The Coalition for Reform and Democracy
(Cord) and the ruling Jubilee are tussling over the proposed County
Development Board (CDB) law that gives MPs and Senators a role on the
use of devolved funds.
Even as a mediation team
comprising members from both coalitions prepare to present their report
on how to resolve contentious issues, the Cord leadership has warned its
members that the CDB Bill is meant to kill devolution and that they
should not accept to play ball.
Cord’s opposition to the Bill arises from the fear that Jubilee will be able to impose their agenda on some opposition areas.
Cord
has 24 governors and 20 elected senators against Jubilee’s 23 governors
and 27 elected senators. It, therefore, means that in four Cord
regions, Jubilee senators will be chairing the boards to decide on the
development agenda of the counties.
In addition, in
some counties like Kajiado, only the governor is from Cord while the
rest of the elected leaders who will sit on the boards are either URP or
TNA. In Turkana County, though both the governor and the senator are
from Cord, the Members of the National Assembly are mainly from Jubilee,
raising the fear that Cord’s development manifesto will swallowed by
the Jubilee agenda.
Mombasa Senator Hassan Omar said
Cord leaders Raila Odinga and former Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka had
cautioned members against supporting any legislation to ‘gag’
devolution.
“Cord is unequivocal that we should support
devolution. However, we want our leaders including Mr Musyoka and Mr
Wetangula to appraise us on the contents of CDB Bill,” Mr Omar said.
The
Senator, who was elected on a Wiper ticket, said contrary to the
political concerns, the Bill sponsored by Nandi Senator Stephen Sang
only creates a consultative forum for leaders to agree on development
agenda.
“I will be the last person to support the Bill
if it transfers control of the devolved units or gags devolution. Due to
meagre resources, the Bill enables leaders to appreciate where there
are challenges. There are also concerns over separation of powers but
differences have been narrowed,” Mr Omar said.
He added
what the Bill envisages, where senators and MPs are to sit in the
County Development Board’s with governors was already happening in
Mombasa but the relationship was bad in other counties.
But in a statement, Mr Odinga through his spokesman Dennis Onyango told the Sunday Nation
that “at all the manoeuvres around and about governors are camouflaged
attempts by Jubilee leaders to stifle and kill devolution and Cord
should steer clear of all such moves.”
“In the end,
Jubilee’s intention is to kill all independent institutions and leave
only the National Executive standing,” Mr Odinga said.
The
Cord leader who is currently on a month-long US trip is also concerned
about attempts by the national government to pass itself as paragon of
thrift and sole custodians of peoples’ needs.
“It ought
to be understood that counties are here because Kenyans felt that the
national government had failed them for 50 years,” Mr Odinga said.
He
was concerned about regular disclosures about how much resources
governors have been given, “which governor has not spent how much, which
governor is spending on what wasteful programme, yet there are no such
disclosures about the national government, except once through the
Auditor General.”
Ol Jororok MP JM Waiganjo (TNA) said
although there was divided opinion over the CDB Bill those politicising
it “are reading too much from nothing.”
“Once they
become chairmen of CDB’s, MPs will just be members yet they manage the
Constituency Development Fund. This means senators want to control CDF,
an thing that has made members jittery,” Mr Waiganjo said.
Mr
Waiganjo said he together with some other MPs are opposed to the Bill
as members could not play an oversight role and at the same time sit on
the county boards.
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