Sixteen (16) Governors who missed the Sagana are obsolete, immature and guilty of betray. Sixteen (16) Governors who were conspicuously missing in the just concluded Fifth National and County Government Coordinating summit 2016 that was held in Sagana, Nyeri need to be put on the list of shame for the Kenyan public to see! The summit was attended by among others President Kenyatta and a national government team including Deputy President William Ruto, Cabinet Secretaries, Principal Secretaries and senior advisers. In their absence, important issues on devolution and budget allocation at the county level were reached.
The purpose of The Summit was to review achievements made under the devolved system of Government with special focus on various reports by the Intergovernmental Budget and Economic Council, the Intergovernmental Relations Technical Committee and reports on Public finance management. The summit also discussed several reports on public finance management including laws on double taxation, the Integrated Financial Management Information System (IFMIS) and funds flow and oversight for conditional grants.
Their absence raises more questions than answers. While others were on genuine apologies like Nyeri Governor who was out of the country for treatment and Joseph Ndathi (Kirinyaga) who is reportedly in Australia, others like Kivutha Kibwana, Isaac Ruto, Hassan Joho, Okoth Obado,Paul Chepkwony (Kericho), Joseph Nanok (Turkana), Alfred Mutua (Machakos), Amason Kingi (Kilifi), Samuel Mbae (Tharaka Nithi) and Godana Doyo (Isiolo) were just demonstrating their height of ignorance and immaturity.
This to me was a forum of negotiation and reaching unto agreement between the governors and the State. Missing such a high level panel in the pretext of governors being harassed by the Senate and the National Intelligence Service (NIS) was ridiculous. They needed not protest by failing to attend the summit. This is childish and immaturity on their side. Accusing the government for its constant demands by the investigating agencies looking into governors' bank accounts and transactions were baseless. They also accused EACC and criminal investigations detectives for ransacking their offices. This is ridiculous!
MY TAKE: Some governors need to grow up and smell the coffee-some are becoming a liability to this country. Snubbing such a high level meeting where they ought to have consolidated their numbers to strong negotiation power with the government was ill advised. These are the calibre of leaders who need to be ejected from their position with immediate effect. Snubbing a very crucial meeting like that was a betray of the counties they represent. Indeed, the meeting focused on celebrating the successes of devolution, including presentations by the Presidential Delivery Unit and the Council of Governors Secretariat. The President's address on devolution was the climax of the event.
Dr. Njenga, Solomon Chair – Governance, Peace and Security StudiesAfrica Nazarene University, Kenya
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