Calls to defund some counties are disingenuous, abet regionalism
Mandera Senator Mahamud Mohamed and his colleagues opposed to the third generation revenue sharing formula address the press at Parliament Buildings on July7, 2020. File
What you need to know:
- Devolution is about bringing services closer to mwananchi.
- A proposal that would cut so deeply allocations of so many counties in one fell swoop is too flawed to merit serious consideration.
The Commission on Revenue Allocation (CRA) dispute in the Senate is an unnecessary stand-off. Majority Chief Whip Irungu Kang’ata presented an unacceptable formula which, if adopted, could have cut allocation for 18 counties.
Promoted as reflecting the Building Bridges Initiative position of one man, one shilling and one vote, this population-driven formula would transfer funds from marginalised and underpopulated counties in the Coastal, Lower Eastern and the northern frontier regions to the previously White Highland regions in Rift Valley, Nyanza and central and western Kenya. Wajir was to lose Sh1.9 billion and Garissa, Mandera, Marsabit, Mombasa and Tana River at least Sh1 billion.
Regardless of how they spin it, a proposal that would cut so deeply allocations of so many counties in one fell swoop is too flawed to merit serious consideration. It is an outrageous proposal that besmirches of mischief, poor strategy, arrogance and greed, yet senators complained of being coerced, intimidated and bribed to adopt it.
Historically marginalised
Sending more resources to historically marginalised regions has always been at the heart of devolution. The Constitution acknowledges the existence of counties which, on account of poverty and relative distance to acceptable levels of minimum public amenity, deserve more resources than others.
Devolution is about bringing services closer to mwananchi. It is also an attempt at fixing longstanding colonial biases and rebalancing the oft-lopsided discretionary expenditure by the Executive that is often in favour certain regions. It is not about reimbursing those who generate more in taxes.
This fight is against anti-reformists seeking to invoke the “tyranny of numbers” and reverse the gains we have made. And victory here would embolden them to want to claw back other gains — like abolishing the CDF or transferring county development responsibilities to, say, county commissioners. In hindsight, what happened in Nairobi County was not an accident; it could as well serve as a template and precedence for countrywide or selective rollback of devolution.
Proponents claim that, despite receiving billions of shillings, marginalised counties have not made tangible progress towards poverty alleviation, and that this is deliberate. They further allege, without evidence, a moral hazard: The inflow of poverty-driven funds is an incentive for counties to stay poor.
The push to defund these counties because they “have not demonstrated prudent use of it is patently disingenuous. It is unfounded conjecture that is not backed by evidence. It is as ridiculous as a call to defund Kiambu, Nairobi and Kirinyaga counties because of their alleged corruption and mismanagement of devolved resources.
It is presumptuous to speak for others without first understanding what the locals, including nomadic communities, perceive as “development”. Attempting to force them to conform to our ways of life and embrace our standards is counterproductive.
National development
The fact that Kakamega and Machakos counties are regarded as top performers reveals an erroneous understanding of what constitutes development. Having impressive county headquarters or a fancy stadium has little impact on underlying poverty. What is the sufficient level of progress to warrant further transfer of funds to underpopulated counties?
The Senate should demand that the government promote national development, not regionalism. Marginalisation of impoverished regions will only consign them to perpetual poverty, devolution notwithstanding. Telling them to develop without much economic and infrastructure backbone is an impossible feat. Defunding them is unhelpful.
A third of the devolved resources, about Sh100 billion, can be truly transformative. Let us build the capacity of county governments to be stewards of devolved funds.
The requirement to surrender unspent funds at the end of the financial year has created for a preference for quick and suboptimal projects and, here, the Senate ought to find lasting solutions to incomplete, fragmented, inflated and substandard projects — many of them a waste of taxpayers’ funds.
