The Covid crisis forces the private sector to press the Reset button. A collapse in revenue and traditional ways of doing business demands new ways to operate more economically and efficiently.
The same opportunity applies to government. In 2013 President Uhuru Kenyatta commissioned a survey of how parastatals and state bodies could be simply rationalised. But this report was never acted upon, perhaps because the political class resented the loss of patronage that it implied.
Government has to think differently. The Covid crisis has depleted the Treasury.
In February, Treasury CS Ukur Yatani suggested that Kenya needs to close 400 state bodies and regulatory agencies.
Government should start with tourism which has 13 parastatals. What's the real difference between the Tourism Finance Corporation and a Tourism Fund? Why have a Tourism Research Institute and a Tourism Regulatory Authority outside the ministry? The National Convention Bureau wants to bring international conferences to Kenya but shouldn't that be the job of KTB?
The tourism bodies should be collapsed into departments inside the Kenya Tourism Board, or just be made departments in the Tourism ministry. That will save a lot of money.
Quote of the day: "The king must die so that the country can live."
Maximilien Robespierre
The French lawyer revolutionary was himself guillotined on July 28, 1794
