Look critically at the laws governing assemblies

County assemblies should exist to make it easier for devolved governments to work and succeed.

The assemblies should enable county governments to extend services to the ordinary men and women in the street.

And the persons in the street should see and feel these services which they have hitherto only heard about.

It is why these assemblies are tasked by the constitution to make laws for the effective performance of the county governments.

I regard that as being in black and white as a panda just as I agree that the assemblies, by dint of their oversight of the executive, can pass or reject budgetary proposals by executive.

Because they exist to serve their people, these assemblies have the constitutional power to receive and approve plans and policies for the management and exploitation of local resources.

And the assemblies have the power to receive and approve plans and policies for development and management of infrastructure.

It is this constitutional mandate given Members of the County Assemblies (MCAs) that makes them the very powerful people that they are — courted, indeed, by the governors (the county chief executives) and the national government led by President Uhuru Kenyatta and Deputy President William Ruto alike.

WRONG REASON

In my view, however, the MCAs are wooed for the wrong reason by both county and national governments.

The governors and their cabinets (the County Executive Committee members) fear and loathe MCAs because they can and do make it difficult, even impossible, for them to work.

However, I have had occasion to argue that the laws governing county governments need to be looked at critically in view of what has gone on in the county assemblies since devolved governments came into being.

These laws should aim at trimming the powers of county assemblies and gearing them more towards enabling rather than impeding county governments from working. Let us go straight to Makueni County.

Last year, MCAs delayed passage of the county budget by five months. Nothing happened in terms procurement and implementation of vital equipment, projects and services.

The MCAs, says Governor Kivutha Kibwana, changed their mind after the intervention of the Controller of Budget and only after they amended it the way they deemed fit and without consulting the County Executive for Finance.

The MCAs this year again amended the 2014/15 budget the way they deemed fit and unilaterally.

In the process, say Prof Kibwana and Deputy Governor Adelina Mwau in a paid for advert, MCAs allocated themselves Sh913 million yet the ceiling is Sh356 million.

Remember a county bunge (assembly) does not implement projects. It is the team Prof Kibwana and his cabinet lead that does, but if MCAs are going to allocate themselves Sh557 more than they are entitled to, they must chop and cut money earmarked for other departments and channel it to their own.

And, lament Prof Kibwana and Ms Mwau, MCAs will not pass the County Support and Empowering Regulations which are meant to govern the disbursement of funds to support various groups which was submitted to the assembly in June as a Bill.

WAS PARALYSED

The import here is that the executive is accusing MCAs of delaying passage of Bills.

Put briefly, the county government was paralysed long before Prof Kibwana was impeached. It is a war Prof Kibwana cannot win.

His supporters are hopelessly outnumbered in the assembly which is dominated by the Wiper Democratic Movement (WDM) and whose Speaker is the local United Republican Party kingpin.

So on Thursday, MCAs voted 35 to 10 to impeach Prof Kibwana. But even before September 23 when the Governor’s Chief of Staff and bodyguard were shot outside an MCA meeting, MCAs had impeached the County Executive Committee chiefs in charge of Finance and Agriculture and lined up four more for similar treatment.

Prof Kibwana’s fate now rests with the Senate which will either ratify the action of the MCAs or reject it.

But Prof Kibwana himself took the view that the county government should be dissolved so all elected officials go and seek votes afresh.

The latter course is complicated requiring, as it does, a commission of inquiry on whose recommendations the President would act. The former is the quicker option.

Opanga is a media consultant; [email protected]