Questions asked as rains mar devolution talks

When they report to school this week after the April holidays, students of Kakamega High School will find their institution in a sorry state.

The school played host to the 5th Annual Devolution Conference, which brought together nearly 6,000 delegates to discuss important issues on devolution; its status, successes and challenges and how best this system of governance can be improved.

The huge crowd that turned up for the conference had its effect on the infrastructure and, by the time the last delegate walked out, the school was in a mess. The football pitch where the main tent for the delegates was erected remains muddy, and it may take some time before the school’s football team gets an opportunity to use the pitch.

QUESTIONS

Kakamega Governor Wycliffe Oparanya, who was the host, declared the conference the most successful. Whereas this is debatable, Mr Oparanya’s confidence is drawn from the fact that the conference was well-attended and differences among stakeholders were set aside. However, this masks the challenges posed by the weather which was characterised by heavy downpour throughout the three days.

It is a matter of common knowledge the period between March and May is accompanied by heavy rains in the region and the decision to grant Kakamega County the right to play host should have taken into account this reality.

When an audit of this conference is done, the organisers will have to answer questions on why it was held in April.

President Uhuru Kenyatta’s official opening speech was washed away by the heavy rains, forcing him to deliver it via video link from State House, Nairobi.

COMMUTE

Three cocktail dinners, which were to be held in one of the tents on the pitch, were also cancelled at the last minute due to the rains.

The fact that Kakamega did not have enough accommodation facilities forced most delegates to commute from Kisumu town, 53 km away, negatively affecting attendance.

Most sittings did not go beyond the morning sessions as delegates took off early to avoid being caught up in the rains.

Choosing to hold the conference in Kakamega seemed to be an administrative blunder that robbed the multi-million-shilling gathering the seriousness it deserved. 

The absence of delegates in the afternoons meant that the four sectoral sessions revolving around the Big Four agenda and where technical issues were discussed became ordinary sessions. Very few, less than 10 governors, participated in sectoral sessions that revolved around the government’s Big Four agenda – food security, health, housing and trade.

SESSIONS

Sectoral sessions are the engines of the conferences and the failure by the governors to attend denied them the political support necessary for devolution to succeed.

Even the resolutions of the sectoral committees, which were circulated as the final communique of the conference, were not submitted to the plenary for discussions as should be the norm, and thus they did not have an input of the most powerful stakeholders: Governors.

Questions were also raised regarding the commitment of a majority of the governors to the conference with a number of them only making technical appearances.

Only the chairman of the Council of Governors Josephat Nanok, his deputy Anne Waiguru, the host Mr Oparanya and Nyandarua’s  Francis Kimemia sat through all the sessions and offered their support to the conference.

MISSINGS CSs

Even the cabinet secretaries under whose dockets the big four agenda falls also gave the conference half-hearted commitment.

Cabinet Secretaries Mwangi Kiunjuri (Agriculture), Sicily Kariuki (Health), Adan Mohammed (Industrialisation and Enterprise Development) and James Macharia (Infrastructure and Housing) did not show up at Kakamega even though their portfolios were under intense scrutiny.

The absence of the four CSs from the conference raises questions on the government’s commitment in implementing the four agenda that form the President’s legacy, especially because the question on how the implementation will be done remains a grey area.