MCAs’ greed has created a sense of disillusionment with devolution
What you need to know:
- According to the report, “Decision time: Spend more or spend smart?” only 10 counties met the 30 per cent requirement. Half of the counties are spending less than 22 per cent on development.
- It is disheartening that while this wastefulness in going on, the common mwananchi is in dire need of services. The majority of Kenyans lives below the poverty line.
Devolution is one of the key tenets of our Constitution. Kenyans overwhelmingly voted for the current Constitution with the optimism that resources would be channelled directly to the grassroots and that they would have a part to play in determining how these resources are used.
More importantly, devolution was to improve service delivery to the people.
However, devolution is increasingly turning out to be a poisoned chalice, thanks to wasteful spending by the county governments. A report released by the World Bank recently shows that counties are going against the public policy by spending most of their allocations on salaries, fuel and administration costs rather than development projects.
DECISION TIME
According to the report, “Decision time: Spend more or spend smart?” only 10 counties met the 30 per cent requirement. Half of the counties are spending less than 22 per cent on development.
Indeed, the World Bank confirmed the obvious. Since the inception of the devolved units, county governments have engaged in wanton wastage, lethargy and skewed priorities.
Foreign trips for MCAs, top-of-the-range vehicles, massive employment and furnishing of offices have been the order of the day. MCAs have taken advantage of their role to impeach governors who fail to raid the public coffers on their behalf. Just recently, the county assembly of Migori passed a supplementary budget paving the way for Sh8.44 million to buy iPads for MCAs and another Sh106.3 million to pay their allowances.
This came hot on the heels of a report by the Commission for Revenue Allocation, which listed Migori among many counties that had surpassed the budget ceiling by increasing the wage bill and reducing money for development.
One wonders how iPads are going improve the lives of the people of Migori County.
Governors have been calling for a referendum to increase county allocation to 45 per cent, yet they cannot account for the way they spend their current allocations.
It is disheartening that while this wastefulness in going on, the common mwananchi is in dire need of services. The majority of Kenyans lives below the poverty line.
Consequently, there is a growing sense of disillusionment about the whole idea of devolution. Kenyans now think that devolution was tailor-made to benefit a few.
In addition, the incessant wrangles in some of these counties have served to compound the problem. Politicians have allowed their selfish political motives to take centrestage. The national government must act to stop this unfortunate trend.
VIVERE NANDIEMO, Kuria East
