Kenya’s policymaking landscape is often plagued by “bikeshedding,” also known as Parkinson’s Law of Triviality. This phenomenon describes the tendency to dwell on minor issues while neglecting critical ones, hindering effective governance and transformative reforms.
It is not just a behavioural quirk but a symptom of deeper systemic, cognitive, and institutional failures. Superficial discussions on inconsequential projects frequently overshadow the urgent need for substantial changes across vital sectors.
The term “bikeshedding” originates from Cyril Northcote Parkinson’s observation that the amount of time an organisation spends on an issue is inversely proportional to its importance. In essence, the less significant the matter, the more time it consumes.
Consider this illustrative example: a metaphorical one-hour board meeting with two agenda items—a $20 million nuclear power plant and a $350 bike shed for construction workers. In such a scenario, the board might spend a disproportionate amount of time debating the bike shed while allocating only a fraction of the meeting to the crucial power plant decision.
While this may seem exaggerated, it reflects the reality of decision-making in many public and private organisations.
Personal experiences in board meetings reveal that procedural matters (prayers, quorum confirmation, minute review, etc.) often consume about 40 percent of the time, “Any Other Business” another 30 percent, leaving only 30 percent for substantive agenda items, which are often rushed. It is common to see board members primarily functioning as ‘proposers’ or ‘seconders’.
For Kenya to achieve meaningful economic development, three fundamental issues require urgent resolution: the cost and ease of doing business, the cost of power, and the cost and tenure of capital. These factors universally impact all sectors of the economy.
However, policy discussions often get bogged down in trivialities. For instance, instead of focusing on transforming the energy sector to drive industrialisation and job creation, the conversation often revolves around last-mile connectivity for lighting.
While access to electricity is crucial, this focus overlooks the bigger picture: Kenya’s high electricity tariffs, averaging $0.16 per kWh, compared to Egypt ($0.03), Ethiopia ($0.05), and Tanzania ($0.08), hinder industrial competitiveness.
Similarly, agricultural transformation is often reduced to discussions about affordable fertiliser, and education reform to debates about where Grade 9 students should be placed.
In an era of robotics, data science, and AI, the fact that nearly 90 percent of Kenya’s public primary and secondary schools lack functional computer labs is a far more pressing issue than the domicile of Grade 9 students. How are Kenyan children going to compete with their counterparts in China, Singapore, Scandinavian countries, the USA and Europe?
The writer is a public policy expert and former CEO, Kenya Association of Manufacturers.
