MUTUA MUTHUSI: For old time’s sake, bring back these services

Back in the day, the mention of the City Council evoked images of gallant men hanging at the rear of a garbage collection roll-off truck as it moved through the narrow streets of residential estates picking refuse.

At every house, the men would jump out of the truck, pick the refuse bin, empty the contents onto the truck, return the bin, and repeat the exercise at every other house on the route.

All this would happen while the truck was still on the move. The synchrony of these men as they performed their work was admirable and seemed well-practised, if not perfected with experience.

Above all, the men seemed to quite enjoy the otherwise dirty job. They performed the chores with an admirable show of commitment and zeal.

And as the mobile refuse collection troupe moved with their show along the estates’ lanes, elated children would often run after the truck in admiration of the entertainment provided by this work-play by the refuse collectors. It all looked quite fun.

In those days, each house was allocated a council-branded garbage bin that would be emptied on specific designated days every week.

This was when public service was offered with pleasurable satisfaction. And it was free.

That was then. And it was several decades ago. Those born in the nineties and later have no idea of these good times.

Most of these trucks are in dilapidated condition and look dirtier than the refuse they collect. And, mostly, atop the lorries would be glue-sniffing urchins ransacking the loaded garbage for any valuable items.

 It is unclear whether the urchins are part of the collection crew or just scavengers helping out the uninspired workers.

The collection crew for this paid-for service is usually less enthusiastic in their work compared to the council workers of yesteryears. One wonders why at all the councils abandoned their tax-paying citizens to this uncaring lot.

The council refuse collection depiction is just but an example of how public services used to be and how they have deteriorated over time — from inspiring duty to distasteful drudgery, and from being free to paid-for.

Today, the picture that comes to mind at the mention of the City Council is that of brutal county askaris chasing hawkers down the streets to arrest them for selling their wares in open spaces downtown.

The other would be of men and women in yellow overcoats moving up and down the street parking lots, clamping vehicles that have either been parked incorrectly or those that don't have parking payment receipts displayed.

To have your vehicle clamped can be a most depressing experience in town. As soon as the attendants clamp the vehicle, they disappear, and you have to look for them all over.

Even when you find them, they won't readily unclamp your vehicle as they claim to only carry the locks to clamp but not the keys to open them.

You have to go to the council offices to pay a fine, and then the key will be released to open the clamp. The arrangement is just designed to be degradingly punitive.

Interestingly, as you park your vehicle, you don't see the attendants. Sometimes they are known to watch from a hidden distance as people park — waiting to pounce and clamp the vehicle as soon as the owner walks away.

The list of attributes of modern-day public service work could go on to include many other punitive behaviors, such as plain-clothes council inspectorate staff moving from building to building arresting business owners who fail to display valid trading licences at their premises, or those standing at the edge of streets laying ambushes for clueless street smokers and arresting them in high drama.

Probably the only cleansing business associated with the county workers of today is their efficiency in arresting anyone found dropping litter in the streets.

The motivation, however, seems more to punish the offender than to keep the streets clean, because the streets are hardly cleaned.

One would only wish the hawk-eyed askaris would have similar efficiency in spotting pickpockets who freely roam the same streets.

Has the zeal to punish surpassed the thrill to give public service? Could this explain why the councils’ inspectorate departments are these days larger than those of cleansing and sanitation?

The behavior to focus on sanctions as opposed to service delivery is widespread among public service institutions, be they in county or national government.

A visit to police stations, passport-issuing offices, and even public hospitals will confirm this behavior.

Those who are supposed to offer services to you will be quick to point out the requirements you have not fulfilled.

Instead of assisting you to conform to required rules, they will use the unfulfilled process as a reason to deny or delay the delivery of the services.

It is not uncommon, for example, to be denied service at a police station, passport application office, or such like places simply because you presented your original documentation without copies.

Someone will insist that without a certain number of photocopies of the original document, you cannot be served.

Naturally, you would expect that with such unwritten strict requirements, the offices would have photocopying facilities to assist those seeking the services.

 Sadly, they don’t. Instead, you would be asked to go make the copies elsewhere, then come back for the service.

This could be most depressing, especially if you had been queuing for long to get to the service point.

Worse still, when you come back with the required copies, you may be required to begin the queue afresh.

In many of these situations, the requirements for accessing the services are not explained beforehand.

It almost feels like the officials derive pleasure in correcting service seekers and rejecting their “incomplete” documentation rather than in helping them to properly complete their applications.

Interestingly, all these public service institutions have communication offices and people called communication officers or spokesmen.

The focus of the spokespeople, however, seems to be doing public relations for the respective officials in charge, while painting unrealistic images of efficient service provision from the institutions.

They operate more like cover-up agents for the misdeeds of their organizations.

Over the years, Kenyans in the diaspora have, for example, been promised that passport services would be established within most of the missions abroad.

 The promises are usually given either during the general election campaign period or whenever a visiting high-ranking government official has a meeting with the Kenyan community abroad.

It is at such forums that you hear the leaders talking about the important role played by the diaspora in national development and why they need to be assisted by the government to continue playing this role.

After many years of promises, the only thing that happened recently was the establishment of a department of diaspora in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. This is, at least, some improvement structure-wise.

Aside from the new portfolio, however, little else has changed in solving problems facing the Kenyan diaspora. The promises have only multiplied.

In most Kenyan missions abroad, passport applications and processing are still being referred to Nairobi.

The period to process passports, new or renewal, has never changed despite numerous promises that the turnaround time would be reduced to seven days.

 This is another new trend. We are quick to promise even things that are impossible to implement; meaning the intention to fulfill the promise may not even be there. To be honest, seven days are not enough to process a passport anywhere.

Yet, the repeated common feature is to see all newly appointed ministers in charge of immigration paying “impromptu” visits to Nyayo House and issuing directives on how service delivery would be improved, and giving the magic seven-day lead time for passport issuance.

One wonders, wouldn't it be easier to just offer the required services and let the public positively acknowledge it than spend so much time spinning promises that are never met?

It is frustrating enough to receive poor services at public offices, but quite annoying to hear lofty commitments being made of improved services that never come to pass.

In terms of public service delivery, we seem to be getting worse as time goes.

Accessing services that are financed by public taxes has become the most difficult thing in every sector. You always need “someone” to help you get served.

How many of us now know that once upon a time we used to have an efficient public transport company called Kenya Bus Services that used to give excellent services, including keeping time?

The company buses that used to ply the urban routes of Mombasa and Nairobi were clean and would only stop and pick passengers at designated stages, most of which were sheltered.

The bus would stop for three minutes — enough to get passengers alight and others board — before the doors closed for the vehicle to depart. Passengers used to board through the rear door and alight from the front one.

The standards of the public transport services were the same as what we see in most developed cities around the world.

This was before the emergence of the matatu culture that heralded increased reckless driving, noisy touting, and mishandling of passengers on public transport vehicles.

 So much so that even the increased number of public transport vehicles on our roads has done little to improve the services from those of yesteryears.

If anything, everything has deteriorated into a chaotic, unreliable, and quite dangerous system.

For vulnerable commuters such as the disabled, children, and the elderly, public transport services in most Kenyan towns are a real nightmare.

The situation is worse for new visitors to town. Despite the heavy regulations and the ever-present traffic police enforcement, the public transport sector keeps getting more chaotic, unreliable, and utterly dangerous.

For those well-traveled, it is easy to notice that there seems to be a correlation between well-organized public transport and levels of development of countries.

 Where you find an organized and efficient public transport service, everything else would most likely be working well. Apparently, general road conduct, too, seems to mirror the general behavior of the community involved.

So where did we get it wrong in public service? With the advancement of systems, one would have expected that public service would advance in tandem.

Could it be that private enterprises are developing at a far much faster rate than what government institutions can cope with? Or is it that we have stopped caring, and everyone has been left on their own to solve their problems?

This question has never been more pertinent than now when citizens are complaining of being overtaxed at the promise of better services. Will the increased tax help fix this?