The Government’s announcement of the first list of State corporations to be privatised has generated serious resistance to the exercise.

 Predictably, the resistance is around the same old cliched objections. The truth is, if Kenya wants to grow its economy, jumpstart the productive sector, get the Government to stop wasting billions annually on loss-making parastatals, and stop distorting the economy through misallocation of resources in the private sector, it must rid itself of all commercially oriented parastatals.

In the face of all the evidence that Governments have zero capacity to manage commercial enterprises, why do certain forces still resist privatisation and keep lauding failed public ownership?

The only rational explanation is personal vested interests. It should be noted that the loudest opposers of privatisation are not its ultimate beneficiaries. If you take the now notorious case of State-owned sugar factories, leaders from the Western sugar belt have been rabidly opposed to their privatisation, and have scuttled any progress for decades.

Bottom line- these leaders have continued receiving their huge salaries and allowances every month, as the people they purport to be speaking for have sunk deeper and deeper into poverty. For these leaders, the delay has zero consequences, so they can afford to wax lyrical about sentimental value ad nauseum.

Worse, these leaders have no alternative plans of reviving these State corporations. It is all about politics and personal vested interests. They should be ashamed of themselves.

How can the huge potential lying latent at the Bomas, for instance, be unlocked if it is not handed over to a private investor driven by commercial imperatives? The Government has no business investing scarce resources into such ventures. Privatisation works. Former Prime Minister Raila Odinga, himself acquired the Kenya Food and Chemical Corporation Limited, also known as the Molasses plant, through privatisation via a public auction after years of its being moribund.

He then brought it back to production, giving life to an economic asset that not only generated billions in revenues, staff salaries, taxes and returns to its news owners, but attracted investors who pumped in billions. People should not oppose privatisation for the sake of it. That privatisation was heavily criticised at the time. Sarrai Group was handed collapsed Mumias Sugar through a controversial court order. Immediately hundreds of workers returned to work, scores of transporters were contracted to ferry cane and packed sugar, farmers started delivering cane.

The investors started pumping billions into the factory to repair, upgrade, and modernise it to start operations. Businesses in Mumias started restocking in anticipation of a return to the glory days. The community came alive again. The impact of privatisation can be very dramatic indeed.

No privatisation is perfect. And privatisations do go bad. But these are risks that can be mitigated. The choice lies between leaders playing political games for years as these assets lie idle and degenerate, keeping entire communities poor, or letting a private investor to take over the assets and revitalise entire communities economically. But it looks like leaders would rather their people remain poor.

The Government is its own worst enemy. The most critical ingredient for success in privatisation is public goodwill and buy in. President William Ruto’s statement that privatisation will continue “wapende wasipende” only serves to stiffen attitudes and resistance.

By now the Government should have embarked on a nationwide public education campaign and stakeholder engagement to generate support. Critically, engage the beneficiaries directly.

The naysayers really need to give privatisation a chance- for the sake of their people. The key is vigilance- do proper oversight from the various platforms they occupy. Drop the valueless sentimentalities. Drop the political gamesmanship. Stop holding your people hostage. Let the process move forward.

— The writer can be reached at [email protected]