Kakamega fete was story of what devolution has become — a waste

To get an idea what the devolution conference held in Kakamega this week was all about, one only needs to know organisers of the event were unanimous the Controller of National Budget and the Auditor-General would not be invited.

Why? So far only those two offices have given comprehensive and objective reports on what has gone wrong with devolution, and how it should be fixed. But that wasn’t the bad stuff the 6,000 plus delegates at the jamboree wanted to hear.

They had gathered for a feel-good talk shop, and showbiz. And from a video widely circulated in the social media, we also learned it was an excursion for sin.

FUNDS

I closely followed the live-televised deliberations at Kakamega High School. The President gave his address on video-link. His handlers said he couldn’t travel because of bad weather. My hunch is that most likely somebody felt the head of state was better engaged elsewhere than at the talk-fest. The President made a strong pitch for his Big Four legacy projects — food sufficiency, health care, housing, and manufacturing. 

But the following day opposition leader Raila Odinga seemed to read from a different script when he said devolved governments will get distracted on their development agenda if they focus on the Big Four. Wow, it appears the “handshake” wasn’t factored when the ‘Big Two’ were preparing their speeches for the event.

One would have expected the hot item in the agenda on day one would be the humanitarian crisis facing more than 15 counties due to on-going floods. That wasn’t a priority. The major debate on day one was whether or not MCAs should be allocated funds to control in the style of CDF. Senators too, want similar funds set aside for them. So do the Woman Reps. Good gracious, everyone wants a piece of the cake but nobody wants to discuss how to bake it!

PILFERAGE

Mr Odinga too, came with his own gem. He wants a three-tier structure of government with 47-county governments, 14 regional governments, and the national government. His argument is that the 47 counties as presently constituted are not economically viable entities, a very true statement. So he wants them put in 14 clusters under a regional government, maybe to be headed by the Super-Governor or some title like Governor-of-Governors.

In other words, the former PM is proposing we repair a leaking roof by putting a new one on top. No Sir, it isn’t done that way. First you do away with the leaking roof not overlap it with another.

From our experience with devolution, having a third layer of government simply means another labyrinth of waste and pilferage of public funds, period. So what is it the honourable delegates in Kakamega didn’t want to hear from the Auditor-General and from the Controller of Budget?

WEEKLONG

In the four financial years devolution has been in existence — 2013/14, 2014/15, 2015/16, and 2016/17 — the Auditor-General has faithfully compiled reports to show money allocated to the devolved units was wasted, in most cases, stolen outright. As you read this, 33 out of 47 governors have been summoned to appear before Senate and explain whereabouts of monies the Auditor-General didn’t find accounted for in the books. That is certainly the kind of dirt the Governors won’t have wanted discussed at the week-long talk-fest.

What of the Controller of Budget? Her office has repeatedly said devolved governments are unable or unwilling to generate income on their own.

It has conveniently been forgotten that the rationale for devolution was that devolved units get certain annual allocations from the national government to turn themselves into viable, and eventually self-sustained economic units.

EACC

But the idea of devolution Kenya-style ended up creating ethnic based political fiefdoms with a permanent cry-baby entitlement of funds from the national government! In fact, as things are, only Makueni stands out as a model of what route devolution was supposed to take.

Controller of Budget’s other beef with the counties has been inability to plan for, and to follow through on the projects for which money is allocated. So we have had counties return money to the National Treasury because of poor absorption.

And of course, the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission was not invited at the jamboree in Kakamega. Nobody wanted to hear that devolved units have led to devolved corruption which is why the EACC needs to be devolved as well.

See you at the next jamboree, same time next year.

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