Retrace the devolution dream for a more sustainable Kenya

President William Ruto and governors after a past meeting. [File, Standard]

This Jamhuri I spent some time reading government publications on Kenya’s history. Often, these publications say more about where government’s policy is focused than all speeches on podiums put together.

They are like protocol in government; where people sit and who speaks when can tell you more about the pecking order of government than the official programme booklet. Two of the insightful publications I came across this week were both named “Kenya @60”, published last year to commemorate Kenya’s 60th birthday.

One is published by the official Kenya Yearbook Editorial Board while the other was also published on the order of government. They are very well done especially on the pictorials, both celebrating Kenya’s journey to statehood and its numerous achievements. To my consternation, both publications read as if they are national government documents, recording minutiae of national government institutions and operations and completely blanking out the devolved system and county governments.

I am convinced that this is not an oversight but is deliberate; a testament to the downgrading of the devolved system by successive governments since county governments were established in 2013. In these publications, the most fundamental reform that has occurred in the last 60 years, the devolution of politics, administration and economy is granted less weight than the establishment of some state departments or the reform of some parastatals. I believe this blanking out reflects the attitude that government has towards devolution.

What the framers of the Constitution conceived as a system to redress historical imbalances, allocate resources equitably and thus ensure equity in development and grant powers of self-government to the people has been converted into a competition for political profile between national level officers and governors.

The reasons why Kenya devolved in the first place, why there was so much excitement about this system has been forgotten. Also forgotten is the reason Kenya almost went to war in 2007; it was not about the stolen elections; this just provided the catalyst. It was feelings of exclusion as political and economic power was merged at the presidency and was the preserve of predictable ethnic coalitions.

It was the feelings of exclusion resulting from resources being allocated on the basis of politics. It was the need to de-imperialise the presidency and therefore reduce the pressure to “own” the “winner take all, loser lose all” presidency. Unfortunately, as the publications clearly indicate, we have regressed back to the good old days of centralised government.

Indeed, one of the publications celebrates centralised government as the “basis for accelerating national development and fostering political stability”. Amazing. We pay lip service to the devolved system but deny it funds either through inadequate allocations or delayed disbursements. We have refused to transfer or taken back many functions constitutionally devolved.

A non-analytical lazy media peddles the narrative that county governments are about corruption and waste, failing to recognise that this narrative is well calculated to justify retaining the gravy train at the top and starving county governments of funds. That narrative fails to recognise that shilling-for-shilling the rot at the national government is more severe and so keeping resources at the national level cannot be the answer to fighting graft.

The effect of these actions is the hope devolution was to give has faded. In its stead, Kenyans' focus is wholly on the national level government, lodging all their despondency on the presidency. Kenyans’ focus on political and transformative change is wholly aimed at who will be President, while the essence of the 2010 reforms was to devolve power so that the citizenry would focus on other impactful centres of power.

In 2013, when Kenyans thought devolution was their way to inclusion and development, the presidential election results, though disputed, did not lead to instability and the need for handshakes. It is only after the first Jubilee government started downgrading devolution that the pressure to own the presidency, and the resultant strife, returned. If we are to regain the promise of the Constitution, I suggest that the lowest hanging fruits is the devolved system.

With all its warts, and it has many, empowering and regulating it is a better guarantee for a sustainable Kenya than the path we are trotting along.

-The writer is an advocate of the High Court