Is devolution roll out akin to rewriting our history?

By Kethi D Kilonzo
finclegal@gmail.com

“The first casualty of the Kanu Government was devolution. It was effectively destroyed in little more than a year after independence,” —Yash Pal Ghai & McAulsan, 1970.

Devolved government was introduced in Kenya in 1963 under the Independence Constitution. Then it was known as Majimbo. There were seven regional governments each with its own Executive and Legislature. The Judiciary was shared between the central and regional governments. Senate was the designate political guardian of regional governments.

Devolved government was introduced at Independence as a protective measure for the minority tribes. It was meant to ensure sharing of power and the participation in government by minority tribes. It was a check against the tyranny of numbers.

Like the current county governments, the Independence regional governments were new, and lacked established traditions of government. They were tied to the central government for support in establishing machinery for day-to-day administration. Like today, the odds against success of the regional governments were many and great. And there was no political will and support for them to scale these hurdles.

The first amendments to the Independence Constitution were directed to the dilution and abolition of regional governments and the restoration of Central government authority throughout the country.

The central government made it impossible for the 7 regional governments to be properly established by denying them financial resources.

The powers of the regional governments that were not protected in the Independence Constitution were repealed on the first anniversary of independence in 1964.

Powers over the police and public services were restored to the central government. Soon after, a provision guaranteeing fixed revenue for the regional governments was removed. The Constitutional protection against the redrawing of boundaries and the creation of new regions was removed in the same year.

In 1966 the Senate was abolished. All Senators found seats in the National Assembly and the life of Parliament was extended by two years. In 1968 all devolution institutions, now left without any powers, were abolished. By the time the country was going into the next general election, devolution was a footnote in the books of history.

The Post-Independence 2010 Constitution is a product of delicate compromises, long negotiations, protracted struggles for legal and institutional reform, street battles, lost lives, spirited multiple court litigation, and finally the endorsement by 6,092,593 Kenyan (not British) voters at a referendum in 2010.

Devolved government is yet to celebrate its first year of establishment.

However, just like immediately after Independence, it is under constant frontal and veiled assault including the rejection of amendments by the Senate to increase funding to devolved government. It took no less than the Supreme Court’s intervention to guarantee that Senators will always have a say on how much money is given to the Counties.

Then, there are the constant threats, first by Members of Parliament, and now by governors to move for the abolition of the Senate. And there are the amendments tabled in both Houses of Parliament, with the specific and much publicised aim of taming governors.

If passed they will strip devolved governments of the symbols of the devolved power they wield. They will also dilute the devolved financial management powers of the County Executive.

In the 2010 constitutional referendum, 68.5 per cent of Kenyan voters said yes to devolution. Any attempt to trifle with, undermine or dilute devolved government, 50 years after the failures of central government, is contemptuous of our national psyche and a subversion of our determination in 2010 to change the course of our future.

Devolved government is in its infancy. It is Kenya’s new born baby. It is our collective responsibility to nurture it.

Let’s hold its hands as it takes its first baby steps. We should not make the same mistakes in its up-bringing like we did with its older brother between 1963 and 1968.