Why does devolution appear it’s primed to fail?

By Abdikadir Sheikh

Devolution was brought in by the new Constitution and it was rolled out on the 4th of March 2013 with lots of expectation by the people of Kenya. The idea of decentralisation, bringing power and services closer to the people has brought inclusiveness and a sense of belonging to many people in different parts of this country.

Devolution is not an overnight and quick fix process but takes a long time to take a proper foundation. Countries that have embraced devolution and that have devolved systems has taken them half a century and more to a good devolution. Canada has had devolution for over 100 years and it is still improving on it.

The Kenyan devolution seems to be in two minds, majority of the ordinary folk want and yearn for devolution but the leadership, as was manifested at the Constitution referendum, want devolution to die a slow natural death.

The leadership has at every stage so far put a hurdle on the way of devolution.

Transition Authority (TA) is a statute created entity that is ostensibly meant to ensure the successful transition to the devolved system of Government. The entity has a chairman who has been allegedly headhunted and pulled of retirement.

Of course you will expect such headhunted person to be a brilliant and smart individual who will produce desired results.

The Chairman is friendly and charming and he will not miss any gathering or meeting on anything do with devolution and County Government matters but he is just there whenever he comes to such functions, he says nothing of substance and adds no value to the discussions.

Appoint retirees

Headhunting is a situation where someone is hired because of their excellent track record and proved ability to execute a duty.

The leadership has taken the definition of headhunting to a new lower level in appointing a retiree who is struggling to deliver half what the average civil servant could deliver.

The only logical conclusion to his appointment is to derail the devolution.

Ms Sarah Serem is another hurdle out there to kill devolution. It is common knowledge that poorly paid legislators are prone to corruption and are likely to keep quiet about graft in the Government.

A salary of Sh79,000 before tax for a legislator who is to travel over 280km every week to visit his ward just to do his job according to the law and job description is not enough or realistic. According to the County Government Act, it is mandatory that a member of the County Assembly to maintain close contact with his electorate and consult them on issues and present views and proposals of the electorate to the County Assembly.

Besides, and equally important, is the oversight role of the Assembly Members who have to watch over the tax payers’ billions sent to the Counties.

Will Serem’s unreasonable pay for County Legislators not make her and her Commission penny-wise but pound-foolish? If small money is saved on the salary of the County legislators but billions lost on the Counties due to lack of oversight or clumsy oversight where the legislators are forced to take second jobs to make ends meet or compromised by unscrupulous Executive.

The County Governments had difficulty in attracting qualified people to work at counties, particularly the hardship counties where there are no infrastructures, transport to and from is near impossible and life is difficult.

Any reasonable person with an honest intention who wanted devolution to succeed would have thought about these factors and catered for rather than do one size-fits all policy.

Some Counties do not have the basics in terms of staff where civil servants refuse to be seconded/sent to these counties because of hardships like insecurity and bad infrastructure in general.  How then does one convince someone to take up a job in a county like Mandera where there is insecurity and it is at the farthest end of world?

There has to be some incentive to make someone leave his adopted county of Nairobi where they have a good job and a disposable income.

What some call teething problems in devolution are schoolboy errors committed by those mandated to plan for the incoming of the counties. The problems are made worse by a clueless entity mandated to facilitate and see the success of devolution.

Whatever the leadership might do, again just like the referendum, the people will in the end win and devolution will work regardless of those who want to maintain the status quo of power staying at the centre and the top.

The writer is an advocate and Speaker for Mandera County Assembly.