Graft claims a ploy to fight devolution

Recently, the Auditor General revealed how public money is being lost and misused through graft in both the national and county government, sparking a huge public outcry.

However, it appears that some Kenyans, including some influential personalities within the national government, are only focusing on graft in the counties and attempting to use it to discredit the very idea of devolution in the eyes of Kenyans.

Instead of demanding strict measures to address the misuse of the devolved resources in order to enhance services to Kenyans, such elements are hinting that devolution is not working and should be done away with altogether.

Such persons are arguing that devolved governments are “unsustainable” since public resources are only being greedily gobbled up by county officials in unworthy ventures like purchasing luxurious vehicles or going for unnecessary trips abroad. These elements are openly yearning for the days when all the decision-making on resources was done in Nairobi, as if doing so will slay the ugly beast of graft.

When it comes to graft, counties do not have the monopoly on the vice. The national government, which is allocated a much higher proportion of national revenue, is in fact just as guilty as the counties, or even worse off. This fact has become crystal clear with the latest report by the Auditor General, which shows that billions of shillings remain unaccounted-for by the national government for the last financial year.

I am yet to hear people arguing the national government should be done away with because of the high level of graft that often pops out in its ranks. Such an argument would of course be ridiculous, just as it is ridiculous to call for doing away with devolved units because of graft.

Although Kenyans overwhelmingly approved the 2010 Constitution - whose heart was devolution - it appears that some people, mainly top officials within the national government, are still resistant to the idea of allowing more resources and decision-making to be done in the grassroots through counties. Counties, which are only a few years old, need a robust system of enhancing prudent use of public resources and not the unwarranted rubbishing of devolution that we have been seeing lately.

This campaign to delegitimise devolution using graft as a pretext, appears to be part of a larger campaign to make the new system seem unworkable in the eyes of Kenyans, with the eventual aim of having it done away with completely or the concept severely diluted.

Although there have been enormous volumes of criticism directed at counties, graft appears to be the most effective in discrediting the counties since Kenyans are very sensitive to the misuse of their resources. Some county governors have repeatedly lamented that sections of the national government are not exhibiting much commitment and enthusiasm in making devolution work, but their concerns have been dismissed as mere politicking.

For instance, we have seen repeated and baffling delays in releasing funds to the counties from the National Treasury, a situation that has left counties looking bad in the eyes of Kenyans - creating the impression that they are unable to pay salaries to staff and discharge essential services.

In fact, Treasury officials have publicly admitted that by the end of the last financial year, a significant amount of the funds that were to be released to counties (16 per cent) had not been disbursed. In addition, the national government is still stubbornly holding on to huge amounts of resources for county functions, including certain classes of roads, agriculture and irrigation. There are several other significant examples of this worrying trend.

The solution to devolved graft is enhancing the capacity of institutions and systems to address the issue rather than discrediting devolution, which many Kenyans overwhelmingly support.