By Kamotho Waiganjo
In this transition season, the news coming from many counties is fairly depressing. There are constant reports of fights between the Governors and County Commissioners. In many parts of the country, County Assembly members are on strike demanding better terms. Reports of wholesale and unjustified rejection of cabinet nominees abound. Governors have presented bloated budgets with huge deficits that anticipate borrowing.
Yet it is doubtful the national government will guarantee any borrowing by counties in this first year. In many counties, the Assemblies, taking a cue from their brothers in the National Assembly, have demanded a large share of the county budget and want their own “CDF” aptly named the “Ward Development Fund”.
It was therefore refreshing to spend time with the leadership of Laikipia County this last week and feel a different vibe, a hopeful tone.
I was left with a renewed sense that what the framers of the Constitution anticipated for the counties is real and achievable. I have no doubt there are other counties carrying out even better initiatives, but Laikipia left me energised and convinced that the new Kenya, may the idealist in me once believed in may not be just a pipe dream.
What initially strikes one about Laikipia is the attitude of its leadership. The Governor is routinely referred to as Servant No 1 and his Deputy as the Double Servant. That may look like a small thing, but in a country where battle for supremacy within our leadership is prime time news, this team, even if just in form, sets a new tone for what true leadership means.
The other positive feature of Laikipia is how the leadership has mainstreamed diversity. Despite Kikuyus being the dominant population and women fairly marginalised socially and economically in the county, the county cabinet is 50 per cent non-Kikuyu and 50 per cent women! The County Assembly has at least five ethnic groups and even has a graduate experienced Engineer in its team!
Also impressive is the investment the Speaker, a young dynamic lawyer, has put in capacity building for the County Assembly. Like many counties, there are obvious challenges in capacity in the Assembly. But unlike many leaders who have been wringing their hands complaining about this incapacity, Laikipia has spent the last two months carrying out capacity building using esteemed institutions like the Institute of Economic Affairs. Their budget is one of the better-organised ones and is one of the few counties that have progressed in preparing a well thought out integrated development plan. While some Governors consider their professional “diaspora” potential opposition and keep them far from county affairs, the Laikipia leadership has liberally used this constituency.
The session I had the privilege to attend was a joint two-day session between its executive committee and the County Assembly to discuss among others the “manifesto” of the county and rules of engagement between these critical arms of the county government.
Knowing the challenges a conflict between the legislative and executive arms of the counties will generate, any leadership that intends to avoid gridlock in the business of a county must find ways of ensuring a harmonious relationship between these two arms, while respecting the separation of powers principle. In the changed governance system, in which the Executive is no longer in the Legislature, even at the national level, the Departmental committees in the House will be the “agents” through which the Executive will push its sectoral agenda in the legislature.
That is not to say there are no challenges in Laikipia. The leadership still has to contend with its powerful ranch owners whose aspirations are largely different from that of the local population. The poverty, literacy and health statistics are still dismal. The normal transition headaches abound, including creating a new ethos and a culture of integrity in the local public service. But what the county lacks in current assets, it compensates in passion and belief in its potential.
I pray the noble intentions of the leadership in this young government translate to reality. But whichever way the county goes, for a moment there, I enjoyed basking in the audacity of hope.
