Opinion and Analysis
By BITANGE NDEMO
In Summary
Henry Ford once said: “Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.”
Devolution in Kenya seems to be headed in the wrong
direction. But we should not accede to failure. This perhaps is the
greatest opportunity to begin again.
If the Members of the County Assembly (MCAs) are
the problem, then let us see the opportunity that is hidden in this
problem and come up with an innovative solution.
Problems precipitate innovation and the more we
understand the problem, the easier it becomes to provide a solution.
Whilst in technology innovations are the norm, political innovations are
rare but when they happen, and depending on who leads the process, it
can be catastrophic.
Liberally defined, innovation can refer to many
things including those that we see in politics. Synonyms for innovation
include: change, alteration, revolution, upheaval, transformation,
metamorphosis, breakthrough and more. Innovations, therefore, must be
managed.
It is perhaps why the National Intelligence Service
(NIS) warned that the problem of youth unemployment is a major security
threat. To put NIS warning into perspective, one needs to read Acemoglu
and Robinson’s book Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity and Poverty.
Their findings centre on how economic and political policies are
applied and whether such policies are inclusive or extractive.
They argue that although policies around economic
intuitions are important, political institutions play a key role in
shaping them. In most instances, they found that success was dependent
on how inclusive institutional policies are.
They further argue that an inclusive political
system would certainly enable an inclusive economic system. Inclusive
systems provide “incentives for people to acquire skills, work hard,
save, invest, and, most importantly, innovate.”
When, for example, MCAs spend most of their time
travelling and when they get back home, they decide to retreat to
expensive resorts for budget meetings, it demonstrates lack of
sensitivity to the citizens and creates a sense of exclusivity.
Parliament, too, does things that demonstrate a sense of exclusivity.
Article 1 section 1 and 2 of the Constitution
allows that, “All sovereign power belongs to the people of Kenya and are
exercised only in accordance with this Constitution”, and that, “The
people may exercise their sovereign power either directly or through
their democratically elected representatives.”
We have the power to innovate new ways of lessening
the perceptions of exclusivity and possibly make huge savings that can
be ploughed into new productive sectors to create jobs.
It is possible to create virtual identity for every
citizen to become a participant in all decisions made by MPs as well as
the MCAs. The infrastructure is in place and when Parliament or the
county assembly wants to increase their salaries, it doesn’t get
implemented until citizens approve virtually through their mobile
phones.
This is referred to as the public key
infrastructure (PKI) which as defined by wikimedia is a set of hardware,
software, people, policies, and procedures needed to create, manage,
distribute, use, store, and revoke digital certificates.
In cryptography, a PKI is an arrangement that binds
public keys with respective user identities by means of a certificate
authority (CA). Each citizen will have a CA for regular public approval
voting and even voting during the General Election.
This innovation will likely trigger widespread
digitalisation of government registries leading to greater efficiency
and reduction in corruption.
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