By Charles Kanjama
I was quite taken by the Baringo County newspaper advertisement last Sunday. The Governor invited applications for positions in his county executive committee and key positions in his county public service board.
We are living in exciting times, uniquely placed to see 47 new county governments set up, ready to unlock the country’s potential in new and diverse ways. The county governments, with at least 15 per cent share of national revenue and a similar share of government functions, per the Fourth Schedule of the Constitution, are poised to build a new Kenya.
The counties will link directly with decentralised national structures like county policing, county education boards, county health facilities, county transport and safety committees and county land registries. They will work together in inter-county associations to promote shared interests. They will ultimately encourage professionals in the Kenyan and global Diaspora to return primed to achieve rapid grassroots development.
Some counties like Garissa, Wajir and Mandera will have high budgetary allocation per resident. This will be a unique opportunity to promote local development. In western Kenya, two great indicators are large population density and a prime geographical location, with Lake Victoria as the central environmental resource. It is exciting to think of the possibilities ready to be unleashed in a region that can become a hub for the East African economy. Machakos, Kiambu, Kajiado and Narok are probably four of the most exciting counties, due to their proximity to Nairobi and great potential to service the country in agricultural, residential and industrial sectors.
And just imagine what the Lapsset Corridor will do to Lamu, Isiolo, Marsabit and Turkana as the counties benefit from a new Sudan-Ethiopia-Kenya economic axis. County by county, from the Coast to Mount Kenya to Rift Valley, Kenya is ready to take up a new growth trajectory. It is a salivating prospect, but one requiring close co-operation between county and national government. In achieving effective devolution, a heated debate has arisen about the relationship between national and county government. An argument has been made that national government at the county level is subject to the county governor, and that parallel national administrative structures like County Commissioners are contrary to the spirit of the Constitution. This argument ignores both article 186 and the Fourth Schedule of the Constitution.
Our Constitution provides for both decentralisation (art 6(3)) and devolution (art 174). It clarifies that “the governments at the national and county levels are distinct and inter-dependent and shall conduct their mutual relations on the basis of consultation and co-operation (art 6(2)).” The idea that national government at county level gets merged into county government makes a mockery of the Constitution.
National government can only delegate its functions to the county government with its full consent (art 187). To argue that “the spirit of devolution” requires the Governor to be in full control of national government at the county level flies in the face of the very Constitution we claim to protect. It interprets the spirit of devolution as incarnating a federal structure, contrary to the actual words and spirit of the Constitution. Instead, the Constitution requires governors to creatively engage with national government to get service delivery to their people. A bigger measure of ‘diplomacy’ than ‘autonomy’ will be critical to get the job done, since governors will ‘autonomously’ enjoy only 15 per cent of government revenue. National government must also decentralise rapidly, and ensure the dual governance structure is in place.
The biggest asset of the new Kenya is not its territory, infrastructure or even economic resources. It is its people, and so the most successful counties will be those that harness their populations in a sustainable manner and human resource development. This will encourage the investor engagement needed to achieve middle-income status in the next 20 years. Let the turf wars end and let’s get down to work.
The writer is an Advocate of the High Court
