From the tragic-comic drama of Governor Kawira Mwangaza being impeached in an overwhelming MCA vote in Meru partly because of too much guitar, music and noise from the First Gentleman, to the no less grim reality for Governor Simba Arati that he cannot just sack people by parading excess or under-qualified staff at the Kisii stadium, there is plenty of excitement in the county governments.
The new county governments are being hit by the reality of governing and the challenges of leadership. Mrs Mwangaza forgot that music may have won her heart, got her a husband and even helped in the campaigns that finally helped her knock out heavyweights like former Governor Kiraitu Murungi, but it was not going to protect her from the wrath of members of county assembly who felt slighted by her overbearing nature.
The MCAs are reminding her that leadership is knowing when to stop histrionics and gamesmanship and start collaborating with other stakeholders who the law mandates you ignore at your own peril.
During campaigns, Mr Arati roared his way to power by promising to fumigate the malfeasance he blamed on former Governor James Ongwae, of which hiring staff far beyond the requirements of the county was one of them. He forgot that in power, you accommodate, you back-track or even equivocate. Now he has to deal with questions of why he is embarrassing his own Kisii people by calling them out and humiliating them.
Ethnically diverse county
Governor Susan Kihika on the other hand is learning the basic lesson that you cannot be casual about recognising a huge swathe of the county’s ethnic make-up when appointing officers to key executive positions. Nakuru is, possibly after Trans Nzoia, the most ethnically diverse county, a fact that should be reflected in her appointments of CECs and chief officers. Again, failure to grasp basic leadership principles has seriously compromised the operations of the county government.
The bad news for governors is that their inability to transition quickly and smoothly from campaign mode, to one of governing and managing the politics of their counties exposes their ill-preparedness to handle the vastly more complex challenges to lead county transformation.
First up is the tough reality of very erratic flow of funds from the national government. Itself grappling with myriad challenges, including a crippling foreign debt, devastating drought and an insanely high cost of living that is stirring restlessness among wananchi, the national government is living hand to mouth, and the counties are nowhere near that mouth.
While disbursements are by law supposed to be released every 15th day of the month, county governments have not got any money from the national government since September. They are still waiting despite strenuous representation from the Council of Governors. This is not changing any time soon, requiring that governors focus on the resource issue with utmost attention to pay salaries and fund even a few projects.
Short-term borrowing
They have several options. One is to get into debt with banks for short-term borrowing to pay urgent commitments like salaries. This comes with punitive penalties if the period agreed on for payments is breached, and they often are because cash has to come from the national government. Second is to vastly improve county own collections – end cash leakages, digitise payment systems, review valuation rolls, etc.
The third could be to cut costs – reduce travel, empower workers and curb sloth, and confront the animal of over-establishment whose solution is the highly sensitive, politically slippery option of sacking people to right-size the workforce. For this you need money to pay severance costs and the rare capacity to cut your own feet but still walk. Few politicians have these two.
There is another challenge. The almost obvious fact that the national government is not very keen to ensure that devolution works. It can’t find money to prioritise disbursements to the county governments but it can find cash to fund the controversial fund MPs love very much – the Constituency Development Fund. A bunch of happy MPs is obviously more preferable than 47 empowered governors.
The government diluted the stature of devolved government by demoting it from a full ministry to a department within the Deputy President’s office. The government can try to waltz its way around this obvious demonstration of contempt but it is what it is. A vibrant devolved government does not sit well within the designs of a strong, centralised national government like the one President Ruto is determined to construct.
Dealing with these complex challenges will require wisdom and dexterity that indulgences in guitarist diversions, political hubris and poor judgement so far on show in some county leaderships will seriously undermine.
The writer, a former editor-in-chief of the Nation Media Group, is now consulting. [email protected]; @TMshindi
