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Devolution

In: Philosophy and Psychology

Submitted By kevmisachi
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Is devolution really working out well for Kenyans?
Problem statement The new government of Kenya elected in March 2013 committed itself to rapid transfer of devolved functions to the counties. Many Kenyans are still oblivious of how this devolved system of governance work, Kenyans seem to speculate much from this will it really help the poor, unemployed and improve infrastructure as expected?
Body
Devolution is the transfer of powers from the central government to local units) Kenya is divided into 47 counties. There is the a president, ministers, senator, governor and members of parliament. One of the objects and principles of a devolved government in accordance to the proposed constitution, Article 174 is to recognize the right of communities to manage their own affairs and further their development. This will give the people a sense of identity and self-empowerment.
This is because they will feel recognized in their contribution to the growth of their own county.
Another principle is to protect and promote the interests and rights of minorities and marginalized communities. This does not seem to work out well for most counties, everything seems to be constant and some still are demanding for more money to be allocated to them yet no proper work is being done.
Certain counties like the North Eastern lack enough resource so by letting them generate their own income and employment from the resources they have, it’s like mockery and is really taking a toll on them, also this idea of putting together people of the same ethnic group seem to promote ethnicity, we need exposure in Kenya today but with the devolved system of government things wouldn’t work out well as expected. For some counties like Kisumu issues about nepotism have arisen where the governor and his officials have been accused of employing only relatives and people they hail with from the same place. Furthermore devolution is leading to excessive taxation by the county government just to meet their needs and make them able to pay the workers in good time for smooth running of the county an example is Nairobi county which has received numerous critics from the residents about the increasing parking fee from time to time, the county has no stable way of generation of revenue apart from taxation which makes it hard for the residents since they have to give out a apart of their hard earned salaries and wages.many more counties have gone to the streets, we must remember recent demonstrations of hawkers and small traders everywhere from Mombasa, Nairobi, Nyeri, Nakuru, Meru and elsewhere against county assemblies, governors and executive committees for charging people unaffordable land rates, burial, parking, license and prayer fees.
There also exists the controversial Financial Aspect on devolution, however much agreeable this seems, the financial aspect of this devolution has been a source of debate between various arms of government and the stakeholders involved leading to various campaigns by the Governors such as the “Pesa Mashinani”.
( Menya, 2011)“The International Monetary Fund is finding it increasingly difficult to steer clear of the dispute between the ministries of Finance and the Local Government over the management of the revenue of national and county governments”( Menya (2011), further reports that “the local government is hatching a long-term scheme to suppress county governments and leave the control of finances in the hands of the central government.”
Civil society groups in the country argue that counties without the power to control their own finances are reduced to mere political and administrative units. Arguably, this would end up negating the whole idea of devolution of the country into counties with more efficient financial management systems.
Power wrangle has also attributed to poor performance of the county governments, the commonly asked question is always who is the greatest? Who can control the county? Who plays which role?
Us Kenyans, we expecting too much from the devolved system of government not considering how they will be met, the procedures to be followed and if the procedures will affect us negatively or positively. The Transparency International Kenya conducted a research and here are the findings. Awareness of county funds: 83% of Kenyans were unaware of the funds allocated to their county; this information is found in the County Fiscal Strategy Paper and the county budgets. Recall of leadership positions: 90% of the respondents recalled voting for the post of the President and 82% could remember the Governor. The Senator’s was the least remembered position with 66% recalling that they voted for this post; about 70% recalled the other three elective positions. 57% of the respondents said they did not know the functions of the Senator and 44% of those who had responded in the affirmative stated that the role of the Senator was ‘to oversee the county governor’. Interaction with leaders: Majority of the respondents had not contacted any of their leaders in the past 12 months. However, the Member of County Assembly was the most contacted at 21%, followed by the MP at 13%. This interaction was reported to be largely at social gatherings such as burials and harambees among other events at 79% followed by phone calls (13%) and social media (6%). It is noteworthy that formal citizen participation forums organized by the county governments were not among the interaction platforms listed. Performance rating of the National Government on key issues: 61% felt that the government had performed poorly in the provision of security, followed by corruption and job creation at 57% and 55% respectively.
Performance rating of the County Government on key issues: 60% were dissatisfied with the anti-corruption measures undertaken, followed by the inclusion of minorities in the government and citizen engagement at 55% and 52% respectively. This means that there is an expectation among the members of the public that the counties should be proactive and put in place concrete measures to fight corruption.
Satisfaction with the County Government: 53% said they were dissatisfied with the county government with 18% expressing satisfaction. 54% attributed dissatisfaction to the lack of visible development as a result of devolution while 19% mentioned unfulfilled campaign promises. Apart from the many negative effects it comes with we also have some positive impacts it has as far as development is concerned, Untapped resources will be exploited leading to economic growth of the counties, many counties have resources that are able to sustain their living for a long period of time if fully utilized a good example is the Macalder mine in Migori which is one of the leading gold mines in western Kenya has suffered major blows over the years due to lack of proper machinery and impromptu withdrawal of sponsors, the county government can invest on this as a form of revenue generator which in the other hand will create employment.
Devolution also allows small regions to show their maximum capacity, de-congest cities stopping in human urban migration into shanty towns, and allows for comparison of regions so the best can lead in competitive development politics based on development agendas.
Conclusion
Devolution is a good idea indeed but we seem to be blinded, a lot more lies in this than we think, discipline, commitment and hard work needs to be applied in order for everything to work out well

References
2. Devolution. ( 17th September 2011) en.wikipedia.org/wiki
3. Muriuki G. (1974) Devolution of Power in the Agikuyu community.
Fotoform Ltd.
4. Ng’ang’a Wanguhu. (2006). Kenya’s Ethnic communities. Foundation of the Nation. Nairobi, Kenya. Gatúndú Publishers Limited.
5. Restructuring the Kenyan State. ( 17th September 2011), www.arrforum.org/index.php 6. The Constitution of Kenya. Chapter 12- Public Finance.
7. The Principle of Human Dignity. (17th September 2011). www.coc.org/election 8. www-the-star.co.ke/opinions/prof-gh
9. www.thefreedictionary.com/devolution
10. www.parliament.uk

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