Transport CS Kipchumba Murkomen has said Kenya needs to take a leaf from the Rwandan governance structure where decision-making is swift.
He said Kenya takes a lot of time to initiate and implement projects because of the bureaucratic structures involved in decision-making.
“You have a tender like the one we had at Dongo Kundu. We should have been awarded maybe six or seven months ago because we have the money and financial support of up to Sh50 billion.
“But because we take so long to make decisions - I know, yes, we call ourselves a democracy, but we should not use our constitutional structure to delay our growth as a country,” Murkomen said.
He spoke Tuesday at the Kenya Ports Authority headquarters in Mombasa where he had gone to announce performance contracting results for KPA for the year 2020/2021.
He said neighbouring Rwanda makes its decisions quickly because its governance structure allows its President and the executive to make decisions.
“Here at home, we have had to handle a tender that should have taken six months, for two years, delaying the time of construction and delaying investment that by now we should have had the berth operating,” Murkomen said.
He said Kenya should emulate its neighbours.
“We need to borrow something from Rwanda because their decision-making and governance structure allows the executive to make the decisions they need to make in the shortest time possible,” he said.
This comes a day after his remarks about Rwanda on Citizen TV caused uproar.
The CS indicated that Rwanda is an autocracy and that whatever the President says is the law.
“You cannot compare the political situation in Rwanda and the size of the country with our country and our democracy,” Murkomen said on Citizen TV on Monday.
This forced Foreign Affairs Principal Secretary Korir Sing’oei to try and diffuse the tension on Tuesday, stating that Rwandan President Paul Kagame is an iconic leader whose “bold leadership” is admired at home and abroad.
The PS said each country within the EAC has a unique democratic praxis suited to their contexts.
“We celebrate this diversity of expressions and institutional arrangements. Rwanda is a key brotherly nation,” he said.
After his television remarks, Murkomen went on social media and expressed his admiration for Rwanda’s style of leadership “which has made it possible for them to build good infrastructure including a new airport and enforce discipline and order on their roads”.
On Tuesday in Mombasa, he praised Rwanda’s decision-making saying it allows development in the shortest time possible.
“And they can implement their infrastructure development in the shortest time,” he said.
He said Kenyan airports and other infrastructure projects are more than 10 years behind schedule because of the same decision-making delays.
“A small road, someone goes to court and the project delays for five years. Another one runs to Parliament and instead of Parliament facilitating, they give orders saying do not move like this,” Murkomen said.
This could be interpreted as defending President William Ruto’s stance that the sword he was given was not for cutting cabbage.
Ruto said he will deal with those running to court to stop the implementation of the affordable housing program among other projects branding them enemies of progress.
On Tuesday, Murkomen said Kenya needs to relook at its systems to be as competitive as others.
“If we don’t, let me tell you, we’d be bragging here that we have this kind of governance structure but eventually other countries in the region will overtake us while we are just sitting here talking a lot of English and a few Kiswahili,” said Murkomen.
He said Kenya should be serious with things that are going to benefit the country and must not rest on its laurels but always move a step ahead.
“The other day, Rwanda was not, as a country, our competitor on aviation issues. But because of their leadership, now they are building a new airport and significantly improving their aviation capacity.
“So we should not sit here and say we are doing better than Tanzania, Uganda and Rwanda or Burundi. We must always be moving a step ahead, thinking about what is happening in the world,” Murkomen said.
Competition, he said, is good for the development of individual countries.
He noted that Kenya is trying to improve the Northern Corridor because of the pressure it is getting from the Central Corridor in Tanzania.
“And we thank our brothers in Tanzania for the investment they are putting in Dar es Salaam port and the Central Corridor because it makes us as a country to work hard,” he said.
He said if each country had positive competition, the East African community would be better and stronger.
He said the current KPA management was swift in putting in place procedures that they used as soon as they came to office and now have succeeded in unlocking the Dongo Kundu port construction.
“Now soon we will get our brothers constructing Dongo Kundu berth and that will help expand the business in our port,” he said.