Whose priorities are county governments pushing?

Three weeks ago, I wrote a piece on Kiambu County. My social media accounts were abuzz with different views.

Many wanted me to do the same thing with other counties. Some sent emails and delved deeper into how we can create change in different counties.

In shifting through all the responses, I was much intrigued by an email from one of my graduate school students and this is what she had to say:

“Prof, I'm writing you this mail from Kitui, I have been here for a week and I have been privileged to attend assembly session seating at the public gallery and listening to the debates.
On the issue of development, there was a motion on markets; they plan to have market sheds in every village, this is not guided by the need but by greed for Kuras (votes).

These will be constructed in a county where one walks between 9-15km in search for water, and same distance to the nearest dispensary. Talk of inverted priorities! Economically there is nothing to sell in the stalls but the structure is purported to give the MCAs a political boost!

Is there a way we can have different forces guide the development in the counties?

Should politicians handle some of these sensitive matters only?

How can we come in as independent forces to guide development?

I have also had a chance to interact with a few executives in the county who tell me that they sometimes cook the data so as to meet deadlines. So, some of the information they give is misguiding.

Devolution is working though I do not have enough data to plot how it is working, but, empirically, I derive my conclusion from the indicators of improved livelihoods in rural and semi urban centers.

I'm currently in the private sector but I don't mind being in a movement to steer your drive forward. I follow and read your articles a lot, but I also wish we can get into the habit of combining academics and actualization.

- Faith Kalunda

Faith’s email simply summed up what other emails were saying. But let me make a few clarifications. My weekly blog posts do not advocate for any movement at all. I have never seen myself in the mould of a leader of a movement.

The aim is to share my observations with the hope that they can result in change for the better. Ideas can come from anybody and clever, patriotic leaders can always use good ideas.

I will also be the first one to admit that some policy-makers sometimes have agendas that least serve the public.

As Faith has put it, if there are no goods to take to market, then why build a marketplace?

I guess this is perhaps why the makers of our Constitution made provisions for public consultations prior to implementing development projects.

This is a provision where independent forces can be part of the development solution.

Unfortunately, politicians, upon election, develop a disease called selective amnesia. They forget that they are our representatives and that they ought to consult us on what they will do for us.

Public participation is clearly is not working at the counties. MCAs and county executives connive to frustrate the process. First off, they set the development agenda before asking for public views.

Public hearings are then slotted in the worst of days, usually on days when everyone is at work. The venue is usually very far off, meaning that poor people with good views such as the youth and women cannot attend because they have no bus fare.

Most counties have static websites with no interaction. Emails are assumed not to have been sent, and printed documents, assuming you can get a printer in your rural neighbourhood, simply disappear.

The result is that the governor and the MCAs get their way all the time. It is their priorities that carry the day, not the priorities of the people.

MONEY SQUANDERED

So in most counties, the money is squandered on nearly invincible ECD classes, rickety, single-track bridges, multimillion-shilling public toilets, market stalls of dubious economic sense, etc., while what people really need are tarmac roads, water, electricity, security, healthcare and good schools with working teachers.

If there is a way to address this, we shall for sure begin to prioritise projects that serve the citizen best.

Chances are that many politicians do not understand two key concepts that we embrace in Kenya. These are a free market economy and democracy.

The word democracy is almost always political and that is where the confusion starts. In political science, it will mean a process by which members of a country or community decide for themselves different issues, usually by voting.

As its synonyms — representative government or elective government — suggests, a good democracy is subordinate to the people and not the other way round.

In a free market economy, participants (sellers and buyers) are often free to determine the value of goods they intend to acquire, and the terms and what they will be willing to exchange those goods for.

In some cases, including here in Kenya, they have the freedom to bargain. Collectively, participant choices can be generally abridged into demand and supply of goods and services.

If farmers in Kitui have mangoes, what they would need most is the market (demand for their goods). Not the physical structures of the market centre.

If the county leadership sought public participation, chances are that building market centres would not have become a priority.

MORE PRESSING ISSUES

As Faith says, there are more pressing issues like water that ought to have been dealt with first.

In public participation, they would get to know that rural folks care less about market centres, where they languish in the hot sun all day trying to sell similar products to each other.

What they need most is demand for their produce. Demand is never brought by physical facilities.

A simple supply chain software linking farmers and markets would do it. This can be done in such a way that some of the rural motorcycle teams can be part of the wider logistics programme that picks up produce from the farms direct to the market.

When I visited Murang'a, I saw a similar kind of problem where farmers seek to sell their produce in ways that undermine their profit margins.

When they transport two trays of eggs to Nairobi to sell, they make their eggs more expensive than those imported from South Africa. Let me explain this. Sixty eggs make up two trays and to transport these to Nairobi may cost between Sh150 and Sh300 in transportation and absenteeism from work.

Besides the production cost, the transport cost adds between Sh2.50 and Sh5 to each egg. Volume shipment from South Africa only adds less than a shilling as transport cost.

The knowledge around trade facilitation is abundant in Kenya and even in every county but that knowledge is never exploited.

Virtually every county has a university today but even as we fight for “our own” to occupy top seats at the universities, we have never quite leveraged these institutions to solve many of the problems Faith clearly points out that we need to combine academics and actualisation.

BIG DATA

The emerging concept of "big data" is making it possible to effectively deal with development matters in a very simplified way.

A combined use of big data and several other freely available technologies will make it possible to improve the accountability of our political class.

Here is a recent example where young people of Kibra with the help of an NGO called Ground Truth got together and mapped the entire Kibra. In what was previously an impenetrable shanty, today you can locate any resource and even integrate its people into the global economy of e-commerce.

An aerial view of Kibra; photo by Ground Truth

This whole 2.5km square was a dark spot in city maps. Even development institutions accepted the lie that it housed more than one million people.

This was because nobody could account for the resources here, as it seemed impossible.

As seen in the next map, technology has made it possible today to visualise with clarity the needs of the Kibra people. Unfortunately, we are not using the technology for policy decisions.

For example, only four per cent of schools in this poor neighbourhood are public. Most are either informal or run by church groups. A simple policy decision on inclusive education would change many lives.

A map of Kibra with GPS addressing; photo by Ground Truth

The Kibra model should be replicated countrywide. Each county should have an interactive map where any resident will locate development projects, the resources spent and the project impact.

The maps should also include other projects, such as those financed by the Constituency Development Fund, which is illegally managed by members of Parliament.

Poverty data should be overlaid on these maps to ensure that the poorest get the highest attention.

There is no better means of monitoring and evaluation than one that is done and managed by citizens.

There is a new global movement of youth with chapters across the world that is creating the necessary visibility of problems and solutions to the world. Youth across all universities in the country should join.

Let us use technology effectively to change Africa.

The writer is an associate professor at the University of Nairobi’s School of Business.