Kenyans could pick future presidents from top performing county governors

There’s a new school of hard knocks — a proving ground — for Kenyan politics. It’s the county — the single most radical invention of the 2010 Constitution. Methinks the political class, especially MPs, didn’t know the import of the county when they acquiesced to it. The county — a piece of earthly geography, is going to upend politics as we know it. Take this to the bank — the county is going to neuter political mandarins who hitherto have suckled at the breast of the tribe. It will metaphorically kill many senior politicos, and give birth to a new generation of can-dos. Take it from me — the county will cannibalise the tribe as the pivot of political mobilisation. Let me elaborate.

First, the county has already started to marginalise Nairobi, once the epicentre of power and patronage. It’s Nairobi that every tribal kingpin has sought to capture. That’s because all the pork was sliced and shared in Nairobi. State House, to be exact, was the slaughterhouse for the national pig. That’s where you went to get your morsel. Stories are legion of folks disappearing into the labyrinth of State House only to emerge with a pregnant briefcase. That’s in the process of obsolescence. The reason is that, in spite of the gluttonous corruption endemic in Nairobi, the bell has been rung. Kenyans will starve the beast at the centre and take the money to the counties if the thieving continues.