DEVOLUTION IS THE BEST THING TO HAPPEN IN KENYA

I have served in one of the Kenyan County Government for 10 years and learnt quite a lot, and one thing that is clear and evident is devolution has brought change in our beautiful Country of Kenya. Lives have been changed, dialogues have been done between leadership and the citizens, and development projects have been done e.g. hospitals, roads, schools, markets, water connectivity, vocational training centers just to mention a few.

So much still can be done, if our county bosses could bring back what they benchmark on, especially from the foreign trips, that is best practices and best ethical behaviors in order to transform their regions. (Some tradition states a child who has never eaten outside their home, always says the mother’s food is the best in the world), this is for those who believe we have enough around us, we don’t need others to tell us how to do things.  In my opinion, what is around you, is never enough, you need to learn other culture and better ways of doing things. We may have it all around us as regions, but when you inter relate, collaborate, inter change ideas with other countries or counties, you get to understand the sacrifices done and tough decisions taken, for success story to be shared.

We can learn so much from UAE leadership, where desserts lands were turned to profitable regions, and other successful countries like Singapore etc. Our County Governors need to seat with these great leaders, and ask questions, then come back home and implement these uplifting economic ideas which would befit our regions, but also putting in mind, what works in other country may not work in other county, it is a matter of approaching these development ideas with open mind, re-strategizing, reorganizing and resettling into what works in individual regions. 

When you google how did Singapore develop, you are welcomed by this simple introduction “A great location, honest government and lots of foreign trade helped transform this tiny state into a regional powerhouse” this can only mean one thing, what has been done out there, can be done in our counties, we just need a few counties to start, by maximizing on the natural resources they have, then the rest would follow suit.

As County Governors do this, they need to keep all that does not matter aside, give their best selflessly, and seek support from national government both financially and on machinery wise. These 2 level of governments must seat in a round table and agree, because of so many interlinking factors.

The goodwill is there, we have seen it from the pioneer county bosses, who started devolution with a lot of challenges, they struggled to find out how best to run counties, they struggled with huge wage bills of inherited staff, they struggled with lack of rightful professionals in the dockets they established or mandated by the County Government Act, but stabilized in the process of their tenures, and clear paths were established. But again a challenge comes in, a new Governor comes in by the time he/she settles in, and by the time he understands what was previously done by his predecessor, time has gone, he also has his vision and blue print to implement which he gives priority, so the previous path set is not taken to completion. Bigger projects takes years to be completed, a project started by one governor can be completed by the other.

What I am saying is…..

Let’s not loose county transformation momentum built by previous leadership, because we want to do things different,

Changing counties to cities may be a journey, let’s stay on truck, we must build our regions to greater heights,

Counties should be competing with each other’s for better development.

Devolution is working in Kenya but we need a Country Law which will safeguard the completion of flagship projects in counties.

R.M.M