“Knowledge management must of necessity account for available knowledge and its uses before it can focus on acquisition of new knowledge”

By: DAVIES KIPLANGAT KELMEN, UNEMPLOYED KENYAN YOUTH,
P. O. BOX 42857, 00100,NAIROBI- KENYA. daviskelmen@yahoo.com
TELEPHONE: +254 (0)721947901, +254 (0)712694354

Introduction

Either by design or by accident, Kenya is not a talent nor qualification based employer. Kenya here is used to generalize all sectors of the economy including the government, academic, private sector, religious institutions, non-governmental organizations etc. Indeed in Kenya, some disciplines like the military, police, and academic institutions can be serialized in terms of families. In other words opportunities are neither for the most qualified nor the most able. The general statement made above could easily be dismissed as being too general. However, such an argument would deny genuine searchers a chance to explore the veracity of the statement; not so much with a view of understanding the criminal element posed but rather with a view of understanding the cost implications to the economy.

The issue of corruption cannot be overstated for many a thesis and treatises have been written by scholars. Yet in reading into most articles one gets the impression that corruption is bribery, embezzlement, extortion, fraud, and all that others perform. In Kenya to look at nepotism amounts to shining the torch on one’s own self: And like the baboon, none of the institutions is bold enough to say to another, “your buttocks are red”.

Cutting to the chase, the above situations has resulted in the phenomenon which we now call “round pegs in square holes”. After recruiting the wrong persons, organizations spend a lot of time and money training the person to do the job despite his not having a passion for it. Meanwhile, the otherwise skilled, honest and motivated person remains unemployed. If this were few and isolated cases it would not warrant a dissertation. Knowledge management must of necessity account for available knowledge and its uses before it can focus on acquisition of new knowledge. The major challenge to knowledge management in Kenya today is not so much acquisition and distribution but rather but proper allocation of person in possession of the knowledge. And avoiding the question often asked, is such person politically or socially correct.

The youth being the majority of job seekers bears the brunt of the discrimination that is the result of this form of corruption. Moreover, through taxation they pay the cost of training the corruptly recruited personnel in the government. Based on the recommendations of the African Union (AU) convention of preventing and combating corruption, which was adopted by African heads of state in Maputo, Mozambique in July 2003, Civil Society is identified as having a key role to play in influencing public performance. How efficient can they be where they too are perceived as being party to the same corruption?