County Assemblies are now operational. Governors used the first sitting of the assemblies yesterday to deliver their agendas for the counties. But the clamour for more pay by elected officials has clouded the fact that their primary responsibility is service to the people.
One wishes that governors, county pepresentatives, National Assembly Members and senators could recapture the spirit of the early public service, before it got messed up by political meddling.
When Kenya got her Independence, the concept of public service was built on the Westminster-Whitehall tradition. Its guiding principal was a professional, impartial, effective and disciplined management of public affairs buttressed by meritocracy. These principles got corrupted over time as self- interest and political interference ate away at the foundations of public service. This was made worse by 30 years of non-competitive politics. In the process of Africanising the public service to remove the discriminative aspects of colonial rule, the immediate post-Independence Government entrenched ethnicity, nepotism and patrimony.
Today, elected officials presume they are not, first and foremost, public servants despite the fact that they are paid from State coffers, but see themselves as some kind of princes lording it over their subjects.
What should be the main agenda of the fledgling county government? The Constitution, which is superior to any other law, including the Transition to Devolved Government Act, is clear that elected county officials are there to serve their people at the community level.
It goes further to define this service as making governance more accountable by requiring that the county governments consult the communities as regularly as is reasonably possible.
It would be sad therefore if the county governments followed the same route as that of the rotten local authorities they replaced and began to serve the interests of officials.
Governors on Thursday announced various long and short-term measures they hope to implement. Are they realistic?
The best way would be to ensure that the development plans mesh with the pillars of Vision 2030. This way, every county would look at the best way to harness its resources and come up with unique solutions where gaps have been identified.
