Why County governors now have to be nice to powerful county reps to succeed

Nakuru County Governor Kinuthia Mbugua address the press [Photo: Thuku]

By Jacob Ngetich

NAIROBI, KENYA: County Representatives are the new sheriffs in town. They make the laws in their governments and their decisions cause ripples. 

They have won all the battles they started against their Governors and some have turned rogue, threatening to impeach them.

Recently, Nakuru Governor Kinuthia Mbugua was the first County boss to suffer humiliation over a row that pitted him against members of the Nakuru County Assembly.

Trouble was triggered by the Governor’s swearing-in of County Executives, disregarding the county vetting team’s report rejecting six of his appointees.

The County Assembly accused the Governor of contravening the vetting requirements and threatened to impeach him in a move that rattled the embattled Governor, forcing him to withdraw the names.

For Kinuthia, that is a second  close shave with the county representatives after his preferred candidate for Speaker was trounced in favour of one of his harsh critics, Susan Kihika.

In other counties, the Governors have been forced to take their county representatives for retreats as a way of placating them and ensuring that their County business runs smoothly devoid of petty politics. Others have had their operations stalled by unending disagreements.

Mr Robuw Mohamed Hassan, the Majority Leader in Mandera County and the Chairman of the Kenya Council of County representatives says the perception among most of the county bosses is that the Ward representatives were a bother to the County government rather than partners.

Given time

“They need to be seen as people’s representatives,” says Hassan.

Dr Alfred Mutua, the Machakos Governor, says the County Representatives need to be given time to express themselves and be understood. “I have managed my County Representatives well politically and economically, we have had the ability to pay them salaries and allowances for committee meetings and no one is complaining. We are working smoothly,” says Mutua.

He goes on: “The Governors and County Representatives need to see themselves as partners and not working against each other. Any war between the two will only go a long way to hurt residents. Each county should understand this,” said Mutua.

A Governor from Rift Valley, who asked not to be named fearing a backlash from the County Representatives, said the problem was illiteracy and lack of exposure.

“Some of the County Representatives have little or no education at all and therefore resort to threats and blackmail to achieve what they want,” said the Governor.

Before the Elections Act was watered down a few months before the elections, the County Representatives were required to have post-secondary education to qualify to vie for the seats but the law was repealed to allow any registered voter from the Ward to run for office.