JAMILA'S MEMO: No to 'Baba na Mama' orders

My memo tonight is addressed to a public servant whose video clips made rounds on social media the other day. I found out that the officer is named Thomas Siele and his current job title is Deputy County Commissioner based in Turkana Central. Now, the context of the video clip is, the government officer was addressing residents of Turkana on the subject of distribution of relief food.

“Juzi nilipata gunia 600 ya chakula …around 600 bags ya chakula….kabla mtu apate chakula, kabla haujakuja kuchukua chakula kwa chief, kutoka kesho kwa sababu kesho ndio tunaanza, condition ya kwanza SHA, condition ya pili SHA, na condition ya mwisho SHA…ndio uchukue chakula,” he said in the video.

Food for SHA. Now, officer, this is breath-taking. But, he kept going: “We don’t want to feed people mwenye kidogo kidogo unaskia amegonjeka, hana uwezo anaenda kwa mheshimiwa deputy governor anataka pesa sijui aende wapi hospitali…”

Without a doubt, the Deputy County Commissioner has the passion for SHA registration; that passion is not in question; what is in doubt is the logic.

“Register SHA ni voluntary lakini inasaidia…sasa wewe uko kijijini haujaregister, wewe unakaa tu, unakuja kwangu, uko na njaa na registration is free...hapa mnalipisha ngapi, hapa ni ngapi, si ni free,” he added in the video.

Now, the passion for pushing SHA registrations notwithstanding, the approach taken by this public officer must be called out. First, the Deputy County Commissioner has to be reminded of the current constitutional dispensation that guides the interaction between those who govern, and the governed.

The Constitution of Kenya 2010, enacted in 2010 as the name suggests, contains a robust bill of rights that includes Article 43 that provides for rights to, among other things, healthcare services and adequate food. The article sets no pre-conditions. So, healthcare services cannot be a pre-condition to adequate food or vice versa.

Secondly, I have a little story for the Deputy County Commissioner. Back in the days, there was a party and government called KANU. The nickname was ‘Baba na Mama’ – father and mother. This was because KANU was everything – it was a party, it was a government, it was a culture, a way of life – I mean everything! Back in those days, a KANU membership card cost 10 shillings and that card determined a lot of things including access to livelihood itself! For the benefit of the Deputy County Commissioner, his likes, that is zealous government administrators often got passionate to push up KANU membership registrations, whether upon instruction from above or during moments of self-motivation in remote areas like we saw in Turkana.

The end of that story is that the story ended. For constitutional and logical reasons, it can never be replicated. Not even in the remote interior of the vast Turkana County. That train stalled many years ago. So, you can only register SHA as a healthcare program and not a precondition for relief food.