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Kenyanization and African capacity ‘shuffling’
Author(s) -
Wilson L. S.
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
public administration and development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.574
H-Index - 44
eISSN - 1099-162X
pISSN - 0271-2075
DOI - 10.1002/pad.4230130504
Subject(s) - kenya , expatriate , civil service , service (business) , business , public relations , development economics , economic growth , economics , finance , political science , marketing , law , public service
Cohen (1992) discusses in detail the problem of 'Kenyanization' of positions filled by expatriate advisors in the Kenyan civil service. He outlines six possible solutions to the problem, four of which involve the funding by donors of higher than civil service level salaries to attract Kenyan staff to the donors' particular projects. While Cohen is critical of these options he does not discuss the most serious danger in their use, the danger that resources will be seriously misallocated. In this article the traditional approach of supplying new resources to Kenya is compared with this new alternative of using donor funds to induce the reallocation of existing Kenyan staff. It suggests that donors must be extremely careful in using their funds to entice workers to their own projects without consideration of where these resources are drawn from. An alternative explanation to those discussed by Cohen for the lack of success with ‘Kenyanization’ is also proposed.