Graft in counties points to deep underlying problems

This was a distressing week for county governments. First, the Nyaoga Commission proposed suspension of the Makueni County. Though its proposals were rejected, the Commission’s report is a severe indictment of all institutions in that county. Imagine a county unable to pass a budget for two years, where leaders settle duels through gunfights, where almost no laws have been passed since inception and where the Executive has hardly implemented any programmes. Yet in this same county, MCAs in just one year made 14 foreign trips to such exotic destinations as Seychelles, Singapore, Malaysia and Dubai earning millions of shillings in per-diems.

What is most disconcerting is that Makueni is just a symptom of a virus that infects many of our devolved units. The pain of the Makueni blow had not eased before the audit reports on some counties were released. In one unforgettable case, a county government is said to have purchased wheelbarrows at Sh109,000 a piece! In another county, the management of the county Facebook account cost a cool Sh1.2 million while a gate in another county cost some Sh7.6 million.

In less “rule-based” societies, these travesties would have caused a public lynching of the concerned officials! It was gratifying to see public disgust in social media and the anti-graft demonstrations in some counties prompting some of the governors to offer lame explanations and promise action in true Kenya style.

Many consider both Makueni and the audit reports such a severe indictment on devolution that we must now rethink our constitutional architecture to stop the hemorrhaging of the country, courtesy of devolution. Nothing could be further from reality. On the contrary, the reporting on these ailments is one of the greatest indicators of the evolving positive narrative on governance, transparency and accountability that devolution has produced.

In the first instance, let us disabuse ourselves of the assumption that the rot in the national government is less than the one in counties because it is not as vibrantly reported. I can bet my worldly belongings that the theft at the county level is child’s play when compared to what is occurring at the national level. The national one is just more sophisticated, less crude. You just need to study the audit report on ministries to be shocked at the price of their “wheelbarrow equivalents”.

What is positive about the counties is that for the first time in our democracy, the citizen has the information in measurable quantities and is more aware that the stolen money is his money! He is thus a vibrant part of the “institutional framework” for combating graft. Prior to devolution when government was far removed from the people, information was either censored or remote, demonstrations against theft and misuse of public monies was the preserve of a few civil society and political activists. What we must ensure is vibrant reporting of national level graft and similar citizen anger and action against it. This will be the greatest bulwark against growing graft. The goings on in counties is also evidence of a more sobering reality; corruption is blind to political affiliation. There is as much graft reported in CORD counties as there is in Jubilee counties. So we must abandon our naivety, which assumes that if CORD or any other party takes over government graft will necessarily go; the only reason there are no allegations against CORD at the national level is because its leaders are missing in government! It therefore means our preoccupation must not be just about changing governments but also about building credible institutions to fight wanton theft, empowering citizens to hold government accountable, and building a culture which is intolerant of graft.

Finally, a final word to my favourite whipping boy, the middle class. It is all very well to see the comic side of national catastrophes and keep it alive on KOT, maybe that’s what reduces our collective high blood pressure. But how gratifying and effective an anti-graft message it would have been if we had seen a spontaneous anti-graft procession comprising suited professionals and business people saying NOT MY MONEY once the audit report was made public. Too much to expect perhaps? Over to you.