Many governors will rise or fall due to politics

I have argued here on two occasions that the governor’s position is not political but administrative.

I have held that the only political thing about the position is that the governor is chosen through an election and that after this, all political activity ceases because the governor must govern.

I also argued that those successful governors will, in the future, be offering themselves for election to the presidency. Why? Drawing from the US, they will easily argue that having successfully led counties they have been adequately prepared to lead the country.

I take back my words regarding politics. It has become evident over the last one year that the governor must be a political animal to govern.

Governors have been threatened with impeachment; they have been accused of behaving like presidents; and they have been indicted for misuse of public funds.

HAVE TO BATTLE

But I stand by my position that the record of a governor will stand him or her in good stead to be president or be used against him or her in the high stakes contest for the presidency.

A governor may not run for president in 2017, but in the General Election after that, many governors will be weighing their chances of successfully gunning for the top seat.

In a sense then it works for governors that they have to battle with members of the twin Houses of Parliament, Members of County Assemblies, their Cabinets, the Controller of Budget, the Deputy President and President.

And, all the while, they must keep looking over their shoulders to ensure their electors are happy.

And, as became abundantly evident last week, governors must keep casting glances at their party bosses to ensure they are in their good graces.

Governors who were sponsored by The National Alliance (TNA) of President Uhuru Kenyatta and the United Republican Party (URP) of Deputy President William Ruto last week jumped the referendum ship to effectively brand it an opposition agenda.

Governors were unanimous up to Monday that seeking a referendum to enable the people of Kenya have a final say in the disbursement of funds to the county governments was a just, fair and democratic cause.

They were unanimous the national government, Senate and National Assembly were interfering and micromanaging the county governments.

ONE FELL SWOOP

On Wednesday, Saul became Paul. The TNA and URP governors saw the light and decided to dump the referendum-bound train and jump on board the Legislature-driven one that would bring about the desired change via Bills initiated and enacted by the Senate and the National Assembly.

Of course they did not say they had been arm-twisted by their sponsors.

But it was clear that in one fell swoop they had helped derail what had gathered steam as a popular cause and could now be demonised as a Coalition for Reforms and Democracy (Cord) driven train with the singular purpose of diverting the governing Jubilee Alliance from the development destination. Divide and rule still rules the political landscape.

The Council of Governors (CoG), the force behind the county chiefs’ push for a referendum, has been divided and derailed by the politics of parties or coalitions.

UNSTOPPABLE FORCE

Of course, the governors’ clamour for a referendum is different from Cord’s clamour for a similar plebiscite, but it was becoming clear that the two would have to meet at some stage and mutate into one.

That is not the kind of opposition the governing coalition would want to run into. It has all along portrayed itself as an immovable force where Cord has typified its drive for a referendum as an irresistible force.

A Cord and CoG backed campaign would have resulted in an unstoppable force. TNA and URP, that is the President and Deputy respectively, had to act.

Their referendum-supporting governors were told they were the enemy within!

Mr Isaac Ruto, the CoG chairman, is now presented with a dilemma. Does he, as skipper, jump his own referendum ship and emerge as a wimp? Does he stay put and be vilified as a traitor selling his Deputy President namesake and fellow Kalenjin to a Cord agenda?

That is not all; he must shoulder the fact that health workers are a very unhappy lot. They will have no truck with the devolution of their sector and the recurrent delay in paying their salaries.

The national government delays in disbursements of money to counties; governors take the rap for delayed salaries and services. What is more political than that? Will governors be allowed to succeed? The politics may not allow it.

Opanga is a media consultant; [email protected]