Stop this ethnic profiling of public servants

You will hardly come across anyone with a background in the Kenyan military service with anything bad to say about General Daudi Tonje, who served as the Chief of Staff between 1996 and 2000.

In an interview with Citizen TV’s Jeff Koinange, the current Chief of Defence Forces Robert Kibochi highlighted General Tonje’s tenure as a turning point in the professionalisation of the Kenyan military, citing the establishment of the National Defence College as particularly transformative. General Kibochi has 40 years in military service, so he should know. 

The Tonje reforms also came with, among others, four-term limits for commanders, service rotations at the very top military office, the opportunity for women to serve in the mainstream military ranks and a medical insurance scheme for the defence forces.

Another of the outstanding Moi-era senior public servants credited with transforming institutions on their watch is Brigadier Wilson Boinett.

As the first head of the National Security Intelligence Service (NSIS), the precursor of the current National Intelligence Service (NIS), Brig Boinett rebuilt the institution from a colonial-type torture gang known as the Special Branch into the professional outfit it is today.

A senior government official, who worked with Brigadier Boinett, last year called our newsroom to complain about a story in which the former spymaster’s name was mentioned alongside those of Moi-era power brokers such as the late Hosea Kiplagat.

Debunk the myths

“Boinett was not like those wakora (crooks),” he said. 

The exemplary public service demonstrated by people like General Tonje and Brigadier Boinett should help debunk the myths currently being created about public servants from one community.

In the wake of media reports about Moi University’s financial troubles, some folks have been circulating a list and photos of individuals identified as members of the university management.

Almost everyone on that list has a Kalenjin surname, suggesting selective editing by its authors to amplify a lack of ethnic diversity. Another list also circulating on social media has assets worth billions of shillings purportedly amassed by a former State corporation boss with a Kalenjin surname.

Granted, public institutions have serious ethnic diversity and corruption issues. But it is rather disingenuous for the authors of such lists and those circulating them to try to blame them entirely on an individual’s ethnicity. Not every public institution that has been run down in recent years had a chief executive or management team dominated by the community.

Kenya Airways, Mumias Sugar Company, and Uchumi Supermarket, Lake Basin Development Authority, name them. The University of Nairobi, whose financial health is not any better than that of Moi University, hasn’t had a Kalenjin vice-chancellor for decades.

Understandably, it is the silly season again. But as former President Mwai Kibaki would say, even political propaganda requires some intelligence.

[email protected]. @otienootieno