‘Structure of equivalence’ in new law the reason for our endless politicking

Mary Shelly was only 18 when she began writing what would later become the classic novel Frankenstein. It’s the story of a brilliant scientist who acquires a strange obsession for re-animating dead tissue, which he painstakingly moulds into human form.

The arduous task of replicating the delicate human frame sees Victor Frankenstein make an eight-foot monster with yellow blazing eyes and greenish skin that barely conceals muscle tissue and the dense network of blood vessels underneath.

Shocked at the work of his hands, Victor flees. The newly minted monster disappears into the cold wintry night to a life of rejection, loneliness and endless grief.

A look at Kenya’s current political landscape suggests that either our Constitution is similar to what Victor created, or the hallowed document has made monsters of our leaders.

Part of this monstrosity is the logic of equivalence informing the structure of the new law which, although well-intentioned as a system of checks and balances, is slowly reproducing anarchy as different political actors use this logic to assert their relevance.

As I write, Cord (a coalition of some political parties) has already collected a million signatures for a referendum labelled Okoa Kenya, but obviously aimed at repositioning Mr Raila Odinga for the 2017 election.

Governors are proposing their own referendum to compel the National Government to devolve more money. They have labelled their movement Pesa Mashinani (money to the grassroots).

So determined are governors at their efforts that they shamelessly proposed elaborate plans for ‘bribing’ MCAs to back their efforts by promising them attractive perks.

If their effort sees the light of the day, it will be a rare moment when devolved corruption, inefficiency, blunt tribalism and absolute lack of financial accountability will have been handsomely rewarded.

To retain the initiative, the National Government has also found itself in the awkward position of kowtowing to MCAs with a counter ‘bribe’ of generous perks designed to stymie the referendum momentum.

IDENTITY CRISIS

At the counties, the former councillors, now numbering in their thousands and emboldened by new titles but still retaining fidelity to old mannerisms of hurling stools, have not failed to disappoint.

In an attempt to entrench equivalence, the law we passed in 2010 gave us a Senate whose one year of existence has been characterised by a serious identity crisis.

Most senators took jobs whose descriptions they did not know. As a result, like any qualified professional assigned the wrong job, they have resorted to usurping and duplicating the roles of other people and institutions.

Lately, they have not only installed themselves as chairpersons of county boards, a job which the electorate did not ask them to do, they have also picked up the vexing habit of massaging their pay with little regard to public opinion.

Thanks to the MCAs, the senators appear to benefit from brief moments of publicity and legitimacy while hearing and voting on the flurry of needless impeachment cases brought before them.

Worse, while Kenyans boast one of the most represented African countries by the sheer number of MPs, the quality of this representation should be a signal to Kenyans to rethink the size of this House. Only a handful of MPs attend sessions regularly. Some might never speak in that House for the next four years.

Despite the large numbers, the House has failed to pass key Bills and has sometimes engaged in low-quality debates mostly aimed at supremacy battles with the Senate.

At the same time, in the new ‘Frankenstein’, we have tens of commissions whose roles overlap and the only time they are heard of is when they plead for their plumb contracts to be extended.

In my opinion, Kenyans voted for a document that is either a monster or has made monsters of our leaders.

When Kenyans decided they wanted devolution, they were not asking to install a significant fraction of unemployed persons into the State payroll. They deserve a lean, less noisy and less chaotic form of devolution.

Indeed, should Kenyans decide on having a referendum, considerations should be given to making the government structure lean and orderly by drastically cutting down over-representation and second, by reorganising the structure of equivalence that is holding Kenya hostage to endless seasons of politicking.

Dr Omanga is a lecturer in media studies at Moi University, School of Information Sciences ([email protected])