Huawei is a member of KEPSA, which is a business association in Kenya, and thus I sit in a WhatsApp group of many Kenyan business leaders discussing issues and working out if there is anything KEPSA can do about them.
One of the most frequent topics that get discussed is leadership, especially in Parastatals, which is the name of the state-owned (fully or partly) companies or regulators, that play a critical part in the economy, especially in energy and transport but also in agriculture and many other parts of the economy. These organisations are frequently criticised for doing badly or being corrupt, though some of them are quite profitable because they are monopolies in a particular part of the economy. So no matter what new laws are passed, and apart from various corruption investigations which could stop the negative aspects, the only way for them to be more productive components of the economy is through leadership that develops and implements appropriate strategies and culture throughout the organisation.
Many of the business leaders prefer to work in private companies, as those Parastatals may have a lot of challenges (especially their culture being more public sector than private sector), relatively low pay, and, the biggest issue, frequent intervention by the government (who will sit on the Board of these organisations) or parliament (who provide oversight to the organisations). The leadership may be as management or as independent Board members, and better quality, more committed, more passionate leadership is sorely needed according to those in KEPSA (some of which are trying to resolve these issues by joining those organisations as board members or in management). And more such people are needed; they will need to make sacrifices and they won't enjoy the job or have an easy job, but they may be fulfilled, and may be satisfied with their contributions to the country if they succeed. It seems, anecdotally, that there is an improvement taking place, slowly. It also seems there are some "shortcuts" taking place - such as bringing multiple entities together under one super organisation that has good leadership, or even using the military to run some particularly poor performing organisations (often smaller, more discreet ones).
Another frequent issue is corruption. This is always a recurring issue coming up, usually from government procurement to companies who don't qualify, don't deliver, or over charge, but somehow still got the projects; or they got some other favours from the government, such as land, licenses etc. There are a lot of investigations underway, and the new prosecution teams set-up a couple of years ago seem to be making progress, but it takes time, and may not make a big difference, with corruption perceived to be endemic across organisations. Many issues involve politicians (some of whom have been thrown out of power in the last year or two, though few have yet been found guilty whilst cases continue), who are legally allowed to continue to have their private business interests whilst being in power (though most also have interests through family members or friends).
One of the ironies is that in order to be fair, many procurement processes end up either excluding bidders through setting high bars or are too complicated for many bidders to win; so "tenderpreneurs" who are well connected, and experienced in bidding/winning these tenders win. Sometimes they will deliver, by outsourcing to others and just taking a cut. Other times there are larger issues.
Aside from these two issues frequently discussed in the WhatsApp group, there are various committees (which also have sub-committees) which work on engaging government on various issues. In general it is quite an effective forum for dialogue, though it can take time to get results in certain areas. Never-the-less, it is interesting being a part of it and seeing how these kinds of institutions enable collaboration within indisutries, dialogue and engagement, which are crucial. Kenya is quite a small country economically and leaders in business and government are quite accessible, information can be obtained and so these forums can be of real use. I imagine this would be very difficult in larger countries, those with larger and more diverse economies and so on.
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