IT SHOULD BE A NEW PARADIGM IN COUNTY GOVERNMENTS LEADERSHIP

The Kenya people in exercising their democratic rights the constitution elected into office for the next 5 years a new set of leaders. Breaking from the past elections, the March election was for the first time done in a peaceful atmosphere and besides demonstrating to the world their confidence and respect for their judicial systems in electoral dispute resolution.

Among other firsts, this election was the first under our new constitution and actualized the Kenyan people’s desire to have a devolved system of governance. This is important for our country in many because it offered them a path to brake from the past system of authoritarian, centralized governance in which key decisions were made by a cabal of well connected beaurocratic seated in Nairobi who most of the time did not have factual details of the suffering of the people on the ground. The devolved government therefore is meant to among other things; promote democratic and accountable exercise of power, foster national unity in diversity, allow for self governance and participation of the people in decision making and to promote social and economic development especially in the respective counties.

In the elected county governments , Governors will the chief executives or ‘presidents’ of their counties and Senators  responsibility will be to ensure that effective laws for smooth running of the devolved governments are enacted. Chapter 11 of the constitution clearly state that the county government will be administered through the county executive committee while the law as governing each county will be made by  elected county representatives sitting in their respective county assemblies.

In our constitution, the Preamble outlines key fundamental national values of the people of Kenya that all Kenyan must subscribe to because they are the fabric that tie as together. It mentions among other things; our pride in our the ethnic , cultural and religious diversity, our desire to live in piece as one indivisible people, our commitment to nurturing and protecting the well being of individuals, family, community and nation and in exercising our sovereign and inalienable right to determine the form of governance of our country.  Any person who offered himself or herself for elective office need to have reflected deeply on these issues to fathom the kind of responsibility and contract they were entering into with the electorate.  Assuming that all of them did that, it is now incumbent upon them seriously reflect on the quality of leadership they want to offer to move both the national and county governments forward.

Considering the fact that elective positions are by choice want to believe that those who offered themselves for elections and who were successful went for those offices motivated by the desire to serve but not by the grandeur and the perks associated with those positions. This is because there is a lot of work that will have to be done to set up effective structures if the county governments have to yield the kind of impact that they were meant to deliver and this will most of the time call for self sacrifice and logging in long hours in meetings and travelling with very little compensation. In any case with the grinding level of poverty in most counties, it will be naïve of county leaders to opulently when the people they were elected to serve become even poorer.

 Already Senators, Governors and the county Speakers have been sworn into office and the dailies are awash with jobs for county offices. Kenyans prayer is that Governors while constituting their executive committees will emphasize meritocracy, impartiality, inclusivity and transparency and not be driven by nepotism, favoritisms and corruption. Those who take latter route direction will not only have contravened the law but betray spirit of devolved government and the constitution. Indeed, this is an opportune moment for county leaders to involve professionals from their counties in providing expert advice on socio-economic and leadership issues of their regions .One ways of doing this would be by forming sectoral professional caucuses with memberships from the county executive, the county assembly, private sectors and other non elected experts and interest groups from the counties. 

 These causes main role will be to offer expert advice on development and exploitation of resources within the county and sharing them with county assembly committees or through annual county governing conferences for purposes of setting short and long term county development agenda. The long held distrust between politicians and professional must cease if meaning development have to be realized at both county and constituency levels. Both groups must now work together as county citizens if they have to adequately contribute and be effectively involved in decision making. However, it must be done with respect and in structured responsible manner devoid of ill will to the authority of the elected office holders. The elected public officers must all be open and always remains transparent and accountable to the people. The period of “our time to eat” and of sharing the resources among the select few by virtue of their positions are no longer with us.

 We therefore do not anticipate county representatives and county executive committee member fighting over disagreements grabbing deals at the county. The county assemblies must be diligent in checking the county executives committees or else they will have failed those who elected them. Their debates must focus on how effective legislative  and policy frameworks in liaison with the executive committees that will allow counties exploit their resources through providing enabling environment for that can attract both local and foreign investors to their counties and how to address the inter and intra socio-economic disparities in the country and within the county.

 The issue of security, health, education, unemployment, and food security must be top on the agenda of all county governments. The senators therefore have a responsibility to ensure that national resources especially meant to address health; education, security and any other resources that the national governments have a duty to deliver to the counties are duly delivered. Those senators who will while away in the senate will have themselves to blame when they wake up from slumber and realize that their share of the national cake had been dished to the most aggressive senators. The times for “what about Nyando?” as was common in the parliament of yore are long gone.

Lastly, it is important to bear in mind that majority of Kenyans are thirty of transformative leaders, those whose motivations is to serve and improve their welfare. Such leadership will only come from servant leaders; those with a vision and who understand the problems and are capable of coming up with strategies to address them. Such leaders must be willing to listen, be able to ‘connect’ with people but and most importantly be ready to involve them in decision making and implementation of their development goals.  We want to believe that all Governors, Senators and county representative have all been called to serve, this may be a once in a lifetime opportunity. Please do not squander it. And as the French Politian Alexander Ledro Rollin once said;

“All well, am their leader, I really ought to follow them”

The questions is how many of you can say as Ledro Rollins that you are willing to follow aspirations of your electorate?

You have all taken the oath of office and now ‘Go ye out to serve’.