Give governors some peace to deliver

Chapter 11 of the Constitution of Kenya outlines the framework of the devolved system of governance.

Even with all the negative energy directed at devolution, it is still one of the major gains of the Constitution.

Fewer sections of the Constitution have attracted attention more than the section on devolution, more so the office of the governor.

I agree with former presidential candidate Martha Karua when she says that we should not complain that it is becoming too expensive to implement the Constitution. It was bound to be so since we chose to pass it. As a matter of fact, we made the bed, and so shall we lie in it.

Many governors, including the current Chairman of the Council of Governors Peter Munya, have spent considerable time in courts fighting election petitions. Makueni, Embu, Siaya are some of the counties that have undergone political turmoil just trying to push the governors out of offices.

This has, however, worked against their counties as they have spent precious development time in courts.

Governors seem to have rubbed many people the wrong side, and yet they were elected democratically.

Members of County Assemblies, who have been accused of holding governors to ransom using impeachment threats, seem to have forgotten that they did not put the governors in office. They never paid the piper and therefore they cannot call the tune.

Senators, instead of protecting the counties, are also fighting governors. MPs too think they went for the wrong seats and have trained their eyes on governorship. Everybody now wants to be a governor!

The governors seem to be operating in an environment that Justice Aaron Ringera well described as between the hammer of their supporters and the anvil of their political enemies.

Let governors have some peace to deliver. Time to evaluate them is drawing nigh.