Here's what governors have been up to

County Governors, being as they are the founding complement of 47 heads of Kenya's regional governments, occupy a privileged and momentous station.

Each of them has had a clear leeway to assemble a sound framework for successful future county governance. Similarly, the majority of Kenya's founding governors have had an exceptional chance to create a robust and sustainable model that delivers assured socio-economic progress outside of Nairobi and other cities within our borders. But as it may seem the overwhelming majority of the current crop of governors has missed an opportunity unlikely to reappear in the balance of their lifetimes.

Few of these incumbent governors have seized the opportunity to play a memorable founding role in their respective jurisdictions. Those who have tried have also, sadly, left a litany of indignities that are completely at variance with the rectitude and esteem the gubernatorial station ought to claim.

Truth be told, the present group of Governors has not made much difference in creating hope let alone changing the fortunes of Kenyans in the regions they run.

And incidentally, none so far has discernibly offered futuristic interventions that can spur enduring progress in the counties. Yet it is precisely that long-term view that unleashes the transformative power that delivers better the lives and livelihoods of any citizenry gradually and into eternity.

When challenged over why things aren't going as they should in the counties the majority of our Governors—and the underlings in their canton fiefdoms—serially turn the heat on the National Government. Over time, and as would be expected, the County Chiefs have managed to portray the National Government as a villainous and ruthless leviathan; a monster that stands in their way and one that dismantles the good intent of county honchos. Personally, I don't believe so.

Only 17 months into the next general election is well past time for Governors to search themselves deeper and admit that they have spent more time and energy savaging the National Government than in delivering tangible results to real problems afflicting the people.

Granted, even toddlers trip and sometimes suffer bruises as they learn to walk. However, unsteady baby steps don't and shouldn't last forever.

Forging a healthy working relationship between County and National Governments is a non-negotiable imperative that both entities must invest in continuously and in good faith. However, the attitude of 47 against one cannot possibly be a fair game in the endeavour of animating devolution.

Indeed, the delicate and sensitive balance between the regional and the national is the best environment to make devolution grow and sink deep roots while at the same time building the nation. The success of devolution makes sense only as it impacts on Kenya's national advancement.

With regard to enabling devolution to prosper, the Governor—at least ideally—is the ultimate grandmaster and the sultan-in-chief of the destiny of his region. His efforts at transforming the fortunes of those who entrusted their county to him through the ballot should translate into a form of capital clothed in pride and optimism right across the entire nation. That way, we will avoid creating county-based demi-gods driven by vanity and wallowing in all manner of vulgar indulgences at the expense of the mwananchi.

And we in Kenya are not short of references to draw from. In November 2005, Time, the global news  magazine, ran a feature headlined "America's Five Best Governors", in which they noted, among other things, "Reeling from the biggest fiscal crisis since the Great Depression, Governors, unlike Presidents, must show discipline. By law, they have to balance their budgets in all but one state (Vermont). And they face soaring Medicaid obligations, No Child Left Behind mandates and new homeland-security costs.

"Today what makes Governors great is not the loft of their dreams but the depths of their pragmatism."Four years down the line, no Kenyan Governor has had the discipline to balance his budget or to give Kenyans an idea of the depths of his pragmatism.

Instead, the Governors have reduced themselves to beggars with bowls, always brow-beating the national government for more: Instead of consumption, when will they talk about production?

Not since the generation of the nation's Founding Fathers has a group been so privileged, yet also so conflicted, as the founding league of governors. And yet the national discourse is now turning slowly but inexorably to viewing the Governors as one-term wonders who will be cut down by unhappy voters in an electoral slaughter at the August 2017 General Election. They are 47 ducks sitting in a row and the voters will soon take aim . . .

Time for Governors to remove the log in their own eyes even as they demand that the National Government removes its speck!