End wastage in counties
What you need to know:
- At this rate, it is unlikely that any progress will be attained.
- The culture of seminars that are mere jaunts and empty talk sessions is taking root. What suffers is a genuine commitment to mobilising communities to improve their lives.
The World Bank has just confirmed what has been common knowledge. The 47 counties have become avenues of wastefulness and impunity.
In fact, they are increasingly becoming a national burden and a forum through which the vices that had been concentrated at the centre are being devolved and entrenched all over.
The World Bank reports that only Sh20 out of every Sh100 sent to the county governments goes into development. Half of the money is spent on salaries and a third is spent on offices.
At this rate, it is unlikely that any progress will be attained.
The counties are always in the news for the wrong reasons. When it is not about squandering money on useless foreign trips, the members of the county assemblies have been devising tricks to enrich themselves, while the people they lead wallow in abject poverty.
The culture of seminars that are mere jaunts and empty talk sessions is taking root. What suffers is a genuine commitment to mobilising communities to improve their lives.
The wanton wastage, lethargy and pursuit of the wrong priorities spells doom for the devolved units. However, it is not too late to put pressure on the leadership at both the national and county levels to see the need to reverse this sorry trend.
