Kenyans are very poor at meeting their financial obligations.

This problem pervades the entire body politic. The problem affects individuals, government agencies, and has now completely overtaken the private sector, including some so-called reputable companies.

Individuals are always looking for ways of either delaying paying their obligations as they fall due, or even avoiding paying altogether. The government’s crisis of pending bills is now a well sung song, as ministries, agencies, and county governments simply refuse to meet their financial obligations.

Private companies are a latter-day entrant into this hall of shame, but they are now a card carrying member. It is now accepted as ‘normal’ that one has to ‘push’ their payments from private companies, otherwise you will not get paid.

The consequences are very damaging. The country is carrying huge debt across the entire body politic. This practice has choked off cash from the economy, slowed down or halted activities that were predicated on those payments, and contributed very significantly in slowdown in growth.

Where did this bad culture come from, of refusal by Kenyans to take responsibility and think that by ignoring it, it will somehow disappear? It is an acquired culture, which grew into the DNA of the first post-independence generation, and has simply been passed down since.

It is fired up by impunity and lack of accountability. Big companies get away with refusal to pay their obligations because they are, well, big. This abuse of buyer power in this country is at another level. The government simply ignores its service providers because, what can you do anyway?

Individuals get very creative, like blocking creditors’ numbers, refusal to pick calls, playing hide and seek etc.

All this impunity is buttressed by a court system that either takes forever to decide cases, or the judgements are so clearly compromised that the parties owed regret ever having gone to court in the first place.

The small claims courts from whom so much was expected are headed to the dogs, having imbibed all the bad practices inherent in the main courts.

This is by no means the most nefarious of bad practices that have made Kenya such a treacherous jungle for doing business in. However, this is the catalyst for most of the bad business practices in the country.
All these things are done in an attempt to escape payment obligations.

Government, private businesses and individuals will engage in all manner of calisthenics to delay, subvert, avoid making payments when they fall due. If this one bad business practice was cured, most of the others will just wither.

What to do? There was a time in Kenya when the culture of issuing bouncing cheques was prevalent. Bouncing cheques had wreaked havoc across the country. There was zero trust in payment structures. People used to issue bouncing cheques as a matter of course. No more!

One law against issuing of bouncing cheques, and strict enforcement by the courts, has cured the country of that cancer. Nobody does it anymore. So it is not impossible to deal decisively with this bad culture of parties reluctance to meet their obligations as they fall due.

The government, however, must lead the way through putting in place appropriate laws that rope in even its own ministries and agencies. Courts are very critical here – they have to enforce the appropriate laws to the letter! Kenyans must get rid of this terrible culture. They just keep shooting themselves in the foot.

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