Net worth declarations: Why appointments committee failed Kenyans
Kenya's new Cabinet Secretaries were sworn in this week and handed the office keys and files by their predecessors.
This comes a few days after their vetting, where they were questioned about their qualifications and capacity for the offices they were nominated for.
As part of their vetting, they were required to make wealth declarations to the National Assembly’s Committee on Appointments.
The Public Service Commission wealth declaration form requires that a person summarise his or her assets, income and liabilities with descriptions and locations, where applicable.
They must also prepare a separate statement for each spouse and child over 18 and one can list up to five spouses and 10 children under 18. Members of Parliament also make wealth declarations, but they are filed away, never to be seen.
But is it all necessary? The declarations became one of the most memorable items of the vetting week.
The Nation's Public Editor called out the sensational headlines about "filthy rich hustlers" that described the millionaire Cabinet Secretaries who appeared before the committee, with most declarations being of a few hundred million shillings.
But what is a millionaire? The committee report did a disservice to the process by only highlighting assets and not income and liabilities.
The premise of wealth was wrong and sensational, as a conversation about assets is incomplete without liabilities.
If someone takes a mortgage and buys a Sh10 million house, they have a Sh10 million asset.
However, the home is co-owned with the bank, and the Sh9 million loan negates that home value as an asset until it is fully repaid.
By the committee's measure alone, anyone who owns a car or half an acre of land is a millionaire as there is hardly a car or urban plot that costs less than a million shillings.
It is also reasonable to expect that anyone who has worked in top management for a few years, as all the nominees have, will be a millionaire. Leaders live pampered lives when in office, and do not pay for housing, transport, security and medical insurance, while enjoying per diems and other personal allowances. With their daily expenses taken care of, their salaries can be channelled into investment projects such as farms or buildings.
That revealed itself in one surprise from the headings in the discovery of how profitable farming is for leaders compared with what it is for ordinary farmers, who struggle to afford inputs and find markets for harvests.
There is a history of wealth declarations in Kenya. Two leading CEOs, Bob Collymore and Joshua Oigara, along with activist Boniface Mwangi, published detailed declarations of their wealth in 2015. They hoped to shine a light on corporate governance and set an example, but this was not emulated in the private sector, even by their successors and fellow directors.
And a decade before them, two assistant ministers, Kivutha Kibwana and Danson Mungatana, and two MPs, Koigi wa Wamwere and Kalembe Ndile, had also declared their wealth in a sign of support for President Mwai Kibaki's fight against corruption in 2005, and laid down a challenge to members of the Cabinet to do the same.
Finally, in 1975, Parliament tried to form a select committee on corruption to look at how Kenya could curb the vice. When invited by the Weekly Review magazine, 12 of its 15 members, including Taita Towett, Shariff Nassir, Omolo Okero, Martin Shikuku, Wafula Wabuge and Chelagat Mutai made declarations of their wealth as a sign of transparency on the committee.
The items they cited ranged from farms, shares in East African Breweries and houses to car models such as Mercedes 220, Datsun 1600, Peugeot 504, Citroen GS, and Volvo 144s. They also answered how much they had spent in the 1974 election, from Sh4,000 by Mutai to Sh100,000 by Nassir and they all said the amounts had grown significantly since the previous election in 1969.
One of the members who declined was Maina Wanjigi, the MP for Kamukunji, who said he would only disclose his information to the committee. BY DAILY NATION



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