Is there anything like” power-broker”? Well, in reference to the dictionaries, there isn’t such a phrase. Nonetheless, in the real world where I and you live, the word and the people in question exist. Principally, these are men and women who get ‘work done’ in Kenya’s hallways for various businesses. They originate from different backgrounds, CEOs of small corporations, small-time politicians, ex-MPs, former administrators, militants from the ‘youth wings’ of political parties, public relations agents, and consultants.
All and sundry have one object in common: political connections. Not all of them hand out envelopes or even swollen briefcases. Some of them just give out names to get things done. Others give directions/orders. As a result, anybody from a small-town business owner who sponsors a legislator’s election to a former MP could be a power broker.
The majority of power brokers have admission to and appropriateness in power centers and most significantly, understand how the administration machinery works and know the shortcuts.Nevertheless, all power brokers can’t be battered into one bracket. Some are mere “document pushers” as commonly referred to in ministries. They don’t have straight contact with corporations but are hired by larger wheeler-dealers. They are close to low-ranked officials. Sometimes, some of them are on a business’s/ministry’s payslip. The business’s top administration is conscious of their roles, but the CEO does not give them any through contact.The larger wheeler-dealers are another stuff. These power brokers focus on gigantic deals and work on strategic cost-effective ministries like finance, railways, road transport, aviation, power, oil, and gas, etc.
How do they operate?
Although the CEO of a corporation might be on exuberant terms with a minister, he would still involve power brokers to affect the system, starting with the man who heads a ministry to an official, down the nibbling order, who signs on field reports or picks up letters. After all, in management circles, one unorthodox voice can create or break down a deal or lead to a lot of embarrassment.
Anybody who knows how administrations work will tell you power brokers work with high bureaucrats on ‘managing’ admissibility principles of large contracts for their customers. While bestowing smaller contracts, time and again, a second losing bidder is ‘instituted/arranged’, so that an impression of clearness is maintained.
It’s important to note that Cash is not the only currency for swinging a deal. A holiday for an officeholder and his family, a position at a university/national school for his youngsters, a property in the name of his wife are other forms of ‘delivery’. Legislators are also known to ask for cash overheads during elections.
Where do they transact business?
Notwithstanding widespread opinions of the wheeler-dealers wining and dining officeholders at the finest posh places, driving high-end cars, the deals, in reality, it happens in far more ordinary places. So, the deals are struck in bars/clubs (in the case of politicians) and offices, coffee joints, homes, mutura dens, Hotel lobbies, dinner parties, and seminars are also used for instigating initial negotiations.
Can power brokers be stopped?
Not likely, but as they say, nothing is impossible to a willing heart. Let me say, it all depends on the will of the person/people intending to stop them. This is because Power brokers have been in existence since creation and it's probable that they will be around for the longest. They are deeply rooted and to some, it’s an inheritance that keeps on descending from one generation to another. To the bureaucrats, it’s a financial tap that must be kept flowing, and any effort to cut off the flow is met with an equal repulsive force where some end up paying the price of this action with the lives of their loved ones, or even losing what they rightfully own.