Mudavadi accuses governors, MCAs of turning counties into corruption havens

Amani National Congress (ANC) leader Musalia Mudavadi has accused governors and MCAs of killing the devolution dream by turning counties into dens of corruption.

He said county governments were nursing "runaway corruption" and had failed to initiate mega development projects they had pledged.

Mr Mudavadi said the governments had turned into “enclaves of devolved corruption”, a fact he said was evidenced by several reports by the Auditor-General.

Devolution was entrenched into the country’s administration structure by the 2010 Constitution.

Mr Mudavadi raised the matter while addressing the Vihiga County Assembly.

“To paraphrase the Auditor-General’s reports, county executives wear the image of a new oligarchy bent on grabbing every coin from county coffers,” said Mr Mudavadi on Thursday.

“They (county executives) are eager spendthrifts on flimsy projects where change can be pocketed,” he noted.

“Transient short-term political projects such as roads seem extremely popular for rent-seeking in county governments,” he added.

Mr Mudavadi also used the occasion to rally support for his presidential bid, saying he was best-placed to deliver on the devolution dream.

OVERSIGHT ROLE

Of the 39 members of the Vihiga County Assembly (MCAs), 26 are from Mr Mudavadi’s former party, the United Democratic Forum (UDF).

He reminded the MCAs of their legislation and oversight role and stressed that county legislators across the country had failed in their mandate.

He said: “The “councillor” mentality took too long to be erased because not much training was done on the role. The Transition Authority slept on this job.”

Mr Mudavadi said judging from the Auditor-General’s reports, MCAs across the country had absconded their mandate “in favour of abetting the looting of public resources”.

“To gain advantage, assemblies have been accused of becoming dens of extortion [of] the executives. It is said mundane things like budgets and vetting are avenues for rent-seeking in the assemblies,” he said.

Mr Mudavadi, who wants to make a second stab at the presidency in 2017, said it was almost possible to predict the fate of the first cadre of elected leaders under devolution because the electorate had lost confidence in them.

He accused the Jubilee administration of derailing the full implementation of devolution and appealed to Kenyans to elect ANC to carry forward the promise of devolution.