Homa Bay has let down devolution in factory saga

The story about Homa Bay County Government demolishing a Sh100 million factory under construction to build an office block is as ridiculous as it is infuriating.

In a country that is desperate for economic growth and jobs for countless young people, and a country that is struggling with a fiscal crisis, who in their mind would go about wasting Sh100 million?

Did anyone pause to consider what this says about the county government’s priorities? How could thinking men and women approve of this plan? 

What is striking about this story is that it succinctly captures the cavalier manner in which we govern ourselves. In all likelihood, the current county administration abandoned the project merely because it was the brainchild of the previous one.

This tells us two things. First, county development plans are not really roadmaps towards specific outcomes, but mere exercises in grappling in the dark by rudderless dealmakers.

That is the only way a county in country suffering high levels of unemployment can sink that much money in a factory and then abandon it to build an office block.

Second, this debacle is a reminder of how little national coordination exists when it comes to policy. In a different world, the national government would have stepped in to stop this travesty. But there is no such attention to policy.

The unseriousness of the Homa Bay County leadership is a betrayal of the spirit of devolution. And it is betrayal far too common among our leaders. When we adopted the devolved system of government, we expected two things.

First, we wanted the devolution of essential public services – from healthcare, to agriculture, to early childhood education. Second, we wanted to devolve policymaking for economic growth and development.

The counties were designed to be engines of growth and development at the local level – that is why they are in charge of all manner of local licensing and business regulation. They are supposed to use these administrative powers to help local businesses grow and create employment.

Most of the political class have a totally different conception of devolution. They see devolution merely as a conduit for sharing what they loot. That is why many of our county leaders continue to do little for their local economies. Instead, many loot their county coffers to invest in Nairobi.

We must change this. We must re-orient devolution to be about localising public services and policymaking for development.

-The writer is a professor at Georgetown University