Rwandan President Paul Kagame with Nation Media Group chairman Wilfred
Kibioro and NMG CEO Linus Gitahi at the Governors' Summit 2014 at the
Great Rift Valley Lodge in Naivasha on January 20, 2014. PHOTO |
SULEIMAN MBATIAH
NATION MEDIA GROUP
Governors have cited the constant
fighting from institutions of government and by politicians as the
biggest emerging threats to the devolution they are supposed to
implement.
Speaking at the Governors' Summit in
Naivasha, they said the fight between institutions has been most evident
at the national level, where both the Senate and the National Assembly
appear keen to manage county affairs.
Most of the
governors who spoke expressed their frustrations at the fights -
sometimes even with county assembly members - that are making work
difficult.
This has also made it hard to meet the
expectations of the public who now see county governments as the first
port of call even in matters that are the responsibility of the national
government such as security and education.
They cited
the recent agitation by the Senate to make laws that restrict their
spending and which appear to interfere with their mandate as the elected
executive heads of the counties.
Many of them have also had to fend off complaints by MPs from their regions who criticise their performance.
During
their interactions, most of the governors sought advice on how they
would surmount the challenges in managing relationships, meet public
expectations and relate better with other elected leaders.
They
also asked the Attorney General whether he can intervene in the
instances they feel Parliament is over-reaching its mandate.
“Sometimes
we meet very tough challenges and wonder whether we are alone in this.
When we come together and engage in such a high level conversation,
we’ll be able to take the advice given,” said Isaac Rutto, the chairman
of the Council of Governors.
Wajir governor Ahmed
Abdullahi said governors are unhappy with the Senate for passing the
County Development Bill, which creates County Development Boards chaired
by senators.
The boards are supposed to guide the
development of the counties but Mr Abdullahi said they would end up
relegating governors to the equivalent of secretaries, acting on
decisions they are not really involved in making.
"It's
going to be more to do with the ego of senators because they feel they
have lost legislative authority to the National Assembly so they turn
back to the county governments. It is micromanaging us. It has watered
down the executive authority of the governors and contradicts Article 6
of the Constitution," said Mr Abdullahi.
“The Senate
is becoming a prefect of the counties and it has gotten to the point
where the individual senator feels like he has to do oversight in the
county directly,” he added.
Mr Abdullahi is the head of
the Finance and Policy Committee in the Council of Governors. He said
from his experience, county assemblies across the country are opposed to
the idea.
The County Development Bill was passed by
the Senate last December and has been forwarded to the National Assembly
for consideration by MPs.
In the wake of a report on
spending in the first quarter of this financial year, senators announced
they would introduce a new law to limit county governments’ spending on
recurrent expenses.
According to Kiambu governor William Kabogo, "one of the greatest issues is the constant politicking".
"When
is it that people will start realising that the national and county
governments should work together?" asked Mr Kabogo, who has had public
run-ins with MPs in his county.
He said governors without political experience are likely to get too distracted by the constant bickering.
"I'm
not under pressure because I understand politics but I fear for my
colleagues who might not understand it as well as I do," said Mr Kabogo.
He said in his case, Kiambu inherited so many workers
from the national government and the county councils that of its Sh5.2
billion from the equitable share of revenue, it has to spend Sh4.4
billion on the wage bill.
The county was left with too
little for development and therefore had to raise its own revenue, and
that had caused yet more friction with MPs angry at the direction the
county was taking.
Attorney General Githu Muigai said there is no way the Constitution can be changed without a referendum.
“Most
people believe devolved governments have improved their circumstances.
There is no immediate constitutional and legal threat but we’ll continue
the political give-and-take,” said Prof Muigai.
“It
would be quite a paradox if the Senate became a threat to the survival
of the county governments (which the Constitution says they are supposed
to protect),” said Prof Muigai.
DEVOLUTION A LONG-TERM PROJECT
The
governors are meeting at the Great Rift Valley Lodge in Naivasha for
their first summit this year. It is hosted by the Nation Media Group.
(AS IT HAPPENED: Governors' Summit)
Other
key sponsors of the summit are PricewaterhouseCoopers, Kenyatta
University, Mount Kenya University, Britam and Cooperative Bank
.
.
Others are Lordship Africa, Rafiki Deposit-Taking Microfinance, National Bank and Ogilvy.
With
nearly 10 months gone since the General Election at which they were
placed in charge of the newly-created counties, the summit is an
opportunity for governors to examine how much progress they have made.
It
has also offered them a chance to learn from other countries and from
each other, with Rwandan President Paul Kagame the chief guest and a
panellist, where he fielded their questions and offered insights. (READ:
Kagame to give talk as governors meet to discuss progress of devolution)
Michal
Mlynar, the ambassador of the Republic of Slovakia to Kenya, advised
the governors to see devolution as a long-term project.
“Devolution is not a project for a one term for a politician. Devolution is a project for generations,” he told the governors.
The
ambassador said in his country, it took four years - the length of a
term of government - for devolution to settle and for the “rough edges”
to be polished.
He said the governors would need to be
statesmen for devolution to work and overcome the various teething
problems that have plagued its implementation.
Mr
Mlynar was invited to make a presentation because Slovakia also went
through a similar process, dividing their small country into eight
self-governing regions in 2002.
He said devolution was
an equally difficult process for his country and the relationship
between the devolved units and the national government was made better
by the creation of a convent - a meeting convened by the president.
“There
needs to be constant attention, good will and trying to reach consensus
to help ease tension between the two levels. There’s no alternative to
sitting, talking and negotiating,” he said.
The governors have also began to see the realities of their jobs.
“We’re
all discovering that there are some things we thought we could do but
are realising we can’t and moving that money to other projects,” said Mr
Abdullahi, the Wajir governor.
“Kenya is pregnant with
expectations but there needs to be civic education that transition will
take time,” said Mr Kabogo, governor of Kiambu.
According
to Mr Mlynar, expectations can be managed by how the governors
communicate with the people, explaining how their policy plans are put
together and getting them involved.
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