A Case for Increasing the Impeachment Threshold for Governors

Its is sad and must be condemned thoroughly, the action by Kericho Senator Keter to subvert efforts by the Kericho Governor to seek judicial interpretation on the roles of the County Executive versus County Assembly! After numerous functional conflicts with the County Assembly, the Good Governor of Kericho County decided to file a constitutional case to obtain a judicial interpretation of the functions of the two arms of government at the county level. In panic or some such such untoward reasons, the Members of the County Assembly decided to give notice of impeaching the Governor on the grounds of inter alia, insubordination! The Senator, Hon. Keter, then step in to loudly mediate by getting the Governor to withdraw the public impact judicial case in exchange for the MCAs withdrawing the impeachment- an obvious blackmail act by the MCAs. Shame on you Hon Keter! Shame on you Kericho MCAs! Truth be told,Many more County Assemblies are engaging in this blackmail of the County Executives, only that its not coming to the public. In the foregoing, I propose that the impeachment process of Governors be raised by the Senate to be proportionate in benchmarks to that of the President. The MCAs must be managed to provide political leadership not to practice rogue blackmail on the County Executives! Do you feel me?

Anti-Terrorism is Mandate of Kenya Defence Forces

On security, lets ask the right and hard questions if we are to get the right answers. 1. Our constitution, The Constitution of Kenya 2010 Chapter14 Article 239 identifies the national security organs as the Kenya Defence Forces, National Intelligence Service and the National Police Service with a main objective of promoting and guaranteeing NATIONAL security subject to the constitution (Article 238) 2. Article 241 establishes the Kenya Defence Forces being the Kenya Army, Kenya Air Force and Kenya Navy with a specific responsibility to provide defence and protection of the Republic's sovereignty and territorial integrity {Article 241(3a)}. 3. Article 242 establishes the National Intelligence Service specifically being responsible for security intelligence and counter intelligence to ENHANCE national security and 4. Article 243 establishes the National Police Service consisting of the Kenya Police Service and the Administration Police Service with its mandate stipulated in Article 244 specifically being; (a). Strive for the highest standards of professionalism and discipline among its members (b). Prevent corruption and promote and practice transparency and accountability ( c). Comply with constitutional standards of human rights and fundamental freedoms (d). Train staff to the highest possible standards of competence and integrity and to respect human rights and fundamental freedoms and dignity and (e). Foster and promote relationships with the broader society. Period! The questions now; i). Why are we directing our anger to the police when the problem of terrorism is an assault on our sovereignty and Republic's territory? This is the constitutional mandate of the KDF and not Police! ii). Why are we cursory when all national security intelligence is the unequivocal constitutional responsibility of the NIS? Why have we let their shadowiness shroud their incompetence and beat us to pulp silence even when being blasted to death as a result of their omissions and undoing? iii). What really are the thousands of our KDF soldiers doing in their barracks when their constitutional mandate is dilapidated by their inaction? My take: 1. Recall police from the country borders and entry points and let the constitutionally mandated KDF take their positions pronto and this does not require parliamentary approval! 2. NIS should justify their pay. Lets publicly scrutinise and take NIS to task. Parliament is the start point for this. 3. Lets demand the constitution to be implemented to the letter by KDF being appropriately deployed. Lets not be cheated, the soldiers in Somalia do not even make 1 battalion and they do not render the thousands in the barracks impotent to man our borders and entry points. Gen Karangi, kindly execute you constitutional mandate and man borders and entry points like from yesterday. 4 . Last and most important let all of us squarely blame KDF and NIS for any misfortune that will henceforth befall us courtesy of terrorism. Halloo? Are you with me?

THE PROBLEM WITH GOVERNORS' SO FAR

1. They have moribund communication and public relations departments. Most Governors' just picked media practitioners mainly from mainstream media houses without much experience in managing and cultivating corporate and political image. Most of the websites, no all the websites, of the County Governments are worse than child's play! They do not have the Governors' and his executives schedules and speeches. Do not have downloadable relevant County Governance documents like CoK 2010, Devolution Laws, County Government Bills (say Finance and Appropriation Bills); The County's biodata; No link to relevant national government websites and totally have no relationship let alone link to County Assembly websites thus denying access to the County Assembly hansards. 2. They have rewarded friendship rather than capacity in appointing of advisers. Most have advisers who have no networks independent of the governors in the counties. In addition to that most of the official advisers only took note of devolution when their governors won. I mean, I suspect most advisors have no readings and do not take to reading on devolution legally, politically and literally speaking. 3. Not engaging the public Almost without exception, the Governors are treating the public as recipients of governance and not participants in governance of their counties. They only use opportunistic meetings and forums to highlight on what their governments are doing or planing to do. Despite the Constitution of Kenya (2010), County Governments Act, Public Finance Management Act etc providing for definite public participation in planning, approval, execution and monitoring of governance activities in the counties; none of the Governors have made deliberate efforts to develop definite frameworks for public participation especially for bills and policy development. 4. Lack of language diligence. In crafting their communication especially the bills has exposed their poor official eloquence underbelly. Take for instance the current headache they are having on the finance bill; mortuary charges have always been there but when you call them taxes you are saying something else. They should easily get this done by getting to expose what the charges were before the finance bill and explain that the reflection now is resultant of health facilities now being under the county governments. Slaughter, upkeep and vaccination of livestock and pets have always been in our laws. They should just makes copies of former municipal authority budgets and financial projections to prove that they are not bringing anything new! 5. Abandoning their manifestoes All Governors without exception had campaign manifestoes; both party/coalition and individual manifestoes, yet they have abandoned them exposing as headless chicken just firefighting on all fronts including the County Assembly, civil servants, Senators, Members of National Assembly and opponents in the last election. 6. They believe the campaign lies! That a good Governor is a manager NOT a politician! Hear me dear Governors and hear me good: So long as you participated in elections, you campaigned and people voted for and against you; you are not only a politician but by being the winner you are expected to be on top of the political game here. Godspeed!

IS DEVOLUTION FAILING OR IS DEVOLUTION BEING INTENTIONALLY SABOTAGED?

Are the governors digging there own graves? Whats drives the national government so enthusiastic with the performance of the county governments without showing the same enthusiasm towards its own performance? Why are the governors seemingly making the same mistakes ala the finance bill and the numerous taxes all over? Are the taxes really new or are they just getting highlights now. Are the taxes really taxes or charges for services actually rendered? Why did those national government mandarins castigating governors for only spending on recurrent and not development be honest enough to also insist that the Auditor General's Report 2013 was a quarterly progress report for the financial period March -June 2013? That during this time; - All financial transactions and budget priotisation being implemented thus was by the national government through the Transition Authority? -That most of the governors' had not yet even constituted their County Executive Committees? -During the same period, the national government expenditure ratios for recurrent versus development was worse in favour of recurrent? -All governors for the first time took partial control of their expenditures on 1st of June 2013? Again I ask, is the architecture of devolution so intrinsically designed to fail or devolution is being systematically being fought from the national government and other centrists in the civil service? Business community and political stakeholders of all kinds?

DEVOLUTION 2014 AS SEEN FROM 2013.

1. The UhuRuto Presidency will increase waxing lyrical on all the politically correct messages on devolution. Governor's may just creatively use these statements to secure more political commitments. NB, not necessarily to the exclusive benefit of the citizenry. 2. Senators will get egged on by the National Assembly to engage the Governors in backyard wars political supremacy being the allure. 3. Governors are going to be media darlings for main media houses. Media is keen to reduce the feel most important sense by the national government! 4. Members of the County Assemblies will fumble through and emerge the most bruised from the ongoing battle for space and relevance 5. Almost all laws, policies and plans will variously be petitioned by the county citizenry. 6. Political party lines will blur between the governors 7. Petitions to collect signatures for recalling Members of County Assemblies and Senators will be the highest. 8. Attempts to amend the constitution will target; Giving Governors a bigger role in homeland security (may succeed); Make education a county function (will fail); Increase the minimum threshold of fund allocation to counties from 15% (May fail); Separate county elections from national elections (will succeed)

GOOD ADVICE IF YOU ASK ME

Mr Julius Kipng’etich, Equity Bank’s chief operating officer, told the governors they would have to take the difficult route of having some civil servants shown the door because they were not prepared for devolution. “Leadership is about having willing followers. The reality you have on the ground is that you have no followers,” said Mr Kipng’etich, a former head of the Kenya Wildlife Service, credited with putting it in the right track. “You need to negotiate for a massive reorganisation of the public service. If you don’t do that, you will not be re-elected. The public service wasn’t prepared for devolution. I know them. Some of them might have swallowed you already,” he said. He told the county chiefs at the on-going Governors’ Summit in Naivasha that, without workers who knew what their agenda was, they would have a dismal record at the end of their terms. After the reorganisation, he said, the governors would then pick staff they could work with and the rest would have to leave.

On The Flip Side Of It! - By ndolo asasa Esq.

We all knew and know that team UhuRuto worked so hard to win the Presidency so as to cushion themselves from the vagaries of ICC including trial; why are we then feigning surprise when it becomes evident that all charade must be stopped and the hard-won Presidency serves its intended purpose? Panafricanism is an old rabbit trick pulled from the 48 Laws of Power of appealing to the emotion. The UhuRuto have called the ICC bluff, will ICC prove itself? A number of critical questions here; 1. Is team UhuRuto that scared to face a prosecutor they allege has done shoddy investigations? 2. Do the AU presidents have the political muscle in their parliaments to pull of the mass walkout which must be authorised by the said parliaments? 3. Can ICC stand such a pull out and still claim the high moral pedestal? 4. If UN/ICC yields to the AU mandarins' demands, what assurance is in place that the African Presidents will not turn to be ogres to eat their own children and refuse to hand over power - since handing over power means exposing oneself to ICC prosecution? 5. What will dissuade the military and other adventurous individuals from staging coups and sticking to power hence thus sitting pretty and going scot-free. 6. Do the people of African countries- including Kenya, have the capacity to stand up against their now threateningly marauding Presidents? Who will bell the cat here?