Over a beer at the weekend, I was having a conversation with an engineer friend of mine about the trouble with having lawyers as public managers in the Kenyan context. Notwithstanding my cognizance that a significant portion of my family and friends are high achieving lawyers, but I thought this was worth discussing. Other professions seem to feel that the lawyers have had their time. They drafted the social structure we live in and proceeded to reserve almost every significant job in Kenya for fellow lawyers from CIC, Ombudsman, CKRC, IEBC etc That this guy seem to feel that the role of lawyers in public affairs should be slowly relegated and reduced. He argues that the biggest problem, for instance, with the IEBC is that it is manned by lawyers. Theres no reason to have lawyers in a job that is largely about logistics. It impossible for people to deliver on something theyve never been trained for. Even the most successful lawyer has barely managed firm of more than 30 people, (the average doctor in Kenya starts his working life by managing 150-300 people). How does the lawyer begin to understand the management issues surrounding thousands and thousands of staff. The job, he says, would have been better suited to a military logistics guy (like the ones who planned the logistics behind the invasion of Somalia) or and engineer or architect who deal with thousands of workers and are used to delivering results on projects. The argument is that most other professions are trained to solve problems, only lawyers are trained in a single skill that is confrontation and a win at all costs, which is hardly a skill required in the management of public affairs. Chinas governing politburo is full of engineers, in fact at one point 95% of everyone in Chinas top leadership were engineers. Maybe we are in a different phase of Kenyas history, I dont know, I found it a compelling argument.
Posted on: Mon, 29 Dec 2014 11:25:13 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015