clock in every morning and not to ruffle
feathers.
To add panic into a stable corrupt network
the team also started reforming the
parastatals that fell in their dockets and
they appointed private sector professionals
to turn around the limping government
agencies and institutions.
High in the agenda of the dream team
was to close the corruption loopholes that
were bleeding the government dry. To do
this they invariably stepped on the toes
of many powerful politically connected
individuals who made it their job to
undermine and sabotage the reformers.
By this time the international donors had
resumed aid on the strength of the sterling
job that the team was doing and Moi soon
reverted to his wiles and resorted to his
cunning political games that had earned
him the title of ‘professor of politics’.
Moi perfected the art of keeping people
off balance especially in the top echelons
of government by his totally unethical and
unprofessional habit of hiring and firing
his ministers and top managers on the one
54 MAL31/19 ISSUE
The government seems to be an employment
bureau that does not demand accountability
and results and that is why our tax shillings
are squandered by a lethargic public sector
that awaits the annual auditor general’s re-
port to enumerate its many shortcomings.
o’clock news bulletin.
The political pressure to have the team
dismantled was gaining momentum
as leaders claimed that the team was
unpatriotic and that it owed allegiance to
our former colonial masters and worse it
made Moi appear weak and ineffectual.
So in an orchestrated move the first three
members of the dream team, including
Richard Leakey were sacked by the end
of March 2001 and the writing on the
wall was already there the other members
would face a similar fate.
Let us start by stating that the bold
and unconventional foray by the private
sector into the public sector was a
watershed period for the country as it
turned the spotlight on the excesses of
the government and that fact that the
government could actually be streamlined.
The dream team actually succeeded on its
terms of reference and managed to cut the
workforce in the public sector and put in
place a raft of measures that would later be
used as building blocks for future growth
especially in the Kibaki presidency.
However the curious lesson that was
evident in what we can only call an
experiment of transferring the private
sector work ethic into the public sector is
to wonder why the government insists in
operating in such an inefficient manner.