Growing up in Kenya, I knew I always wanted to study biochemistry. See, I had seen the impact of the high prevalence of diseases like malaria, and I wanted to make medicines that would cure the sick. So I worked really hard, got a scholarship to the United States, where I became a cancer researcher, and I loved it. For someone who wants to cure diseases, there is no higher calling.
Tangu nilipokulia Kenya, nilijua nilitaka kusoma biokemia. Unaona, nilishuhudia madhara ya magonjwa kama malaria, na nilitaka kutafuta dawa ya kutibu wagonjwa. Hivyo nilijituma kwa bidii, nikapata udhamini kutoka Marekani, ambapo nilikuwa mtafiti wa kansa na nilipenda kazi yangu. Kwa mtu anayetaka kutibu magonjwa, hakuna wito mkubwa zaidi.
Ten years later, I returned to Kenya to do just that. A freshly minted PhD, ready to take on this horrific illness, which in Kenya was almost certainly a death sentence. But instead of landing a job in a pharmaceutical company or a hospital, I found myself drawn to a different kind of lab, working with a different kind of patient -- a patient whose illness was so serious it impacted every single person in my country; a patient who needed to get healthy fast. That patient was my government.
Miaka kumi baadaye, nilirudi Kenya kwa kufanya hilo tu. msomi mwenye PhD, tayari kupambana na ugonjwa huu kutisha, ambao ulikuwa kama adhabu ya kifo kwa hakika kwa Kenya. Badala ya kuchukua kazi katika kampuni ya madawa au hospitali, Nilijikuta nikiitikia wito katika maabara tofauti, kutibu mgonjwa wa aina nyingine -- mgonjwa ambaye ugonjwa wake ulikuwa mkubwa na kuathiri kila mtu katika nchi yangu; mgonjwa aliyehitaji kuponwya upesi. Mgonjwa huyo alikuwa serikali yangu.
(Laughter)
(Vicheko)
See, many of us will agree that lots of governments are unhealthy today.
Tazama, wengi wetu tunakubaliana kwamba serikali zetu leo zina afya mbovu.
(Laughter)
(Vicheko)
(Applause)
(Makofi)
And Kenya was no exception. When I returned to Kenya in 2014, there was 17 percent youth unemployment. And Nairobi, the major business hub, was rated 177th on the quality of living index. It was bad.
Na Kenya haina upekee. Niliporudi Kenya mwaka 2014, asilimia 17 ya vijana hawakuwa na ajira. Na Nairobi, kitovu kuu cha biashara , ilikuwa ya 177 kwa ubora wa maisha duniani. hali Ilikuwa mbaya.
Now, an economy is only as healthy as the entities that make it up. So when government -- one of its most vital entities -- is weak or unhealthy, everyone and everything suffers. Sometimes you might put a Band-Aid in place to try and temporarily stop the pain. Maybe some of you here have participated in a Band-Aid operation to an African country -- setting up alternative schools, building hospitals, digging wells -- because governments there either weren't or couldn't provide the services to their citizens.
Sasa, afya ya uchumi inategemea afya ya mashirika ambayo huifanya. Hivyo serikali - moja ya taasisi zake muhimu - inapokuwa dhaifu au ina afya mbaya, kila mtu na kila kitu vinateseka. Wakati mwingine unaweza kuweka plasta kujaribu kupunguza maumivu kwa muda Labda baadhi yenu hapa mmeshiriki katika wimbi la utoaji misaada Afrika -- kuanzisha shule mbadala, kujenga hospitali, kuchimba visima -- kwa sababu serikali hazikutaka ama hazikuweza kuhudumia wananchi wao.
We all know this is a temporary solution. There are just some things Band-Aids can't fix, like providing an environment where businesses feel secure that they'll have an equal opportunity to be able to run and start their businesses successfully. Or there are systems in place that would protect the private property that they create. I would argue, only government is capable of creating these necessary conditions for economies to thrive.
Sote tunajua haya masuluhisho ni ya muda mfupi. Kuna baadhi ya mambo ambayo misaada haiwezi kutatua, kama kujenga mazingira ambapo wafanyabiashara hujisikia salama kuwa watakuwa na fursa sawa kuweza kuanza na kuendesha biashara zao kwa ufanisi. Au kuna mifumo ambayo huwawezesha kulinda mali walizovuna. Ningependa kusema, Serikali pekee ndiyo inaweza kujenga mazingira muhimu kwa ajili ya ustawi wa uchumi.
Economies thrive when business are able to quickly and easily set up shop. Business owners create new sources of income for themselves, new jobs get added into the economy and then more taxes are paid to fund public projects. New business is good for everyone. And it's such an important measure of economic growth, the World Bank has a ranking called the "Ease of Doing Business Ranking," which measures how easy or difficult it is to start a business in any given country. And as you can imagine, starting or running a business in a country with an ailing government -- almost impossible.
Uchumi hustawi pale biashara zinaweza kuanzishwa kwa urahisi. wamiliki wa biashara hujiekea vyanzo vipya vya mapato, ajira zinazoongezwa katika uchumi na mapato ya kodi ili kufadhili miradi ya umma. Biashara mpya zinamnufaisha kila mtu. Na ni kipimo muhimu cha ukuaji wa uchumi, Benki ya Dunia ina kipimo kinachotwa "Mazingira ya Kufanya Biashara," ambacho hulinganisha urahisi au ugumu wa kuanzisha biashara katika nchi yoyote. Na kama unavyofikiria, kuanzisha au kuendesha biashara katika nchi ambayo serikali ni mgonjwa -- karibia haiwezekani.
The President of Kenya knew this, which is why in 2014, he came to our lab and asked us to partner with him to be able to help Kenya to jump-start business growth. He set an ambitious goal: he wanted Kenya to be ranked top 50 in this World Bank ranking. In 2014 when he came, Kenya was ranked 136 out of 189 countries. We had our work cut out for us.
Rais wa Kenya alijua hili, hivyo mwaka 2014, alikuja katika maabara yetu na kuomba tushirikiane naye kuisaidia Kenya katika ukuaji wa biashara. Aliweka lengo kuu: alitaka Kenya kuwa kati ya nchi 50 za juu katika kipimo hiki cha Benki ya Dunia. Mwaka 2014 alipokuja, Kenya ilikuwa ya 136 kati ya nchi 189. kazi yetu ilikuwa bayana.
Fortunately, he came to the right place. We're not just a Band-Aid kind of team. We're a group of computer scientists, mathematicians, engineers and a cancer researcher, who understood that in order to cure the sickness of a system as big as government, we needed to examine the whole body, and then we needed to drill down all the way from the organs, into the tissues, all the way to single cells, so that we could properly make a diagnosis.
Bahati nzuri, alikuja kwa watu muafaka. Hatukuwa timu ya kutoa misaada tu. Sisi ni kundi la wanasayansi wa kompyuta, wanahisabati, wahandisi na mtafiti wa kansa, ambao tulielewa kwamba ili kutibu ugonjwa katika mfumo kubwa kama serikali, tulibidi kuchunguza mwili mzima, kisha tulibudi kuchimba ndani zaidi katika viungo, katika tishu, kote hadi kwa seli mojamoja, ili tunaweza kuchunguza vizuri.
So with our marching orders from the President himself, we embarked on the purest of the scientific method: collecting data -- all the data we could get our hands on -- making hypotheses, creating solutions, one after the other.
Hivyo kwa maagizo ya Rais mwenyewe, tulianza na njia halisi kabisa ya kisayansi: kukusanya data data zote tulizoweza kupata-- kuunda nadharia, kutafuta ufumbuzi, mmoja baada nyingine.
So we met with hundreds of individuals who worked at government agencies, from the tax agency, the lands office, utilities company, the agency that's responsible for registering companies, and with each of them, we observed them as they served customers, we documented their processes -- most of them were manual. We also just went back and looked at a lot of their previous paperwork to try and really understand; to try and diagnose what bodily malfunctions had occurred that lead to that 136th spot on the World Bank list.
Hivyo tulikutana na mamia ya watu waliofanya kazi katika mashirika ya serikali, kuanzia vyombo vya kodi, ardhi, kampuni za huduma, shirika kenya jukumu la kusajili makampuni, na kwa kila mmoja yao, tuliwaangalia kama walivyohudumia wateja wao , tuliweka kumbukumbu ya michakato yao - mingi ilitegemea kazi ya mikono. Pia tulirudi kuangalia makaratasi ya kazi zao za awali kujaribu kuelewa vyema zaidi; kujaribu kutambua nini katika mwili hakifanyi kazi vizor na kusababisha kuwa ya 136 katika orodha ya Benki ya Dunia.
What did we find? Well, in Kenya it was taking 72 days for a business owner to register their property, compared to just one day in New Zealand, which was ranked second on the World Bank list. It took 158 days to get a new electric connection. In Korea it took 18 days. If you wanted to get a construction permit so you could put up a building, in Kenya, it was going to take you 125 days. In Singapore, which is ranked first, that would only take you 26 days. God forbid you had to go to court to get help in being able to settle a dispute to enforce a contract, because that process alone would take you 465 days. And if that wasn't bad enough, you would lose 40 percent of your claim in just fees -- legal fees, enforcement fees, court fees.
Tuligundua nini? Naam, ilichukua siku 72 kwa mfanyabiashara kusajili mali yake Kenya, ikilinganishwa na siku moja tu katika New Zealand, ambayo ilikuwa ya pili katika orodha Benki ya Dunia. Ilichukua siku 158 kupata umeme. Korea, ilichukua siku 18. Ukitaka kibali cha ujenzi ili kuweza kujenga, Kenya, ilikuchukua siku 125. Katika Singapore, ambayo ni nafasi ya kwanza, ilichukua siku 26. Hasha, ikubidi uenda mahakamani kupata msaada kutatua mzozo na kutekeleza mkataba, kwa sababu mchakato peke yake tu utachukua siku 465. Na kama hiyo halikuwa mbaya, utapoteza asilimia 40 ya madai yako katika ada tu -- gharama ya kisheria, ya utekelezaji, ya mahakama.
Now, I know what you're thinking: for there to exist such inefficiencies in an African country, there must be corruption. The very cells that run the show must be corrupt to the bone. I thought so, too, actually. When we started out, I thought I was going to find so much corruption, I was literally going to either die or get killed in the process.
Sasa, najua kile unachofikiri: ili kuwepo na uhaba huo wa ufanisi katika nchi ya kiafrika, lazima kuwe na rushwa. Seli kuu husika lazima iwe inahusishwa na rushwa. Nilidhani hivyo, pia. Tulipoanza, Nilitarajia kukuta rushwa nyingi katika mfumo, Nilihisi ningekufa ama kuuawa katika mchakato.
(Laughter)
(Vicheko)
But when we dug deeper, we didn't find corruption in the classic sense: slimy gangsters lurking in the darkness, waiting to grease the palms of their friends. What we found was an overwhelming sense of helplessness. Our government was sick, because government employees felt helpless. They felt that they were not empowered to drive change. And when people feel stuck and helpless, they stop seeing their role in a bigger system. They start to think the work they do doesn't matter in driving change. And when that happens, things slow down, fall through the cracks and inefficiencies flourish.
Lakini tulipochunguza kiundani, hatukukuta rushwa katika maana ya kawaida: majambazi wakinyemea kwenye giza, wakisubiri lusaka mafuta mikono ya marafiki zao. Tulichogundua ni hisia kubwa ya unyonge. Serikali yetu ilikuwa mgonjwa, kwa sababu wafanyakazi wa serikali walijiona wanyonge. Walihisi hawakuwa na uwezo wa kuendesha mabadiliko. Na watu wanapojisikia kukwama na wanyonge, huacha kuona majukumu yao katika mfumo mzimo. Huanza kufikiri kazi yao haijalishi katika kuendesha mabadiliko. Na hilo linapotokea, mambo huenda polepole, nyufa hujitokeza na ukosefu wa ufanisi hunawiri.
Now imagine with me, if you had a process you had to go through -- had no other alternative -- and this process was inefficient, complex and very, very slow. What would you do? I think you might start by trying to find somebody to outsource it to, so that they can just take care of that for you. If that doesn't work, maybe you'd consider paying somebody to just "unofficially" take care of it on your behalf -- especially if you thought nobody was going to catch you. Not out of malice or greed, just trying to make sure that you get something to work for you so you can move on. Unfortunately, that is the beginning of corruption. And if left to thrive and grow, it seeps into the whole system, and before you know it, the whole body is sick.
Sasa fikiria na mimi, kama ulikuwa na mchakato ulibidi kufuata -- na hukuwa na njia nyingine -- na utaratibu huu ulikosa ufanisi, ulikuwa tata na taratibu mno. Ungefanya nini? Nadhani unaweza kujaribu kutafuta mtu mwingine akufanyie hilo jukumu, ili tu wafanye kwa niaba yako. Kama hafanikiwi, labda utafikiria kumlipa mtu 'kiholela' tu ili kufanya kwa niaba yako -- hasa unapodhani hakuna mtu atakukamata. Sio kwa nia mbaya au uchoyo, ili tu kuhakikisha mambo yanakuendea vizuri ili uweze kuendelea na biashara zako. Kwa bahati mbaya, huo ndio mwanzo wa rushwa. Na kama ikiachwa kustawi na kukua, inavuja katika mfumo mzima, na kabla ya kujitambua, mwili mzima huumwa.
Knowing this, we had to start by making sure that every single stakeholder we worked with had a shared vision for what we wanted to do. So we met with everyone, from the clerk whose sole job is to remove staples from application packets, to the legal drafters at the attorney general's office, to the clerks who are responsible for serving business owners when they came to access government services. And with them, we made sure that they understood how their day-to-day actions were impacting our ability as a country to create new jobs and to attract investments. No one's role was too small; everyone's role was vital.
Tukijua hili, tulianza kwa kuhakikisha kwamba kila mdau tuliyeshirikiana nae alikuwa na malengo kama yetu kwa ajili ya tulichotaka kutimiza. Hivyo tulikutana na kila mtu, kuanzia karani ambaye kazi yake pekee ni kufungua pakiti za maombi, hadi waandaaji wa sheria katika ofisi ya mwanasheria mkuu, kwa makarani mwenye wajibu kwa kuwahudumia wamiliki wa biashara walipo kuja kupata huduma za serikali. Na pamoja nao, tulihakikisha kwamba walielewa jinsi matendo yao ya kila siku huathiri uwezo wetu kama nchi kujenga ajira mpya na kuvutia uwekezaji. hakuna jukumu dogo; jukumu la kila mtu lilikuwa muhimu.
Now, guess what we started to see? A coalition of government employees who are excited and ready to drive change, began to grow and form. And together we started to implement changes that impacted the service delivery of our country.
Sasa, kisia tulianza kuona nini? Muungano wa wafanyakazi wa serikali wenye motisha wa kuleta mabadiliko, ulianza kukua na kuonekana. Na pamoja tuliaanza kutekeleza mabadiliko yaliyoathiri utoaji wa huduma nchini.
The result? In just two years, Kenya's ranking moved from 136 to 92.
Matokeo? Katika miaka miwili tu, Kenya ilitoka kuwa ya 136 hadi ya 92.
(Applause)
(Makofi)
And in recognition of the significant reforms we've been able to implement in such a short time, Kenya was recognized to be among the top three global reformers in the world two years in a row.
Na katika kutambua mageuzi tuliyoweza kutekeleza katika muda mfupi, Kenya ilitambuliwa kuwa miongoni mwa nchi tatu kimataifa katika marekebisho miaka miwili mfululizo
(Applause)
(Makofi)
Are we fully healthy? No. We have some serious work still to do. I like to think about these two years like a weight-loss program.
Je tuna afya nzuri kikamilifu? Hapana. Bado tuna kazi kubwa ya kufanya. Napenda kufikiria miaka hii miwili kama harakati ya kupunguza uzito.
(Laughter)
(Vicheko)
It's that time after months of hard, grueling work at the gym, and then you get your first time to weigh yourself, and you've lost 20 pounds. You're feeling unstoppable.
Ni ule muda baada ya miezi ya bidii, na mazoezi makable, na kisha unapopima uzito kwa mara ya kwanza, na umepoteza paundi 20. Unajisikia hausimamishwiki.
Now, some of you may think this doesn't apply to you. You're not from Kenya. You don't intend to be an entrepreneur. But think with me for just a moment. When is the last time you accessed a government service? Maybe applied for your driver's license, tried to do your taxes on your own. It's easy in this political and global economy to want to give up when we think about transforming government. We can easily resign to the fact or to the thinking that government is too inefficient, too corrupt, unfixable. We might even rarely get some key government responsibilities to other sectors, to Band-Aid solutions, or to just give up and feel helpless. But just because a system is sick doesn't mean it's dying. We cannot afford to give up when it comes to the challenges of fixing our governments.
Sasa, baadhi yenu mnaweza kufikiria hili haliwahusu. Wewe sio Mkenya. Huna nia ya kuwa mwekezaji. Lakini kufikiri na mimi japo mara moja tu. Lini mara ya mwisho ulipotumia huduma ya serikali? Labda kupata leseni ya udereva, kufanya mahesabu ya kodi peke yako. Ni rahisi katika uchumi huu wa kisiasa na dunia kutaka kukata tamaatunapofikiria kubadilisha serikali. Ni rahisi kujiuzulu kutoka kwa wajibu tu kwa kufikiria kuwa serikali haina ufanisi, ina rushwa mno, hairekebishiki. Huenda tukapata majukumu muhimu katika serikali katika sekta nyingine, katika suluhisho la utoaji misaada, au kukata tu tamaa na kujisikia wanyonge. Lakini, kwa sababu tu mfumo unaumwa haina maana unakufa. Hatuna starehe ya kukata tamaa inapohusu changamoto za kuzirekebisha serikali zetu.
In the end, what really makes a government healthy is when healthy cells -- that's you and I -- get to the ground, roll up our sleeves, refuse to be helpless and believe that sometimes, all it takes is for us to create some space for healthy cells to grow and thrive.
Hatimaye, serikali hula na afya pale tu ambapo seli huwa na afya-- huyo ni wewe na mimi -- kunuia, kukunja mkono ya mashati yetu, kukataa kuwa wanyonge na kuamini kuwa wakati mwingine, kinachoitajika ili kujenga nafasi, ni sisi, kwa ajili ya seli kukua na kustawi.
Thank you.
Asante.
(Applause)
(Makofi)