coalition brought together under such difficult circumstances.
But the case cited above has absolutely no connection with tensions, rivalries and suspicion within the coalition.
It is a simple case of an individual who cannot decide whether she is a minister, or whether she wants to represent her constituents, including leading demonstrations against Government decisions.
The Mau Forest saga and many other cases also provide examples of situations where ministers have come out openly to incite people against decisions taken by the same Government they serve.
In most of the cases, such attitudes have nothing to do with rivalry within the coalition, but with ministers who want to have their cake and eat it.
It is time the whip was cracked. We are already seeing initiatives that demonstrate a coalition government working in unison.
On Wednesday, President Kibaki and Prime Minister Odinga were at the same function where they jointly pledged the Government's commitment to the completion of the constitution review.
An internal audit of how the coalition Government has worked in its first four months has already been completed. Out of that has come guidelines on the structures and modes of operations that will remove areas of internal conflict.
Relevant Links
These guidelines must be enforced. Ministers who prefer making political noise instead of raising issues in the right forum should be shown the door.
Read comments. Write your own.
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