Governors should account for their allocations thus far

By Kiratu Kamunya

Kenya: It is the duty of every patriotic Kenyan to own and support devolution. Indeed this system of resources distribution to the grassroots if well managed holds the key to unlocking huge growth potential in our 47 counties and the nation as whole.

For starters, the Constitution provides that at least 15% of revenue collection should go to the devolved units.

In this financial year alone, President Kenyatta administration has allocated 32% of collected revenues to the county governments. This sends the right signals in as far as the relationship between the national and county governments is concerned. On the flip side, this sign of political good will has not erased the suspicion existing between the two organs of governance.

The framers of the Constitution foresaw the possibility of misunderstanding and conflict between the county and national governments and laid emphasis on the need for co-operation and interdependency in order to guarantee effective service delivery to the citizens.

The Constitution did not anticipate a situation where there would be a show down between counties and the central government. That is why the framers of the Constitution clearly defined the roles of these governments.

While the government has done well by more than doubling the minimum allocation provided for by the Constitution together with outlining the time table for transfer of functions to the county governments, governors on their part have failed the test of patience and reasonable debate. They have cited the Transition Authority and the government for blame over what they call delayed devolution to the grassroots.

They are now calling for the abolition of the transition authority while portraying the Jubilee government in bad light.

The Transition Authority on its part has clearly explained that transfer of functions should directly correlate with the capacity and preparedness by the county governments to carry out the various devolved functions. In other words, governors must not ask to bite more than they can chew.

Playing politics

County governments must first put their houses in order before complaining about resources and function allocations. In any case, resources and functions allocations are guided by the Constitution and so far no violation has been shown to have been perpetrated by either the government or the transition authority.

It is against this background therefore that governors’ agitation takes the risk of being viewed as playing politics with devolution to achieve some other selfish end. Led by their Chairman Isaac Ruto, they are even contemplating to hold nationwide rallies to popularise their clamour for Constitution amendments in order to increase revenue allocation from 15% to 40% and the so-called empowering the Senators following the Shanzu Declaration.

On one hand, these rallies are to be held at a time when the country is deeply divided following the recent hotly contested general elections.

Billions of shillings

Instead of joining hands with other Kenyans in fostering unity and healing a wounded nation, they are busy pursuing a platform which will only throw the country into a polarising election mood. In any case, we did not hold a referendum to have the Jubilee government increase the allocation to 32 % in this financial year.

The best way for governors to win our hearts in joining their cause would be to start by accounting for the billions of shillings allocated to the counties this financial year. Instead, they have shown lack of prudence in managing their initial allocations.

From luxury fleets to a host of other misplaced priorities, governors’ ability to steer the counties as good economic managers has been dented.

Wrangling within some of the counties has not helped matters. Before some of these fires have extinguished, it will be very hard for such counties to convince the public that what is ailing them is lack of more revenue allocation.

Fixation with more allocations alone carries with itself the danger of suppressing the debate on more internal wealth generation. In the run up to the last elections, would be governors presented themselves as the panacea to economic freedom in their respective counties if elected.

They largely cited exploitation of untapped resources as their first priority. What became of the beds of resources across the counties? True economic liberation will only be realised in the counties with the most imaginative and creative governors.

Governors should not try to excuse their failures by blaming others. They should start with making the best out of what is readily available while devising ways of rallying their counties’ human and physical resources in baking a bigger cake.

There are widespread reservations on the amount of time governors are spending in caucuses, seminars and conferences at the taxpayer’s expense devising ways of how to acquire more power instead of mapping out solutions to fix biting poverty, disease and hunger back in their counties.

Writer is a lawyer with Maina Ngaruiya Advocates.