Press Center | Freight Shipping Logistics News

A raft of directives this week that should remove impediments for cargo movement within Kenya and across our borders have been welcomed by industry.

Yet it need not have taken directives from President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga for the officers directly responsible for the affected departments to do what is common sense.

For years we have talked about doing away with all those redundant rules, regulations and procedures that make doing business in Kenya a nightmare.

Excessive delays in customs clearance at the sea-ports, airports and land borders; a large number of police roadblocks that serve no other purpose than creating traffic jams and providing points for extortion; reams of paperwork required for all kind of official transactions, and so many other antiquated processes, are matters that should have been smoothed out years ago if those responsible knew what reforming government was all about.

It was only the other day, for instance, that a proposal to have Government offices open over the lunch hour was seen as a revolutionary reform, yet the question should have been why customer-friendly service hours had never been adopted in the first place.

It is time we realised that reforming government is not just about tonnes of position papers, conference on top of seminar on top of workshop; and a succession of committees and taskforces or study tours around the world.

It should be about the simple things that make life easier for all those who require service.

It makes as much sense for the officers handling passports, identity cards, trade licences, customs duties, land rates and other vital services to close over lunchtime and weekends as it would for banks, supermarkets, restaurants, petrol stations or the neighbourhood kiosks to shut their doors to customers at the most convenient time for business.

It is time all Government ministries and departments, including State corporations and statutory bodies, reviewed all their procedures and processes and adopted the obvious and most basic reforms towards enhanced efficiency and improved services.