Kenya Defence Forces at Nginyang in Baringo County during a security
operation on November 6 to flush out bandits and recover guns stolen
from slain Administration Police officers on the Kapedo-Lokori Road.
Kenyans cite insecurity as the major issue of concern in 2014. Failure
to enforce the law and instead creating new laws has been blamed for the
lack of accountability in government. PHOTO | JARED NYATAYA |
NATION MEDIA GROUP
The year 2014 has been quite challenging for many Kenyans. This
year saw increased concerns over crime and insecurity in many parts of
the country.
This has since become a major worry for many Kenyans.
Although
in the last few years Kenyans have been citing increasing cost of
living as a major problem facing the country, recent surveys show that
many are now worried about increasing crime and insecurity.
There
are concerns about management of our politics and several issues around
governance. Notably, leaders at both the national and county level have
increasingly undermined the values and spirit of the Constitution. Some
have demonstrated lack of integrity and have brought dishonour to the
positions they occupy. The behaviour of some leaders, whether the
Members of County Assembly (MCAs), or Members of Parliament – Senators
and National Assembly members – has brought national leadership into
disrepute.
In addition, the opposition is continuing to
weather away. Close to two years after the General Election, the
opposition is yet to develop an agenda of what it represents.
Internally, the parties are weakened by different kinds of disputes that
their leaders are afraid of solving.
All in all,
governance and political challenges appear to be the main issues of
concern thus far. How did we find ourselves here? What has the
government done right in addressing some of these governance problems –
and what was not been done right?
WHAT IS RIGHT AND NOT RIGHT
What
the Jubilee government has done right, or not done right, is traceable
to the internal character of the Jubilee Alliance. It is a coalition
comprising of four political parties. Two of these parties, The National
Alliance (TNA) of President Uhuru Kenyatta, the United Republican Party
(URP) of Deputy President William Ruto, are the most visible in the
alliance.
The Jubilee Alliance campaigned on a
platform of social development. Its three pillars largely depict
infatuation with delivery of development more than governance.
In
fact, the Jubilee Alliance is the first government to come to power
since 1992 without campaigning on a governance reform platform.
Even
if the government of President Moi in the 1990s gave governance reforms
lip service, he put governance reforms high on the agenda of his
pronouncements.
President Kibaki’s National Alliance
Rainbow Coalition (Narc) government of 2003-2007 also campaigned and
prioritised governance reforms in the early years before abandoning
these to embark on social development.
Also the
Coalition Government of 2008-2013 was specifically formed to undertake
governance reforms to prevent recurrence of a crisis similar to what
followed after the December 2007 General Election.
Fighting
corruption, undertaking institutional reforms, promoting accountability
and transparency in the conduct of public affairs and specifically
holding leaders to account, and embedding a culture of the rule of law,
have been some of the governance reforms associated with past
governments.
Of course the challenges associated with
undertaking some of these reforms led to past governments, such as
Kibaki’s, to abandon them in favour of social development and
improvement of infrastructure.
These did not give him a
headache; they did not evolve political divisions. Neither did they
lead to stepping on toes of strategic supporters like what happens when
you begin holding your supporters to account.
JUBILEE IS NOT EMPHATIC ON GOVERNANCE
The
Jubilee government has not been emphatic on governance and political
reforms. There are concerns that the government has re-invented
governance approaches of the 1980s and the 1990s that resulted in
increased corruption and limitation of fundamental rights and freedoms.
Corruption is on the increase and blatantly open if media reports are anything to go by.
The
space for civil society engagement is also becoming increasingly
constrained if judged on basis of the pronouncements by national
politicians and pronouncements accompanying the debate on amendments of
the law on Public Benefits Organisations (PBOs Act).
The
failures in governance and politics are a stark contrast to what is
happening in social development. In fact the government’s agenda has
been emphatic on social development and improvement of infrastructure.
Surveys in the last one year bare this out.
People
cite development as an achievement of the Jubilee government
specifically because of this: The launch of the mega infrastructure
projects such as the Lamu Port South Sudan and Ethiopia Transport
(Lapsset) corridor; the Standard Gauge Railway; and making
pronouncements on improving access to basic services, empowering the
youth to access credit services, among others.
Of note
here is that some of these projects by the national government are not
coherently synced with the development programmes by the county
governments.
Some of the county governments have their
local specific needs and development programmes that are poorly linked
to the national agenda.
The Standard Gauge Railway
line and Lapsset will, separately, pass through many counties. It is a
matter of debate whether these county governments have developed an
approach to link to the mega projects.
Of course the
mega projects, on their own, cannot deliver development. They are not an
end in themselves. Without a clear link to a coherent development
agenda, they will not deliver development.
WHAT HAS BEEN DONE RIGHT
What
has the government not done right? There are concerns that there is
rebirth of the 1980s and 1990s. The mega projects that are at the centre
of the Jubilee government’s development agenda have witnessed an
increase in different forms and levels of corruption similar to what
used to happen in government in the 80s and 90s.
Cartels
have re-emerged with vigour and have lodged in government to milk State
contracts. The media reports on government procurement in the last one
year are replete with stories about cartels of political elite that are
causing fear among parastatal heads and bureaucrats because of their
appetite to plunder government resources.
They are
using funds from inflated contracts to run politics similar to the way
politicians used to plunder state resources to run and manage politics
in the 1990s.
This form of corruption is the Achilles
heel of the Jubilee government. It is a coalition government in which
one party is pointing fingers at politicians on the other side as the
most corrupt.
One side is increasingly viewed as
having come to power for the purpose of grand accumulation. However,
there have been no efforts to hold these cartels to account.
In
fact, President Kenyatta himself did admit at one time that there was
corruption in Harambee House, the Office of the President, but no one
has been held to account.
Related to corruption and failure to act on re-invention of political cartels in procurements, is a weak rule of law.
The
government has not been enforcing laws that would strengthen the
culture of accountability within and outside of government.
Instead,
we have gone ahead to pass new laws when we know quite well that we do
not enforce the laws we have. For instance, the bandits who killed
police officers in Kapedo in Turkana County returned some of the guns
and uniform stolen from the police. They are yet to be arrested and
prosecuted.
Failure to enforce the law and specifically
failure to cultivate conditions for a strong culture of rule of law
remain a major failure of the Jubilee government.
Prof Karuti Kanyinga teaches at the Institute for Development Studies, University of Nairobi, karutik@gmail.com
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