New county executives have their work cut out, they should deliver

More than half of the governors were purged in last week’s elections. Increased awareness among the citizenry and the unrelenting demand for accountability are no doubt responsible for this.

Indeed, the governor’s seat was ranked the most competitive in the August 8 elections.

It is fair to conclude that access to resources was the biggest motivator and not necessarily the urge to make an impact.

Nonetheless, governor-elects, who started taking the oath of office Thursday, have their work cut out. The operationalisation of devolution in 2013 marked a shift in the country’s governance structure. It heralded the distribution of State power and national resources, more so to marginalised areas.

One of the lessons learnt is that the purge on those who fail to keep their promises is ruthless and swift. There were obvious fears of corruption and ineptitude finding its way into the new units. That has not proved far-fetched. There were actual cases of corruption and ineptitude reported in most of the counties.

Yet more than ever before, the electorate is discerning; they want their leaders to account for their power; their money and they want services closer to them.

Truly, it has not been a smooth ride for the inaugural governors who had to negotiate many hurdles, not just because of limited finances and lack of personnel to effectively run the counties, but also from lack of precedent to learn from and infighting.

Admittedly, it was in most cases, a hit and miss affair, but all in all, it has been successful.

In many ways, the new crop will not be reinventing the wheel, but they ought to know what pitfalls to avoid. The incessant wrangles that characterised a lot of the previous county administration as MCAs held the governor and the County Executive to ransom are regrettable. They were counterproductive and held back development in a few of the places.

A bone of contention between the counties and the national government has been the percentage of revenue allocation and what services ought to have been devolved. At 15 per cent of total revenue collected, the feeling has been that the cash is insufficient. Devolving the medical function, has had its downside manifest in endless industrial action by doctors and nurses. These issues need to be relooked.

No doubt, gains accruing from devolution outweigh the hiccups experienced to date. Citizen participation in governance has been enhanced and consequently, meaningful development has been reported in many areas.