Political goodwill needed for devolution to succeed

NAIROBI: For the better part of this year, governors held the opinion that the national government was deliberately sabotaging devolution. This feeling is echoed by two commissioners of the Commission for the Implementation of the Constitution.

Peter Wanyande and Philemon Mwaisaka noted that apart from the national government, Members of Parliament have been instrumental in slowing down the devolution process given their penchant for wanting to control devolved funds, leaving governors with little option in determining developmental projects for their counties.

Besides the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) totalling Sh33 billion, Members of Parliament also control the Uwezo Fund (Sh6 billion).

Not content with what that, MPs are now training their eyes on the Equalisation Fund, thus setting up grounds for conflict with county governments.

The Sh3 billion Equalisation Fund will benefit only 14 of the 47 counties for a period of three years. Basically, the fund targets marginalised counties.

MPs from these areas are said to be keen on having the fund under them while in reality, governors are better placed to administer the fund without too much interference from other quarters.

Devolution was set up ideally to ensure Kenyans accessed resources and initiated development at the grassroots. Governors have demanded an allocation of 45 per cent of the national budget, giving rise to the Pesa Mashinani referendum push.

Nevertheless, all is not lost with devolution since discernible progress has been made in some areas; the passage of relevant legislation to strengthen county government operations and notable developments in marginalised areas like Mandera, whose government has laid out the first tarmac road, are commendable.

For the first time too, the county had a successful Caesarean section birth carried out in its main hospital. This raised hopes that the government would raise it out of the desolation and rejection it has endured at the hands of successive governments.

The Senate also comes under blame for abdicating its responsibility of protecting county interests. Instead, senators engaged in vilifying governors and choosing to use accountability as an excuse to fight them.

Issues of accountability, the commissioners noted, had to originate with Members of County Assemblies.

Earlier on, senators had put up a spirited attempt to control County Development Boards, a move that governors vehemently objected to.

Lack of political goodwill has led to acrimony between the two tiers of Government and different cadres of leaders, a fact that is better amplified by the occurrences in Machakos, Embu and Makueni counties.

Makueni faces the prospects of dissolution if a commission to be set up by the President concurs with the over 50,000 petitioners who have requested its dissolution.

It is the expectation of Kenyans who believed devolution could transform their lives that as 2015 begins, the Government, and all the stakeholders charged with making devolution a success, will put their petty differences and reluctance aside for the  common good.