Intrigues as Kibaki county agents list draws MPs’ ire

By JUMA KWAYERA

The furore over the appointment of County Commissioners has touched off fears corrupt Government officials will take advantage of the ensuing vacuum to plunder public resources.

The fears also extend to how elections are going to be managed, with President Kibaki who unilaterally made the appointments facing accusations of planning to use the county commissioners to his advantage.

Deputy Prime Minister Musalia Mudavadi, who is seeking to succeed Kibaki, says the commissioners are necessary to ensure accountability during the transition to devolved power, but questions the manner in which the process is being handled.

Regional balance
The DPM says the President would have averted the furore if the appointments were done in conformity with the Constitution, which requires such appointments be guided by provisions of ethnic and regional balance.

While the complaints have mainly been restricted to ethnic and gender representation in the appointments of the 47 county commissioners, Fisheries Minister Amason Jefa Kingi fears the appointments are linked to the next General Election.

“It is going to be a duplication of roles. The work of the County Commissioners is the same as the one the governors are mandated to discharge, which is misuse of national resources. Even if we need the commissioners, 13 of them are from one community. The political mess the country went through in 2008 was a product of such skewed public appointments,” he says.

On Thursday, Internal Security Minister George Saitoti came under fire in Parliament when he attempted to defend Kibaki over the appointments, with MPs arguing the process was faulty, informed by ethnic considerations and had breached the Constitution.

Parliament wanted the appointments done openly and factor in gender and regional interests. After arguing in vain that the appointments were based on the repealed Constitution, Saitoti was forced to withdraw a section of his statement that tried to justify the move as constitutional.

“I withdraw that part of my statement that the appointments were done in line with section 24 of the old constitution. The President was carrying out his administrative authority by redeploying the officers as Country Commissioners,” he said.

Key Bills
Mr Mudavadi oversaw the writing of the key Bills on devolved government. While he agrees the process is flawed in terms of gender and ethnic balance, he told The Standard On Sunday the commissioners were a necessity to “protect public assets and firm up the ground for devolution, but not deepen their hold on public management in a way that sabotages the authority of governors when the latter arrive on the stage.”

Kingi disagrees. “The national Government, not the President, is the one charged with making public appointments. Assuming the country needs the commissioners, the appointments should have been done competently and competitively. In addition, had the President picked the commissioners from the 47 counties, every community would have been represented,” he says.

Parliament on Thursday demanded the revocation of the appointment until after the next elections, fearing the process would be a source of conflict, as it would create multiple centres of powers at regional level.

“The President has been misadvised by people in Government who want to stage a coup on the formation of the county governments. They want to defile devolution before it even takes place. Part of the game plan is to resist transformation,” argued Budalang’i MP, Ababu Namwamba.

Before county governments are set up, says the DPM, there must be teams of technical people to set the infrastructure to be used by the incoming authorities.

“County government needs internal people to help put structures in place. The process may be flawed to some extent, but the MPs must first address themselves to the reason there is delay in enactment of the requisite laws,” says Mudavadi.

The timeframe that had been provided for in the Constitution to pass laws on develoved government lapsed on February 27.

Debate on the same laws cannot be re-started unless Parliament passes a Motion to extend the period, which would allow it debate the President’s memorandum on Devolved Government Bill 2012, which Kibaki declined to assent to and referred back to Parliament to make amendments.

Under the Transition to Devolved Government Act 2012, an authority is to be established to oversee the transfer of power from the national government to the regional governments.
Article 16 of the Act confers powers to the authority to issue guidelines to state on devolution.

“After the first elections under the Constitution, each county government shall submit, to the authority and the Commission for the Implementation of the Constitution, a transition plan and progress reports within a period specified by the Commission for the Implementation of the Constitution.”

Transition plans
The authority will be tasked with monitoring the progress of the implementation of the transition plans.

“The commissioners being appointed will fill this gap in the short term and pass these responsibilities to the governors and their governments. But they will retain the role of overseeing the functions constitutionally retained by central government,” says the DPM.