County assemblies failing public on the mega devolution promises

As the County Assemblies approve their budgets, they must be cognizant of the initial aims of devolution.

The devolved units of governance were to bring resources closer to the people and devolve power to the grassroots.

It was not meant to appease a few electoral county leaders with big cars and huge office budgets, complete with luxurious perks at the expense of taxpayers.

Some of the counties that have approved their budgets failed to adhere to the Controller of Budget’s advice on prudent spending by increasing their expenditures on what will not benefit residents.

They have allocated millions of shillings to services such as catering, purchase of fuel guzzlers and construction of governors’ houses while some of those who live within their counties struggle to put food on the table.

And without prioritising the needs of the people, some of them have veered off the “Big Four” agenda despite calls by the Jubilee government to have them align their development plans with the ambitious project.

President Uhuru Kenyatta used the 6th session of the National County Governments Coordinating summit, to lay out the role of the governors in the ‘Big Four’ development initiative.

The county governments should have learnt valuable lessons from experiences of the first five years of devolution by allocating more funds in areas such as health and agriculture, to reduce mortality in their areas and increase food security.

With the long drought experienced in the recent months and the April-June rains that swept away crops in some counties, the affected counties should have come up with budgets to save residents from the impending hunger by allocating more funds to agriculture and water sectors long term projects.

Yet even with this, a visit to any of the counties, both rural and urban paints a picture of continued widening rift between the residents and the super- rich, mostly county employees who continue to flaunt their wealth in the faces of those whose lives they were meant to transform.

County assemblies countrywide have performed dismally in ensuring the fruits of devolution reach the people. More often than not, being part of the problem instead of being part of the solution. The people are done with trial and error.

Now the masses expect to see the full benefits of devolution. It beats logic that in some counties, life was better under the centralised system of government.

At least taps had water, and hospitals had drugs and there were fewer strikes by the doctors and nurses.

Let those entrusted with devolution take time to reflect on their role in this crucial aspect in the lives of Kenyans. It is our money and we are tired of working for it.

It is time to let it work for us, not as a political favour, not on grounds of mercy but as right as enshrined in the constitution.

We all need affordable housing, good healthcare and jobs. Let the counties be the wind under which these dreams fly.

When Kenyans enacted the constitution in 2010, these were the hopes, dreams and ambitions they nurtured.

That the 47 lower level county governments would serve them where the national government had failed.  The people also expected that for this to happen, the counties would come up with creative modes of boosting their revenues to make these dreams a reality.

But today, revenue collected from most counties has dipped in comparison to collections from the now defunct county councils.

As the governors start yet another financial years, we hope that they will remember to go back to the basics and put our money into projects that make a difference in the lives of the people.  Sometimes simple is enough to make this difference.

So we hope and pray that the county budgets, once approved will focus more to making the lives of the little man bearable, and less into vanity projects.