Leadership needed to save devolution dream

Kenya is a country well-endowed with natural resources. We have fertile agricultural land suitable for growing both cash and food crops. Our minerals deposits include coal and oil in North-Eastern and Eastern provinces.

Despite this rich heritage, it is common to hear Kenyans say, “tunaomba serikali itusaidie”, when faced with challenges and difficult circumstances such as impassable roads, hunger, drought, or human-wildlife conflict.

The practical solutions to reducing poverty and the inequality gap lie in ensuring judicious resource utilisation and good governance. The faster leaders realise this, the sooner the citizens will wave goodbye to poverty, hunger, and disease and stop wallowing in despair.

Many Kenyans like comparing our country’s economic performance with that of the Asian tigers of Korea and Malaysia, often wondering why they took off and Kenya got left behind.

LEADERSHIP QUESTION

The difference lies in leadership. Kenyan leaders do not take their managerial responsibilities seriously, instead focusing on wrong priorities and political rhetoric.

That is why Kenya is nowhere near achieving the 2015 UN targets for the Millennium Development Goals.

Kenyans overwhelmingly voted for a new constitutional order in the hope of a paradigm shift in the quality of leadership, governance, transparency, and accountability. It is taking longer than expected for the impact and gains of this new order to trickle down to the village. Most county governments are still embroiled in political power struggles.

Members of the country assembly (MCAs), most of whom are former employees of defunct local authorities, are swimming in luxury, going on unnecessary foreign trips at the expense of the taxpayer. Meanwhile, many counties lack basic services such as safe drinking water, sanitation, health, and food.

HOUSE BUSINESS

The situation is no better in Parliament. Acrimonious debate has become the hallmark of how our MPs conduct business in the House, in the process aggravating the polarisation of the country along ethnic and political lines.

This behaviour is a betrayal of the Kenyan electorate and goes against the principles and spirit of the Constitution.

The tenets of astute leadership, democracy, and good governance determine the pace of a society’s development. The government must make a deliberate effort to protect human dignity and life by taking political responsibility and adopting a pragmatic approach to leading the country.

It must not hesitate to take decisive action against internal aggressors, including those instigating tribal and political divisions, banditry, and insecurity, as these retard development.

Taming resource misappropriation by county governments through hefty salaries and allowances and unnecessary foreign trips as well as skewed procurement procedures will do this country a great service.

Failing to address these loopholes will negate the purpose of devolution, which was meant to benefit wananchi at the grassroots, and will eventually cripple this system of governance.

It is clear that radical austerity measures are urgently required to safeguard the public interest at both the national and county government level.

Mr Kihu is a gender and development consultant at Kenya Basic Support Foundation. ([email protected])