DEVOLUTION IN KENYA: PROSPECTS, CHALLENGES AND THE FUTURE
SPEECH BY
Rt. Honourable Raila Odinga, Former Prime Minister of the
Republic Of Kenya during The Law Society of Kenya Annual General Meeting,
Leisure Lodge, Mombasa, August 16th, 2013
The Chairman of the Law Society of Kenya,
Members of the Council of the Society,
Attorney General
Senior Counsel present,
Invited Guests
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I consider myself well-travelled across the width and
breadth of our country. I have travelled
across Kenya as a political activist, a Member of Parliament, a Cabinet
Minister for Energy, for Roads, a Prime Minister, and now, an opposition
leader. From that experience, I got convinced beyond doubt that Kenyans want
Devolution of power and resources.
The story of devolution in Kenya is of a people’s struggle
for justice and the expectation for equality, equity, and inclusion. It is a
fight against domination, subjugation, and exclusion.
Against slavery, Abraham Lincoln told the American
people…..”A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this
government cannot endure; permanently half slave and half free.” I can say with
certainty that Kenya too cannot endure permanently half poor and half rich.
As was the war on slavery, devolution is an effort to
address the wrong principle that says….you will work and toil and earn the
bread, but I am the one who will eat that bread…Every part of Kenya must get a
fair reward from its taxes. There is no better way to achieve this than through
devolution.
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN;
Devolution unfortunately has powerful enemies in high
places. Devolution is running into a brick wall of a political class that has
benefited from an over centralized system of government.
It is being undermined by a status quo that has captured the
instruments of the state and has used them to secure privileges for themselves
and their children, to the exclusion of everyone else.
The good news is that the rank and file of our people is
determined to make Devolution succeed.
In the few months that the Counties have taken off, our
people have been engrossed in learning the art of government. They are getting
used to making own decisions.
They are moving away from the culture of blaming others for
their problems. They have tried to take their future in their own hands.
A few weeks ago, voters in Makueni County rejected the
backward talk that they needed a Jubilee senator so they can be close to the
National Government. They proudly elected Senator Mutula Kilonzo Junior knowing
well he was going to join the opposition. The people of Kenya no longer feel
that they have to be close to central government to progress. Waiting for help
from Nairobi has begun to look like a deep prehistoric practice that no one
wants to remember.
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN;
This is the kind of freedom that devolution brings. It is
the freedom that the controllers of the centralized system are hell bent on
killing. This is the fight our governors
and senators have embarked on. They are pushing for a country where the
National Government exists only to facilitate the people and protect them from
outside aggression.
The over-centralized system of the last 50 years bequeathed
us little in terms of progress and plenty in corruption. Corruption helped
those in power to hold hungry citizens at ransom and lead them down the garden
path.
By centralizing the tendering for roads, the purchase of
drugs, the construction of houses, the provision of amenities like electricity,
those who control the central government were able to strike corrupt deals that
kept them financially powerful and able to control the rest of Kenyans.
KANU went many desperate steps further. It instituted a
modern day slavery, which saw the State use even relief food as a tool to
control how people voted and how they related with the State.
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN;
It’s said… “History Is So Beautiful It Makes You Cry.” So
let me tell you abit of where it all began and why we should be wary at the
pattern of events.
At independence, our founding fathers settled on a devolved
system after it became clear that the political system of the country was
already leaning towards a centralized dictatorship.
This dictatorship was in the hands of those who had accessed
colonial education and economy. The losers were those who had missed out on
colonial education. Ironically, those
were the ones who had fought the British to a standstill and forced them to
negotiate.
Unfortunately, there wasn’t sufficient understanding of the
benefits of majimbo even among those who stood to benefit from it.
The masters of the status quo moved in and misrepresented
the system as divisive, anti-unitary and anti-national. They intentionally bad mouthed majimbo,
derided it at every opportunity and sabotaged it at every corner. Eventually,
the beneficiaries of the devolved system themselves participated in its
dismantling. The end result was an exclusive political and economic dictatorship
that took fifty years to dismantle. Unfortunately, the noises have begun again.
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN;
The history of devolution is a constant and sad reminder of
the dangers that face this nation. It teaches us that the forces of political
autocracy and economic exclusion will, if allowed, frustrate any system of
government tailored to create equality among the peoples and regions of Kenya.
It reminds us that there are those who took over Kenya from
the colonial administration and are intent to own it and exploit it exclusively
for their benefit and that of their cronies and families.
Their key tool is denying the outer regions control over
resources and decisions so that everyone has to beg the central government even
for basics like food and medicines.
Today, the beneficiaries of status quo are ganging up again,
citing the same excuses invented about fifty years ago to kill devolution. They
say some regions are not ready. They say some governors have given themselves
presidential looks.
They paint governors as extravagant. They want governors who
are in reality heads of their own governments, to seek clearance from central
government before travelling abroad. They say the Senate has no role, is
inferior to the National Assembly and should in fact, be abolished.
Rather than empower the people to help themselves, they want
to retain critical services like rural electrification and roads at the centre
so they can dish them out at will as a show of benevolence.
You know, what happened once can happen twice. So we say;
buyer, beware.
Fortunately, the Constitution of 2010 is a product of wide
consultations with Kenyans and intense public education. No wonder the forces
of status quo are having a rough time with the people.
I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate the
Governors for fighting for the decentralization of the construction of roads. I
beseech them to fight for the decentralization of other critical areas like
electricity, purchase of drugs and pharmaceuticals.
This will eliminate the corruption perpetrated at the centre
and which is used to oil the political machine that tramples on the people.
More importantly, it will put the governors in charge of economic development
in their regions.
To attract investment and ensure economic growth, you need a
good network of roads, a steady supply of reliable, efficient and affordable
electricity, and a healthy and educated workforce. No governor is going to
guarantee these if they are ran by a separate authority.
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN;
I agree that our Constitution does not explicitly spell out
how responsibility should be shared between Counties and the National
government. But none of the challenges
are insurmountable if we managed the process with good faith and if we embarked
on honest dialogue between with all cards above the table.
The forces of status quo are however using every challenge
as a reason to delay devolution by one more day, one more month, one more year
and forever. The intention of the centrists is to help devolution die a slow,
painful death while all the time pretending to be trying to resuscitate it.
I believe strongly that the spirit of enterprise that has
propelled Nairobi must spread outside.
It must take off in Kwale, Malindi, Kakamega, Moyale, Homa Bay, Nyamira,
Wajir, Marsabit and all parts of Kenya.
Examples abound everywhere. New York remains immensely big
as a city and a state in the US. Los Angeles is big, so is Chicago.
But none of these regions has ever entertained the idea that
they are in any way more important than or can do without Washington, DC or the
USA. All they do is power the US economy.
In Germany, you get another example of an economy driven
from multiple centres. Munich is an economic powerhouse. Frankfurt is a
financial centre. The Ruhr brings together a cluster of industrial cities;
Berlin is the capital and artistic hub. Together, they power a bigger and
powerful Germany that has withstood recession to which the rest of Europe
succumbed.
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN:
Kenya too must create an economy that fires on all cylinders
and runs on multiple engines by supporting many more sites and sources of
economic growth.
Empowering our counties so they innovate, attract outside
investment; raise their own money and spend it in the ways they need is the way
out.
We must rise above the fear mongering and remind the forces
of status quo that the purpose of devolution is not to dismember the nation but
to allow different solutions to different problems in different circumstances.
This is why I want to appeal to the legal fraternity to
support the push by the governors to amend article 203 (2) of the Constitution
to raise the minimum revenue threshold due to county governments from 15 to
between 40 and 45 per cent.
I equally appeal to you to support our senators in their
push to amend Chapter Eight on Legislature and Chapter 12 on Public Finances to
give them a greater say in legislations and sharing of revenue.
At a time the National Government can barely support itself,
we cannot continue hoping that it will somehow help the rest of the country.
Our future is in stronger, successful devolved units.
Thank You.
