DELUSIONS OF DEVOLUTION; THE POORLY BAKED NATIONAL CAKE

Despite their country being war-ravaged, our brothers in Somali have a wise proverb; that ‘the child you sired has not sired you’.

This proverb would resonate very well among Kenyans as it mirrors the conundrum of the once rosy “libertarian devolution”. After the unanimous passing of the new dispensation at the 2010 plebiscite, expert after expert touted it all over the airwaves, public gatherings, congregations and opinion pages as the proverbial ‘manna’ that Kenyans have been waiting for since independence, the second liberation. The authors of the document painted devolution with a big brush; the picture was a basket full of niceties with a well wrapped cake for everyone. So let me call a spade what it is and make a vital announcement to ‘res republica’; it is a poorly baked national cake, kaimati, (shapeless and poorly kneaded doughnuts sold on the streets)

Enter the Somali proverb, “the child you sired has not sired you”.  Wanjiku sired devolution so as to devolve services and bring resources closer to them at the grassroots level. They hoped to be involved in the daily governance of their counties, target unique county based developments leading to the middle-income economy cathedral.  But contrary to that, the delusions of devolution are coming to fore as the men charged with mid-wifing the sired child and ensuring it sires us have become its enemies.

The idea here is that there exists a pool of midwives called governors who cannot help the child to sire us, wanjiku but want it to sire them, governors. As anyone can tell, -we are at the critical stage of devolution which entails establishing essential local county structures and building the pipelines for distribution of money to the devolved units- the stage where a child needs to develop so as to sire. Unfortunately the people placed on the highest pedestal to pontificate and lead these developments are doing the exact opposite; positioning the child to sire them. Belatedly they are advocating the same old policies while insisting that they are really good for us the holloi polloi. They have developed astronomical budgets which in reality are mega-eating schemes in disguise.

Wake up to the reality and smell the coffee; we are back to business as usual. Old times are back, “the child you sired has not sired you”, and will not sire you. Word of advice, befriend a county official to enable you get a piece of the national cake through contracts for county offices, tender supplies, ghost employment, name them at astronomical fees.