Garissa County in the face of devolution (part one)

I want to start this article with some reflections as to why Kenyans have voted for devolution and as such I want to highlight few narratives  about Garissa County in the face of four complete years under devolution and thirdly, whatever mentioned in this this article is that of my own opinion.

As we all know Devolution concept is enshrined in Chapter 11 of the Constitution of Kenya. The chapter legalizes the formation of 47 counties, each with its own government as spelt out in the County Governments Act, 2012. This Act also created elaborate structures to ensure the full implementation and success of devolution.

 Kenyans have been yarning for devolution since independence. According to the Constitution of Kenya Working Paper No. 4   at independence in 1963 Kenya government adopted Majimbo system of governance  to provide devolution of government services to regional assemblies in the context of a bicameral, Westminster-type parliament with a Senate and National Assembly – the Lower and Upper Houses, respectively. This was premised on the need to secure the rights of ethnic minorities groups against domination by the ‘big tribes’ groups in Kenya. By then the Country had only two parties Namely KADU and KANU which was referred to as groups. Barely a year later, devolution failed due to the 1964 dissolution of the opposition party KADU. For years then, Kenyans have been agitating for review of the constitution to fit in devolutions that resulted promulgation of a new constitution in 2010.

In the morning of 27th August 2010, Kenyans in their masses came out of their homesteads to vote for a devolved system of governance with an aim of eradicating marginalization, restoring of deprived resources and reduction of victimization for political/ethnic affiliations. The result of this was to realize transparent and accountable systems as well as inculcating culture of resource sharing, harmonious coexistence and access to basic services. An opportunity Garissa residents are yet to realize four years after services were devolved.

One would wonder why Garissa Residents have voted for the new constitution when above objectives are dream to them.

What has worked for Garissa?

Absolutely nothing has worked for Garissa residents under devolved government.

The residents of this great town (myself included) have all along been influenced by the experience in extreme poor leadership and mismanagement of county resources that has led to high level of poverty, poor health, lack quality educational infrastructure and miserable entire lifestyle of majority of the residents despite receiving Billions of shillings for the last four years.

The late professor Ali Mazrui during one of his lectures “The Garden of Eden in Decay 1979” said Dame Margery Perham an Oxford University historian used a metaphor from accounting. She attempted a ‘colonial reckoning’, a kind of balance sheet of the costs and benefits of the colonial experience for both the colonized and the imperial powers. If one among Garissa residents does a simple trial balance taking different deliverable services as variables (costs and benefits/profits) to establish impact of devolution using billions that were transferred to the County one will be amused to see nepotism, corruption and lose of livelihoods by breadwinners of families who supplied goods and services to Garissa County.

For the past four years Garissa County leadership has demonstrated Inability to spend on development programs, poor quality legislations from county assembly, nepotism, and serious power struggling between leaders in both County and National governments. CIC report in June 2014 cited incompetence of MCAs as a major impediment to county legislation. I was surprised to see 20014-2015 fiscal budget which was passed by the county assembly indicated 7.9B of which 67% went to recurrent costs. This is one of the very unfortunate budgets any professional could pass in this 21^st century even one will not allow such budgets in his or her own house. Please follow this link (http://nepjournal.com/garissa-countys-7-9-budget-approved-by-county-assembly/

 (The report reads in parts: This year’s budget is a complete reversal of the one of last year where 67% was earmarked for recurrent expenditure while the remaining went to matters development. Water, health, roads and infrastructure were the biggest winners getting an allocation of 17%, 16% and 16% respectively. The least beneficiaries were Trade and cooperatives development 2%, Culture and gender 2% and Education 3 %.).In a typical programming recurrent costs should not exceed 30-40% of the total county fiscal budget.
Water crisis- A looming water crisis has hit Garissa for the last four years. Taps have dried up as our women and girls are forced to trek water for more than 15 KM.  Water is one of the functions devolved to county government. Before the county government, Garissa residents had plenty of water running in their homestead, surprisingly the county is receiving money for development of its social amities and people are walking miles to trek water. Communities in Garissa have expressed their unhappiness and frustrations on poor service delivery but Hon Nathif deliberately ignored and politicize the whole issue. In March 2016 Governor Nathif promised to end water shortages in Garissa where is his promise to Garissa people?: Nathif promises to end water shortages March 2016 Follow this Link http://www.hivisasa.com/garissa/news/125741.
Garissa Governor and his team (MCAs) have let down Garissa residents as professional agents of change for their society. The best is to vote them out in 2017 Insha’Allah.
There is total lack of ownership here. And this lead us to the question of who owns Garissa? We cannot say Garissa belong to Somalis because they are  ones facing casualties of corruption, prone to diseases and paying the County administration by trekking water for 15km. Garissa County leadership has eroded our culture by making our girls kick Jerri cans in public places. May Allah safe us.