OPEN LETTER TO THE PRESIDENT It is my pleasure once again to write to you in regards to the much talked about referendum in and out of parliament by politicians and the members of the general public. Am sure you will appreciate the fact that in 2005 we had a similar referendum discussion in which you and other members of the Orange team saw it better to have devolution within a parliamentary system of governance as opposed to having it in the presidential unitary system. I think both you and Raila were right that devolution could only be perfected and implemented in a parliamentary system with specific functions to the president, prime minister and the governors each being defined with clear demarcations under their jurisdictions. However, in the current dispensation, there are no rational regulatory laws to connect the national government with the county governments to ensure people at the grassroots are in charge of their own resources in terms of redistribution, planning and implementation. The above point had missed the drafters and implementers of the new constitution. It is sad to note that the local people have been sidelined in the development of their own areas for instance, in Vihiga County, the governor is the one who identifies projects and get contractors from outside to do the job whether it is construction of a classroom, rehabilitation of offices etc. thus excluding the local people from organizing and making their own decisions. Am sure this could also be happening in other counties and is a good example of the authoritarian culture in the central planning system which in the past has made the presidential system to be very unpopular. Anybody living in Kenya would tell you that the current devolution system is not working hence cannot be implemented because it is based on the wrong system of governance – the presidential unitary system. It is sad that no single county in Kenya is capable of creating its own wealth through industrialization, something that has led to high levels of inflation and unemployment in counties. Reliance on the central government allocations alone would only pay salaries and remunerations at the expense of development projects – more funds should be allocated for development posing the question of “how” - if the governors are unable to plan their counties to the extent that they are returning back to the treasury the little allocations made to them due to lack of planning, why give them extra money? These are some of the dilemmas of the new constitution which we want to look into. Why? Because governors do not involve people in the decision making process of their counties since it is not clearly defined in the constitution how public participation and oversight should be undertaken. I therefore agree with the deputy president’s assertions in the 2010 referendum campaigns that “adapting devolution within a presidential system of governance would amount to dispersing centres of corruption to the counties”. Indeed he was right, what he meant was that devolution could not thrive in a presidential unitary system since it would amount to corruption which is always a practice at the central system. Devolution could only operate in a parliamentary system if the laws to run it are well written and regulated. Devolution in its definition means, transfer of power and resources to the county level – to enable people plan for their own developments while being helped with public policy by the national government from which they could choose what is best for them, then is high time that we lower down our tempers and listen to the voice of reason and go for a referendum to revise the mistakes made in the process of writing this new constitution. It is true Bw. President that even in your own home turf of Kiambu County, there are no new developments that have been under taken as envisaged in the new constitution and vision 2030. The only developments we see in such regions are those planned and implemented during the reign of Mwai Kibaki. Why? Because the government has been unable to implement devolution in line with the people’s wishes, values, norms and aspirations. It is on this basis that I am kindly requesting you to speak to Raila Odinga and agree on what is good for Kenyans. If it is not properly defined in the constitution or if is not working, the question would still remain, what can we do to make our constitution work? What can we do for the government and the politicians to respect the constitution? Christopher Amasava chritopheramasava@yahoo
Posted on: Mon, 21 Jul 2014 10:56:10 +0000