Violent pursuit of accountability a clever scheme to hide the truth

The past one week has seen dramatic turn of events in Narok County, with issues of accountability brought to my attention and that of my administration.

Narok County has lost time that would have otherwise been utilised for development projects in the last one week.

Following these protests, few questions arise. What was the protest all about? What was its origin? Was there any objective justification?

Never has there been such gross and inexcusable acts of political ingratitude and malice in the interest of material thirst by a few individuals, since the advent of devolution as was demonstrated in Narok.
In the past three years or so, terrorism and subsequent travel advisories from source markets have gravely affected tourism.

Any objective leader would have reflected on the recent disturbing trends showing vacant hotels and cancelled bookings by foreign tourists in the just-ended Christmas holiday and the slumping tourism fortunes over this period.

Tourist hotels pay fees to county governments. An objective petitioner would want to note that such dwindling fortunes in the sector would affect the projected revenue collection by the County Government of Narok, which chiefly depends on the Maasai Mara.

Relevant laws

A thorough review of the petition presented to the county government is hazy, filled with innuendos, a remarkable demonstration of naïve assumptions that fly in the face of law and is grossly ignorant of provisions of relevant laws and facts about the Narok County Integrated Development Plan.

The leaders behind the protests should have cared to pursue dialogue, which I have always been ready for.

The place of accountability and public participation in governance is sacred. However, the exercise of such rights must be within the ambit of the law. Looking at the Narok protest on January 26 — even after public rallies had been banned by the Interior Cabinet Secretary —going on with the protest was a liberal exercise of poor judgment.

It is really sad that some people lost their lives and several others injured, including an OCPD, just because dialogue was not given a chance.

The important issues of revenue collection at the Maasai Mara cannot be ignored. However, leaders should not conveniently misguide their supporters on the issue of revenue collection, which previously enriched a few at the expense of the majority.

How else would one explain a situation where revenue clerks, who used to issue receipts at entry points would become instant millionaires – buying houses in Nairobi and building palatial homes?

It is known that those revenue clerks were merely servants at the lower level of the food chain, superintending over irregularities at the behest of powerful cartels, whose cash streams have dried up as a result of electronic revenue collection.
Relevant legal authorities are already investigating the allegations and counter-allegations and are best placed to handle the matter.
My call is that as leaders of Narok County, we should find common ground to sincerely pursue and resolve whatever issues there may be.
Leaders should believe in diversity and clear up sentiments associated with most of their supporters calling for the removal of minorities from the county.

Leaders in the 21st century must not be inclined to primitive political superstition that if you sustain a misinformed and misguided picketing sublimated by violence and shrill accolades by hangers-on, then the political kingdom will be granted.

What Narok County needs right now is a spirited quest for unity and cohesiveness, and leaders that are given to uniting the people, and not dividing them. The memory of the protests will soon be dimmed after an objective analysis of the surrounding circumstances is done and when the truth, crushed to the ground as it may seem, will finally rise among us and glow in each corner of Narok County.

The writer is the Governor, County Government of Narok.