African Successes: Four Public Managers of Kenyan Rural Development

by David K. Leonard

Overview

For the past twenty-five years Kenya has progressed while much of Africa has stagnated. Instead of the economic disasters, underdevelopment, and serious food shortages that have plagued its neighbors, Kenya has enjoyed an expanding economy and agriculture. And instead of a corrupt and incompetent public administration, Kenya has established several successful rural development programs run by public servants with integrity and professional commitment.

What accounts for these Kenyan successes? In this innovative study, David Leonard illustrates the way public policy is made and implemented in Kenya by focusing on four public officials who have had a great impact on rural development. He skillfully weaves his analyses of Kenya's political, economic, and administrative systems into evocative biographical portraits of Charles Karanja, General Manager of the Kenya Tea Development Authority, Harris Mule, administrative head of Finance and Planning, Ishmael Muriithi, head of the Veterinary Department, and Simeon Nyachae, Cabinet Secretary and chief of the Civil Service. The result is a fascinating glimpse of Kenyan political life from the inside, set in the context of the historical and social forces that have shaped that country's government.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780520070769
Publisher:	University of California Press
Publication date:	03/14/1991
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	390
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.97(d)

About the Author

David K. Leonard, Professor of Political Science and Chair of the African Studies Center at the University of California, Berkeley, is the author of Reaching the Peasant Farmer: Organization Theory and Practice in Kenya (1977). He is also the editor of Rural Administration in Kenya: A Critical Appraisal (1973) and the coeditor of Institutions of Rural Development for the Poor: Decentralization and Organizational Linkages (1982). Having taught for many years at African universities and served as a management advisor to the Kenyan government, he now consults for the World Bank, the United Nations, and the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Table of Contents

	List of Illustrations	xiii
	List of Tables	xv
	Preface	xvii
	Abbreviations and Glossary	xxi
	Abbreviated Chronology of Political Events in Kenya	xxiii
	List of Principal Persons in the Book	xxv
	Simplified Family Trees of the Administrators Studied	xxviii
	Acknowledgments	xxx
1.	Introduction: Individuals, Institutions, and Interests	1
	An Example of Successful Management	1
	Why This Book?	2
	Successful Managers	3
	Rural Development Policies	4
	The Nature and Evolution of the Kenyan State	6
	A Modest Theoretical Framework	7
	Four Public Servants	10
	A Note on Methodology	11
	A Preview of the Book	13
2.	The Foundation	15
	Everything Has a History	15
	Disruption	16
	The Agricultural Economy	18
	The Missions	21
	Colonial African Administration	26
	The Emerging African Social Structure	34
	Monopoly and Control	36
	Conclusions	38
3.	Growing Up and Out of Colonialism	39
	Charles Kibe Karanja	39
	Mau Mau from Kiambu	46
	Simeon Nyachae	47
	The Political Struggle for Independence	51
	Ishmael Muriithi	54
	Dan Mbogo	60
	Harris Mutio Mule	63
	Conclusions	69
4.	Independence and the Emerging Class Structure	73
	The Political Background to the Republic	73
	The Colonial Class Structure	73
	Ethnic Tensions	77
	Africanization of the Civil Service	81
	Africanization and the Four Administrators	82
	Did "Tribalism" Overlay Africanization in the Civil Service?	86
	Africanizing Land Ownership	90
	Class Formation and the Matajiri	93
	Administrators and Land	95
	Africanizing Commerce and Industry	97
	Interests: The Interaction of Class and Ethnicity	100
5.	Nyachae and Administrative Power in the Kenyatta State	103
	The Institutional Legacy	103
	Nyachae and the Provincial Administration	106
	Administration of Land	107
	Political Representation and Control	110
	The Balance of Administrative and Political Power	113
	The Weberian Theory of Administrative Power Applied to Kenya	117
	Conclusions	123
6.	Karanja and the Kenya Tea Development Authority	125
	Success and Institutional Inheritance	125
	Karanja's Rise through the Ranks	129
	Karanja's General Managership	133
	The KTDA Expands into Factory Management	137
	Conclusions	142
7.	Muriithi and the Dairy Industry	145
	The Creation of a Smallholder Dairy Industry	145
	Dairy Marketing	147
	Artificial Insemination	150
	Veterinary Care	156
	What of Integration?	160
	Beef Production	163
	Conclusions	165
8.	The Moi Presidencies and Their Impact on Karanja and Muriithi	168
	The Succession	168
	Bureaucratic Power under the New Regime	169
	Karanja's Fall from Grace	171
	The "Second" Moi Presidency	176
	Muriithi Presides over the Decline in Veterinary Services	177
	Conclusions	181
9.	Rural Development, Decentralization, and Mule's	183
	Apprenticeship Equity and the ILO Report	183
	Rural Development	190
	Decentralization	196
	The Special Rural Development Program	196
	The Arid and Semi-Arid Lands Program	198
	Conclusions	200
10.	Nyachae, Mule, District Focus, and Agriculture	202
	District Focus	203
	Agricultural Prices and Markets	209
	Economic Management in Adversity	215
	Conclusions	218
11.	The Unofficial Lives	220
	Workaholics	221
	Sons of Their Villages	222
	Patronage	224
	Harambee, Patronage, and Politics	228
	Nyachae's Political Downfall	233
	Ill-gotten Gains?	236
	Class and the Next Generation	242
	Conclusions	246
12.	African Managerial Success: Conclusions about Individuals	248
	The Varieties of Management	248
	Public Policies	249
	Organizational Leadership	249
	Internal Administration	250
	Bureaucratic Hygiene	250
	Can Managers Affect the Performance of Their Organizations?	251
	The Policy Responsibilities of Management	252
	Can Individual Managers Make a Difference?	255
	The Attributes of Successful Kenyan Management	256
	Political Connections and Organizational Autonomy	257
	Professional Concern with Public Policy and Organizational Mission	259
	Professional Integrity	260
	Access to Donor Resources	261
	Africanization	262
	Being a "Nationalist"	264
	Staff Management	265
	Competition and Management Information Systems	266
	Delegation	267
	Risk Taking	268
	Drive	269
	Selection Policy and Organizational Performance	269
	Problems with the Current Kenyan Analysis	269
	Kenyatta's Selection Policies	270
	Moi's Personnel Policies	271
	Internationalizing Professionalism	272
	Conclusions	273
13.	The State and Administrative Development: Conclusions about Institutions and Interests	275
	The State	275
	The Political Forces Directing the State	277
	The State as a "Commons"	279
	The Forces Directing the State from Within	283
	Socialization	284
	Institutionalization	288
	Political Responsiveness	292
	The Strong State	295
	What of This Can Be Generalized?	297
Appendix A.	Ethnic Determinants of Civil Service Promotions	303
Appendix B.	Bureaucratic Influences and the Regional Allocation of Government Services	306
	Anecdotes and Questions	307
	Methodology for the Study of Influence	308
	Regional Allocations: The Dependent Variable	312
	Categories of Cause: The Independent Variables	313
	The Quantitative Evidence	315
Appendix C.	Persons Interviewed	330
	Notes	337
	Index of Persons	363
	Index of Subjects	369