Ignominy awaits corrupt county chiefs who will lose in polls

They are the lords of the counties. Pretentious, flashy and full of executive authority. 

Since the onset of devolution in 2013, governors have shaped the development and political agenda across the country in a way not previously witnessed. 

For the last five years, counties have received Sh1 trillion in allocations and grants.

This has transformed some of the regions in many positive ways.

But there are also questions about misuse of funds by counties that has been documented in various official audit reports.

FIERCELY FOUGHT

It is no wonder that the governor’s post is one of the most fiercely contested in this year’s election.

While some governors point out they were men of means even before getting elected, some of their spending habits have been questioned.  

Some have acquired themselves palatial official residences.

In Kilifi, for example, Mr Amason Kingi got himself a beach house with a jetty that allows a yacht to park.

It was bought in 2015 at a cost of Sh140 million. 

COUNTY OFFICIALS

Bungoma’s Kenneth Lusaka spent Sh163 million to buy 32 acres of land to build offices and residential houses for county officials. 

Kiambu’s William Kabogo was already a wealthy man when he became governor in 2013.

But the political platform has given him visibility to display his love for expensive “toys”.

When President Uhuru Kenyatta toured Kiambu County earlier this year, Mr Kabogo displayed an armoured Iveco Light Multirole Vehicle, whose cost some estimates put at Sh30 million.

And it is not the only unique vehicle in Mr Kabogo’s backyard.

Last year, Mr Kabogo attracted both admiration and criticism when he showed off his luxury Jaguar F Coupe.

“I love motor races,” he told a TV crew when he participated in such a competition in 2015.

POWERFUL MACHINES

Meanwhile, the self-styled “Sultan”, Mombasa Governor Hassan Joho, also loves big powerful machines – from cars to guns.

In 2015, Mr Joho was photographed driving a Ferrari, whose cost could range from Sh20 million to Sh40 million depending on specifications.

Governor Joho, who enjoys using his county’s 001 code, is also known to steal the show with a big security detail.

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And Nairobi’s Evans Kidero occasionally cruises in a Rolls Royce. His motorcade rivals that of the President.

During last year’s devolution conference in Meru, Dr Kidero rattled his fellow governors when he arrived in a convoy of vehicles fitted with blaring sirens.

FLASHY CONVOYS

His fellow governors surged forward to meet him thinking it was the event’s chief guest, the prime minister of Namibia.

“Ni mimi bwana (It’s me). Relax,” he said.

Alfred Mutua of Machakos is also on another level. He travels classy with flashy convoys and several siren-blaring chase cars. On occasion, he moves around with a mobile toilet.

He is known to have an advance team, which includes his personal chef and assistants.

At some functions, Dr Mutua has been known to carry his VIP seats, drinks, red carpet and a public address system.

BACK AND FORTH DRIVE

In Migori town, residents have become accustomed to the spectacle of Okoth Obado’s convoy speeding through its crowded main street.

Migori is essentially a one-street town and the back-and-forth drive past often leave residents in awe.

Quite often, the governor’s security personnel are forced to intervene, forcing people off the road, whenever it appears they are slowing down the chief’s movement.

“We are used to it now,” Daniel Omollo, a boda boda operator in the town, says of the sirens. “They are loud and scary.”

Motorcades and sirens have been the most overt show of power by the governors ever since they assumed the reigns in the counties.

HELICOPTER

While all love cars, the most common mode of transport for a county chief worth his name is the helicopter. Bomet’s Isaac Ruto even did a TV interview with a helicopter in the background as it was waiting for him at his home.  

A helicopter costs at least Sh250 million. Hiring one costs about Sh300,000 per day, though its can be lower depending on the firms renting it out and the number of days contracted.

READ: Politicians flex financial muscles in search for votes

The constitutional powers they enjoy have elevated them to the level of “mini presidents” complete with unlimited executive authority in their fiefdoms.

They appoint the cabinet — also known as the county executive committee —  through which they exercise their executive authority, a bureaucracy, and have a hand in the county public service, through which they implement their agenda and the county treasury.

CREATE JOBS

At least once in a year, the governor is mandated to address the county assembly to give a state of the county report.

The county public service provides governors with an easy avenue to create jobs and reward friends, loyalists, relatives and mistresses without as much as being questioned. In fact, the governors, like the president, wield executive powers which they routinely use to advance interests that are sometimes personal.

“The governor can use the executive order to ask his public service board to create any position in the county public service and it will be done,” says an executive committee member of Kiambu County who spoke in confidence.

For example, through the executive order a governor from South Rift has established his own cash transfer to elderly persons of over 65 years in his county through which senior citizens are getting a monthly Sh2,000.

PAYS FEES

Similar examples include a governor from Nyanza setting aside money to pay for National Hospital Insurance Fund cover for boda boda riders and close allies, and one in the North Rift who committed to pay fees for college students from the county. 

Nominated MCA Reuben Ombina says a lonely life awaits governors who will not make it back after August 8.

“The loss of power and the immense resources they control will be a major setback for them. They will lose friends, create enemies and most of them could end in jail,” he says.

While supporting this view, Mr Martin Andati, a political analyst, says by losing the clout of being a governor, the county chiefs will have nothing left for them.

“Besides losing the huge privileges they enjoy by virtue of the offices they occupy, they will lose friends,” he says.  

TOUGH TIMES

University of Nairobi lecturer Herman Manyora says governors who lose are in for tough times and most could find it hard to cope with life as private citizens because of the scandals some of them are leaving behind.

“It will be difficult because most of the governors have adopted a life of excesses; big convoys, sirens and palatial homes and many other good things of life,” he says.
The scholar adds: “Such life had elevated them high up and losing will be like falling from the sky.”

Yet, losing the elections and sulking will be, according to Mr Manyora, the easier part for the ignominy that awaits those who leave office facing corruption claims. 

Mr Manyora says the bigger debate should be what the country should do with those governors suspected of looting public coffers, and not what they will miss once out of power. “Should we let them go carousing on the beaches?” he asks.

WORST ENEMIES
Some of the governors will lose to their worst enemies.

This suggests that, the new office holders will go out of their way to get evidence of wrongdoing against their predecessors.

No wonder, there are indications that the governor’s seat will be fiercely contested.

The International Crisis Group has warned that there is high potential for serious conflict, more so in ethnically-divided counties.

“Conflict-sensitive policing, local peace building and the compilation of strong cases by the NCIC leading to prosecution of politicians and local leaders seeking to stoke ethnic animosities would go a long way toward mitigating this risk,” said the group last week in a report.

VIOLENCE HOTSPOTS

The report proposes the deployment of well-trained personnel to potential violence hotspots well in advance of the polls; and ensure crowd control and anti-riot responses are humane, proportionate and non-partisan.

It also wants NCIC to step up monitoring of ethnic hate speech at political rallies and in vernacular media.

Additional reporting by Ibrahim Oruko, Ouma Wanzala and Nicholas Komu