COUNTY ASSEMBLIES MUST JEALOUSLY DEFEND DEVOLUTION ; IT IS THEIR CARDINAL DUTY.

 K enya has 47 Counties and with this comes along 47 County Assemblies. The devolution act in the 2010 constitution is the one that allowed the existence of the devolved units. So far , in some regions , devolution has become a yardstick of fighting poverty and many social and economic ills that bedevell the society. In others , it has become a curse. A blessing that instead of alleviating problems , social and economic , it has become a haven where , this ills are bred and croned to continue wrecking havoc and untold miseries to the residents of those Counties. All this things happen under the watch of the Members of the County Assemblies (MCAs). Also , the good will of the sitting Governor is also paramount and if it lacks , that County is led in a bandit way. Most Counties in Kenya have becomes avenues of devolving corruption , plundering and embezzlement of public funds. The exchequer through the Commission of Revenue Allocation (CRA) has been wiring billions of shillings to this Counties but majority after 5 years have nothing to show. Absolutely nothing. In my County of Mūrang'a where I hail , in my sub County , I cannot show anything I can attribute to the outgoing County Goverment. It has been a total sham and shame.

The question we should be asking ourselves is , do the MCAs really understands their roles and mandate? Do they know they are the real guardian angels of devolution or they don't know it no wonder they are converted to be the appendage of the office of the Governor? That , their main role is to rubber stamp anything and everything the Governor and their County Executive Committees and Chief Officers bring forth to them and without looking into what is before them , they just appende their signatures? That is the major problem majority of that Counties are facing if not all. For Governors to engineer and orchestrate any looting of public monies , they always use their respective County Assemblies. Once they bag the speaker and the majority leader , the heist will be executed with no qualms. When Wanjiku out there will be waiting for the dispensary near her to be stocked with proper infrastructure , that woman who is in that dilapidated market and every evening she is expected to pay fee and that ECDE teacher who is teaching the young toddlers in a classroom that is almost collapsing etc , the MCAs are aware but they can't do anything. How can they talk. In Africa , are you supposed to talk with you food in your mouth?

The main functions of the County Assembly is legislation , oversight and represention. Yes!!! There is no function of the assembly to sing praise songs to the Governor. All what is expected of them is , each to execute their roles independently at the same time interdependently. The two , legislative and executive cannot work in isolation. They must work together but not one arm misusing the other. MCAs must have hawk eyes. They must ensure that , for the people they represent to enjoy the fruits of devolution , they must step up. They must commit themselves to walk the talk. Though , we all know the kind of Machiavellian tactics use to box MCAs who are true to the cause. Those who are critical in oversight , they are denied development in their Wards. Reason , because they are raising an alarm when public monies are being looted right , left and centre. Rogue Governors have resulted to use the carrot and stick politics. Bribing MCAs inorder to skew the budget making process by facilitating loopholes where , funds will be looted. All this things are known and it is high time , residents of all the 47 Counties must be very vigilant. They should know that , monies from the National Government is ment to better their lives. There is no way this funds are ment to be embezzled and looted with impunity. Those Governors who work harmoniously and in a transparent manner with their MCAs , they always ends up rolling out serious development projects in their Wards. The cess and other kind of taxes collected from the residents especially businesses and parking and are automated , look at the status of those Counties in terms of development, they are way ahead. What about those which are still using manual system in collection of taxes , plundering and looting is the ones which occupies hectares of space with zero development projects.

Inorder to unleash a robust oversight role , MCAs should have knowledge and prowess to do that job. This is where academics come in. You cannot be an ignoramus leaders , fickle , erratic , mediocre and inept to say the least and expect to offer oversight roles in a perfect way. In almost all Counties , CECs are professionals with heavy CVs and huge work experience. Take for instance , a finance committee in a County Assembly being chaired by a Member of County Assembly who has zero knowledge on matters finance and he/she is expected to oversight CEC Finance who holds a MBA finance/ BCom Finance with CPA (K) , CFA or ACCA professional papers. Now , guess the kind of conversation which will be happening in that Committee session? Who will be doing oversight on the other? Just figure it that way and am not pouring cold water on the ability of the MCAs to do that job. No , there are some counties which residents have elected MCAs who are medical doctors , political scientists , Economics , Engineers , BED , Financial Analysts but majority have MCAs who only posses KCSE Certificate nothing else. In this wavelength , when it comes to debating in the floor of the assembly , this is where the break loose. Majority find it hard to express themselves and pass their arguments across during debate sessions.

A friend of my told me he once attended a debate session in Mūrang'a County Assembly. After following the proceedings for almost an hour , he had to leave the chambers a dejected man. When we met , I asked him where he have been and he told me he was in our county assembly and how he wishes , the Gíkûyū language to be incorporated in that assembly's standing orders to allow Members to be articulating their issues through it. I laughed uncontrollably to a point tears were rolling from my eyes. My ribs were even arching. He continued , Fred!!! If this are guys mandated to make laws , represent and oversight for us , we are deep in the septic tank. Back to the question I posed , if the CECs are career civil servants with many years of experience in their field of work , how do you expect MCA with only O levels  Certificate to even write a proposal for a project in his Ward? Capacity of the members we are sending in this County Assemblies should seriously be vetted. Just like in computers , garbage in , garbage out. 

Another important thing to note is that , the Senate have been slowly strangling devolution instead of being it's defender. Between 2013 to 2022 , there has been many successfully impeachment on Governors by the MCAs. Many have survived but others like Sonko and Waititu weren't lucky. In all this impeachments which found themselves in the Senate , either through select committees which are quasi-judicial or plenary , Senators were privy to some of the loopholes this Governors were using to loot public monies. The most used ones were the Public Finance management act , the public officers ethics act and the public procurement and asset disposable act. Many Governors have been breaching this acts inorder to create avenues of looting public funds and buying off greedy MCAs inorder to shut up and eat without raising any alarm. The reason the Senate didn't review this acts to make them tight inorder to seal this loopholes for them to stop being abused is because , many of them were eyeing the same seats. Pwaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!! That's the real truth and undisputed one. How could they engineered amendments to this acts and lock themselves out from dipping their hands in tht cookie jar?

I understand am spiking your minds but don't worry , this are the things we must talk about. In the last 5 years , majority of Kenyans especially in Mt Kenya region were taking President Uhuru Kenyatta head on for not addressing their Economic issues. The hypocrisy there in was , they weren't bothered to investigate and put to task their respective Governors who were controlling billions of shillings. On that deplorable nature of the health fraternity in almost all Counties , the residents failed to remember that health was devolved. Only level 6 which are teaching referral hospitals were left in the hands of the National Government. The rest , it is in the doorsteps of the County Goverments. When they were putting the President on the spot , why did they fail to put their Governors on the spot? This is hypocrisy of the highest level.

In my partying shot , am hoping that MCAs will stand their ground. I don't mean they should in return offer threats and intimidation to the Governors. We have seen a County like Makueni where , MCAs drawn from Wiper Party used threats and intimidation to Governors Prof Kibutha Kibwana for not heeding to their plans to siphon illegal allowances from the public kitty.  It is a two way traffic in this case , where , MCAs can blackmail the Governors and similarly, the Governors can blackmail the MCAs. Inorder to avert such a situation , a symbiotic relationship between this two groups should be in place inorder to deter such occurrences. The bottom line is to offer services to Wanjiku. Period!!! I hope the retreats Governors will be taking MCAs will be to moot a conducive environment where each will work in and not to plan how they will plunder public funds. That's my clarion call.